Help me with my miata's clutch guys

[anti_flag_army]

So here i am, having removed the transmission twice trying to figure out where i went wrong. 2 days ago I went to replace the clutch in my Miata, all was going well except i had to wait for UPS to deliver the clutch so that pushed me into the next day (yesterday). I get it all back together and when I start the car i cant get it into gear. It will go fine with the car off.

I searched all over the net and found a few possibilities, one was my pedal adjustment, so i tried both extremes (all the way in or out) and at no point will the pedal allow the clutch to disengage. I verified that the slave was working, and bled it (though the travel seemed to be a little short, but i never saw how far it moved before. So the next thing mentioned was putting the disc in backwards, now i was sure i put it in the correct way, but then questioned myself after reading about it. I have now verified that the disc was in correctly.

So i think it may be the throwout bearing, i used the one from the clutch kit and it seemed simple enough to put it on, it literally just slipped onto the fork, just like the old one came off. So in conclusion i have taken the trans off again, and dont see anything wrong and would hate to put it all back together without knowing what is wrong.

Any help or tips would be appreciated!

[sbird1]

Did you replace the pressure plate too? Sounds like you have exhausted everything else that there is to look at.

[alms24sebring]

I would hope you replaced the pressure plate along with it. Did you replace or resurface the flywheel?

[anti_flag_army]

was replaced as a whole kit, along with a new pressure plate and had the flywheel resurfaced

EDIT:
May have found my noob mistake, after reading through a write up for the 10th time i see that i didnt grease the splines on the disc or input shaft, could that be the issue here?

[sbird1]

I wan't aware that they were supposed to be greased. Every time I've done clutch stuff, the shaft has been pretty dry iirc. (that's what she said)

[Razi]

I doubt the shaft (giggity) is causing this problem.

Something is not pushing your pressure plate enough to disengage the clutch, most common problem is from not properly bleeding the clutch fluid.

You might have multiple clutch bleeding points that make it a pain in the butt, I'd look at the FSM or a guide on a Miata forum to see the proper clutch bleeding procedure.

[Red coupe]

It is not the splines.

The clutch is not disengaging.
Did you try putting it in first, while off and starting it with the clutch in? Bet it woulda lurched forward...

The fork wasn't on the TO right
The TO was installed wrong.
The fork installed wrong.
Wrong pressure plate.
Bad slave, air in line, ect...
Something like that.

Clutch for a 95 miata is only bled at slave btw... But if you didn't open that line it shouldn't be a problem.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

My money is on the fork having slipped off the TO bearing when you hooked everything up.
It's pretty easy to do.
What kind of resistance do you have in the pedal?

[Red coupe]

My money is on the fork having slipped off the TO bearing when you hooked everything up.
It's pretty easy to do.
What kind of resistance do you have in the pedal?

Kinda what I was thinking too.

One time, at the end of a long day at the track that ended with a broken transmission, and ultimately a transmission change... We put the car back on the ground only to find we left the throw out bearing in the old one.

2 transmission changes in the dark, working by a string of Christmas lights is.... fun...

[PapaSmurf2k3]

First thread I've seen on NICO about someone having a problem with their miata transmission is... of course... the day before I pull the transmission in my miata.

Thank you for the bad omen. Carry on.

[anti_flag_army]

Ok so i got it all back together and still have the same issue. I am positive everything is installed correctly this time. Before i had everything tightened down i had started the car to check and see if i could get into gear and it would go, but needed quite a bit of effort, but it did go, but now it is the same as before.

I looked at the slave while the clutch was being pressed and it only seems to move the fork about .75-1 inch, is that normal? The clutch is bled fine also. The throwout bearing looked good as well.

The clutch pedal feels pretty good, with a good amount of travel with the adjustment rod extended out. I am at a standstill at the moment guys. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

[Red coupe]

can the throw out bearing go on backwards?

Most of the bearing is on the engine side of the fork right?

1inch doesn't sound too far off, but I have never measured. Don't just stick some kind of extension in between shaft and fork.

If it is all back together, try first turning the engine with it out of gear making sure its really out of gear...
Then roll it out somewhere safe... Put in fifth with the car off, then put the clutch in and try and start it.
Just be careful if it starts going and remember you can shift out of gear with out using the clutch by applying slight pressure to the shift nob and going from drive to coast (accelerate then let off)

[Razi]

Yeah the throw out bearings can go on backwards.
The bigger flat part should be towards the fork.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Fifth gear?
I'd try it in first... or better yet, jack up the rear end and do it. See if the wheels spin.

