[HELP/LONG]Gear Oil Leak/Crappy Clutch Engagement/This Sucks

[Luke]

Well, first the history (I promise to try to keep this short):Since I first got my SR, I've had an oil leak out of the bottom of the bellhousing of the trans. It wasn't bad, there would be just a drop of this liquid, which I determined was gear oil.

Since during my swap, this was my first clutch install, I failed to notice that there was a problem. See these pics to see why this problem existed before I got this engine:http://members.sndi.net/[email protected]/P ... C00018.JPG

An ACT Street/Strip clutch was installed while the engine was out of the car. In the beginning, everything was great. Broke the clutch in appropriately and was happy.

Then over time, the clutch performance just started deteriorating. Clutch engagement was no longer sharp and became very unpredictable. The car drove fine and I couldn't cause it to slip extremely bad (may be credited to the ACT HD pressure plate). During the engagement, I could feel the clutch start to hold only right before the release bearing lifted pressure from pressure plate. My gears were also not meshing like silk as they did in the beginning. So I started with the easy things:

-Gear oil wasn't abnormally low and was topped off (till it drained from the fill) several times.-Master cylinder was leaking at the firewall so it was replaced and so was the slave cylinder for safe measure. (Tru Torque parts from Advance auto was all that was in stock)-I removed the clutch damper and bled the system well. -Adjusted pedal height and free play per the FSM instructions.

I still was experiencing unpredictable clutch engagement and gear clash. Around then I realized it may be the clutch contaminated with oil, DAMN, I gotta fix this oil leak and replace the disc. So I ordered a new SPEC stage 3 6-puck sprung disc and a new oem rear main seal, very nice. I pulled the trans. off, which is not a very fun task in your driveway without all the correct tools.

I found that the oil was leaking from the front cover where the input shaft comes out of the transmission. The inside of the bellhousing and behind the flywheel were covered in a black film which was a ***** to try and clean. Damn, I had to wait until the next day to go to Nissan to pickup another oil seal. The next day I bought the oil seal that the input shaft goes through and a gasket for the front cover. I also did the rear trans seal where it's been known to leak at the driveshaft. I put everything back together and it drive great. Gears were sliky smooth and the clutch was grabbing hard again (yay).

Then about 2 days went by and much to my dismay, there was still a leak!! Then history repeated itself and the new puck clutch went from engaging clean/hard to rough/chattering like a *****. Now my stage 3 clutch engages like a worn out OEM clutch and still chatters a bit, not as bad after about 1k miles. It is holding still, and can chirp 3rd if i try hard enough. But the engagement point once again is so unpredictable I look like i've never driven manual before.

So I'm asking for the expert's advice on this one about where I went wrong. I'm going to list the possible deficiencies in the drivetrain that I have in my head and let you guys decide:

1) I didn't replace the master/slave with Nissan OEM parts. I've replaced the slave a 2nd time because the slave was leaking in the boot a little. Maybe these are contributing.

2) On the first clutch replacement, I had the flywheel resurfaced because it was scored in so badly by the previous clutch. Is it possible to resurface the flywheel down to where it kills clutch performance. It wasn't much more than 1-2 mm. (http://members.sndi.net/[email protected]/PIC00017.JPG)

3) I think I messed up when I replaced the front cover gasket. I did not use any silicon RTV on this gasket (did I need to apply to both sides of the gasket?). So maybe the oil leak is it, another clutch disk in the trash, and I have to start all over taking the damn transmission off again.

HELP!!

[89240]

i think it is definitly a combination of things you did wrong, The clutch slave cylinder is a good possibility, i know from expirence that the slave can make shifting feel really difficult and will make the clutch engagment harsh also it is very important to use at least some gasket sealer on the transmission seal, oil and flywheel dont mix well....my 2 cents.....good luck!

[RMiller]

I would bet it's the oil on the flywheel. You had oil on your clutch disk before, and you still have a leak now. Sorry you have to go through it all again.