Clutch will not disengage

[DJ RAD]

I have done a lot of research and I know other people have posted with a similar problem. Most of them either don't update it when they find a solution, or their solution didn't fix mine.

I just installed a new clutchmaster FX300, resurfaced OEM flywheel, and braided stainless steel clutch line (eliminated the restrictor), and a new master and slave cylinder.

My clutch will not disengage, it shifts when the engine is off, but not while running. I have bled and re-bled my clutch, adjusted my pedal, bled it again, triple checked that all of my bolts are tight, did the macarana, and even bled the lines again. My clutch fork is in the middle and slightly towards the driver's side, and it moves about 3/4". Nothing has worked, I really dont want to drop the tranny to replace the pivot ball unless I absolutely have to.

Any ideas?

 

[dsmpat95]

Do you mean engage. If it doesn't disengage I would say you over adjusted the clutch pedal to cause it to pump up.

 

[DJ RAD]

umm, maybe? I look at it as the clutch won't "let go of" (disengage) the pressure plate. It stays clamped on. I've checked to make sure that my master cylinder rod is adjusted (just like jacks transmissions says) so that it does not plug up the relief valve and cause the "pump up"

 

[Spoolin98]

To the OP, did you ever figure out a solution to this? I'm having the same problem.

I put a new stage 2 shep trans in, new ACT flywheel, and new south bend Kevlar clutch and pressure plate.
I put everything in, and I couldn't get it into gear.
The TOB fork is centered, more towards the driver side actually.
I bled the clutch line. I adjusted the cm rod as far clockwise (while looking at the firewall) as I could while still being able to push the slave rod in by hand. I also raised the pedal by adjusting the pedal stop out.
I still can't get the car into first gear when at a stop.
I don't know what else to do.
Trevor at Sheptrans is telling me to put an extended slave rod in yet everywhere I read says not to.

 

[gorf]

if it is not releasing try the extended slave rod - it did wonders on my car.
Cheap and easy to change - bought mine off ebay.
It brought my pedal up so high I had to crank the adjusting rod in. Now I have a wide range of adjustment

 

[Spoolin98]

if it is not releasing try the extended slave rod - it did wonders on my car.
Cheap and easy to change - bought mine off ebay.
It brought my pedal up so high I had to crank the adjusting rod in. Now I have a wide range of adjustment

How did installing an extended slave rod bring your pedal up?

 

[gorf]

How did installing an extended slave rod bring your pedal up?

Same as shimming the pivot ball.
Without it the release point of my clutch was about 2 inches off the floor. If I ran it up where it was more comfortable then it blocked the bleed hole in the master.
With the extended rod I have a full range of adjustment and do not block off the bleed hole.

 

[Operate]

To the OP, What throw out bearing/clutch release bearing did you use? Was the OEM flywheel within specification? Found this link, maybe it will provide some insight

RRE's Clutch And Flywheel Tech Info

 

[TheGameTG]

Did you check for leaks under the car could be clutch slave cylinder.

 

[Solle]

Sounds like a throw out bearing to me man, good luck and let us know what you find

 

[DJ RAD]

I just dropped the tranny, installed a new clutch fork and pivot ball and even put a small washer on the pivot ball just to be safe. And it still wont shift. I've adjusted the pedal corectly, no leaks. I have an OEM flywheel and TOB (which is brand new).

 

[pitbull419]

Is your flywheel new or resurfaced? You have said both. If it is an old resurfaced one it could be out of spec. Also have you looked into your peddle assembly?

 

[GPLaserRS]

This is probably very unlikely, but did the machine shop resurface your flywheel without the step? It happened to a buddy of mine years ago, and he couldnt figure it out until we took my car apart to see what was different. It's just an idea...

 

[shockey1013]

I had a buddy that had this same problem. The issue was the pressure plate bolts were night tighten to spec. If those bolts don't get tightened all the way then you won't be able to disengage the clutch.