[Razi]

If it spins, I'd pull on the e-brake to see if the engine bogs.

I remember my rear wheels spun in the air even when in neutral, wut.

[Red coupe]

Fifth gear?
I'd try it in first... or better yet, jack up the rear end and do it. See if the wheels spin.

I'd do it in first too.

But I would rather not tell some guy on the internet to start a car, in gear, with no easy obvious way to shift out....
5th is just as good, should be obvious when the starter just pings off the flywheel with out the engine turning over, and wont hit the neighbors mailbox if I overestimate the guy lol.

[alms24sebring]

The TO bearing sounds like the only thing it could be. Its a common mistake to put it in backwards. If there was no exchange of brake fluid in the CMC, doesnt need to be bleed. Everything bolts up exactly the way it came off. Looks like your pulling it again..

[anti_flag_army]

The throwout bearing cant physically go on backwards, here is a pic i found:

Mine looks just like that.

Im thinking maybe I need to replace the clutch master cylinder, my slave is new (2ish months old)

I also did the thing with my wheels in the air and started in in gear, the wheels for sure spin, when i had the clutch in and the ebrake on (habbit) the wheels didnt really move and the car didnt bog down (like it was just barley slipping) but when i let out the clutch the wheels spun like the clutch grabbed. So im thinking that it is very close to disengaging but cant quite get there.

[Razi]

Did you also make sure that the pivot fork was clipped onto the pivot ball correctly?

[anti_flag_army]

yes i verified that the fork was correct before putting the trans back on.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Other than double checking the entire hydraulic system (Internal leaks as well) ....
Can you get it into 4th gear?

[danshaz82]

could it be that the TO isnt pressed together correctly?

[dickie]

I did my clutch, the master had been working fine previously. With a new slave in place, I bled the thing and had the same issue you did, bled some more, same thing etc... I got a new braided soft line thinking I had pinched my old one when pulling my engine out and got a new master cylinder just to be on the safe side. It ended up being the master cylinder, so get a new one and try that. Then check your soft line for anything that would be impeding your ability to bleed it properly, then bleed it again.

[anti_flag_army]

Got a new master cylinder put in and while it "feels" better, i still cant get it into gear. I have no clue what to do at this point short of replacing the clutch with a different one. Any other suggestions?

[darens13]

i did a little searching around and a guy had a similar problem, turned out the clutch hub was broken. but its a brand new clutch right?

[dickie]

So you have a new master, clutch and the hardline and softline are fine? the whole system is bled? then you're looking at a mechanical problem. Take the slave off the trans and verify that it is actuating with the pedal like it is supposed to. Then look where it's pushing and verify that moves freely like it should. If all that's good, take the transmission off and re-install the clutch, TOB, PP and check the fork.

tEKbi

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Here's pics of my transmission... maybe it will help?





Let me know if you need me to take pics of anything else. I'll be taking pics anyway, but if there's anything specific, let me know.

[anti_flag_army]

Finally got it. First off i want to thank everyone here on Nico for their suggestions, I only received one post on my Miata forum. So lets get this out of the way... dont buy no name ebay brands. I had gotten a "f1 racing stage 3" clutch based off of the positive reviews on miataturbo.net (i am currently putting together a turbo kit, so i figured since i was doing the clutch anyway might as well put in one that can handle more power)

After trying all of the suggestions here, and emailing the vendor, he said it sounded like either a clutch adjustment issue (nope, did everything there was to do) or a flywheel issue. Well i got a new flywheel and removed the trans for the third time. I was getting it all together and for some reason put the clutch against the flywheel just to see, and all of the 6 friction areas were bent out like so:


So it was only making contact with the inner part of the disc. I called up Mazda and got an oem clutch set (they had it in stock, and it was cheaper than all the parts stores around!) and i just got finished putting it in and test driving it and all is good now.

I plan on contacting the seller and seeing about getting a refund, I dont think that i did anything to cause this to happen but im sure they will try to fight me on it anyway. But like i said, thanks a ton guys! And spend the extra cash on a reputable company!

[Razi]

Glad you got it figured out!

This is one of the reasons why I didn't go with an eBay company clutch.
I hate doing clutch jobs so I only wanted to take the transmission off once.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Congrats man!!!
I'm doing a turbo build on mine too... I got the FlyinMiata clutch happy meal... supposed to hold 318 ft lbs!