Grinding/Grabbing in Neutral. Engine Stalls

[kddrosos]

First off, for the last year, this site has been my bible. I've repaired almost everything I've had problems with by referring to this site specifically. Now it's time I finally post a thread. I running am AWD 2G that has just recently been gifted with a fairly new (just broken in) solid disk clutch, Sachs TOB, and a Fidanza flywheel with about 3000 miles on it. I've followed the Youtube tutorial on adjusting the clutch pedal, and my shifter is a garbage Megan knock-off. I've used the given clutch alignment tool, torqued down the pressure plate, and installed a Sachs TOB (the one off Rockauto) and used an extended slave rod. The TOB has the plastic center like the OEM one so I'm just trying to get advice other than "It's the TOB", unless of course you've seen this problem before.

I'm going to have to admit though, that I did reuse the clutch fork and pivot ball, and I installed the slave cylinder knowing the fork position was closer to the passenger side. This is a no-no, I know, but hey i did the job in a parking spot on scissor jacks. However, If i rev to 7000RPM in neutral, the car doesn't budge an inch, so I figured it was releasing correctly.

Now, I'm driving the car for about 2 weeks after the clutch install and everything seems fine with the exception that 2nd gear is grinding, even if I double-clutch, I absolutely MUST rev-match to "smoothly" engage it. So I'm coming home from work the other day and out of nowhere the car starts doing this thing in neutral wear if i bump the 3rd gear position lightly, not touching the clutch, it'll grab and stall. Weird, because it randomly doesn't sometimes. Now it's to the point where without the cables even attached to the tranny selector, it'll often just start grabbing something in neutral, moving the car forward slightly, and stalling the motor. If I push in the clutch, no problem, no sounds, engine idles fine. If I let off the clutch and gas it a little in neutral, it makes a light grinding sound and keeps the motor from dying. After this, the tranny selector might not want to go into some gears at all, even with the motor off. The weirdest thing though, is sometimes these problems are all completely absent. Obviously though, the car is unable to be driven. I've come to the conclusion based off reasoning that it has to be something in the transmission when the input shaft is driven by the clutch engagement. Any help is greatly appreciated, mainly because i know nothing about transmission internals. Thank you in advance! Hopefully nobody TLDR'd
Kevin

 

[razrman8]

I have had my fair share of transmission problems myself, and I can tell you that you have no problem anywhere else other than inside of your transmission. Something is funky in there. I hate to tell you, but its going to have to come out. I know very slim about the internals of transmissions either, but long story short you are going to have to get another one. Or just have your rebuilt, that way when they take it apart, they will be able to tell you exactly what went wrong with the transmission.

Best of luck!

 

[kddrosos]

Razrman, thank you for the response and I think your absolutely correct. In fact, I just recently contacted Shep about the problem. I informed him that I put approx. 2.3 quarts of Penzoil Syncromesh in and immediately he told me i must have starved it. He said the recommended capacity is 3 quarts. He said the problem is most likely a gear getting seized or stuck to something on the input shaft. Although the problem is off and on, he said, no doubt about it, I need a new or rebuilt tranny. It's not too discouraging, but I tried to make this car my daily, which was a big mistake. I'll probably get a cheap replacement tranny for now, and crack open this one when it's out. I'll update if I see anything unusual, and I'll probably post pics.
Kevin