 

[fonzi90Tsi]

^^^ similar to this excepr it was the flywheel bolts. Happened on two diffent dsms. The flywheel wasn't tightened all the way to the crank so everytime the clutch was pushed it was just floating back and forth. I did everything you did. New oem everything. Then went to take the flywheel off to inspect it and walaa bolts wer only at like 50lbs of torque. Stupid local shop used an impact. :/

 

[GSaleX]

If you don't have an OEM mitsubishi master at the very least you'll be causing yourself tons of headache over nothing. I've tried a million things when I had a similar issue and tried every possible option suggested before giving up and coughing up the extra $ towards a genuine Mitsubishi master and slave. Adjusted it, bled it, and adjusted again and BAM. Problem solved.

Why? Turns out the rod lengths are 99% of aftermarket manufacturers are incorrect. That, or the bore.

 

[poteau]

I had the exact same problem (even with the exact same clutch). Tried extending the clutch, and even took the whole thing apart and checked the tolerances on the flywheel.... replaced the flywheel with a new one... put it all back together and still the same problem!

Check out my vid checking the tolerances... ended up being 3/16's, we also check the step and it's exactly what was required from the centerforce. You can do simular tests to see if it's working.

We replaced the fly because in case your fly has been machined too many times, it might be too far away from the transmission... this seems like an extreme case since you would have had to re-machine the flywheel at least 4 or 5 times to take off enough material to start causing this. But still did not work..

Ended up being the slave cylinder. Replaced with OEM mitsu one and the clutch pedal feels amazing... and most importantly, works perfect!!

 

[Jward5]

Did you drive the car a bit before this happened? If so did you beat on it or launch the car hard right before it happened?

 

[DJ RAD]

So I replaced the slave cylinder with an OEM one. And it will shift, but I have to pump the pedal a lot, so I'm thinking i need to bleed it better, and just work on breaking in the clutch.

So I pumped the pedal and held it in for a while and let it run. After a while it started to grab again, the car started to shake pretty bad in the lower RPMs while I did this, so i help it at about 2k. after a couple minutes I got out and noticed a good amount of water out my exhaust, and some of my oil looks milky (on the bolts at the intake cams. I didn't over heat and I didn't over boost, so how could my head be blown? plus the compression test isn't too bad (#1=180psi, #2,3,4=120-150) I know this is probably an issue for a different thread but if anyone knows from personal experience, then awesome.

 

[Baldwinnn]

is it not wanting to move at all when the you let the clutch out? if so the clutch might be adjusted to tight. i did this by accident once, and the clutch had no play at all, and felt very stiff, i believe if i remember correctly there should be an inch or less of play in the clutch,

 

[DSSA]

A couple of notes on this subject:

1) An extended slave or master cylinder rod is a Band Aid--they mask a problem, and have been documented to cause severe issues in many cases. If everything is working correctly, there is absolutely NO need to use these products. If one of these products has corrected your issue--there's something wrong in your clutch system. Down the line, if you fix this issue, then you end up over-extending the fingers, or mushrooming the T/O bearing.

2) If you're bleeding the clutch by having someone pump the pedal and hold it down, and just cracking the bleed screw on the nut, you're not going to bleed all of the air out of it. We get calls all of the time from people having issues after installing a new clutch, or slave/master claiming that they've bled it properly. I ask them how they did it and they give me the process outlined above.

If you look at a slave cylinder, you'll notice that the bleed screw is right next to the clutch line where it feeds it. Simply pumping/cracking the bleed will only bleed out the line itself. The whole slave cylinder chamber itself is NOT getting bled in this process. Fluid/air in the line comes in--and then right out the bleed. You're not touching the air in the cylinder area.

To properly bleed the system manually:

Step One: Have someone pump the clutch and hold the pedal down. While said person is holding pedal down, open bleed screw. Close bleed screw, have person pull pedal back up and repeat this process two or three times.

Step Two: Next have person pump clutch, hold down pedal, open bleed screw, and then most importantly, SQUEEZE SLAVE CYLINDER SHUT! THEN with pedal down and slave cylinder compressed, close bleeder. This pushes the air out of the cylinder itself which is past the bleed screw. Without this step, the air will just sit in the cylinder no matter how many times you do step one.

Step Three: Repeat Steps One and Two until good pedal is attained, and no more air is coming out when you crack the bleeder.