Serious problems!! Help!!

[1gdsmer562]

Well I bought a 90 eagle talon tsi awd a while back from this guy and he said all it needed was a clutch. It started and everything. So we bought an OEM clutch and installed it. But it kept grinding when shifting on all gears but later it only grinded on the 1st gear. Then we test drove it and it ran and still grinded on 1st gear. After about 5 mins driving the car, it just stalled and it didnt want to start again.

We later got a tranny from a 91 eagle talon and installed it onto the 90 talon because we thought the 90 tranny was bad but it just did the same thing(stalling) with the 91 tranny.

So we decided to take it to a shop to figure out why its not running properly but not even the shop can fix the problem. The car has been sitting in there for a couple of months! We have no idea whats the problem, so if this happened to anyone or know whats going on, please let me know.

- Thanks

 

[highlandgst]

Where is the engagement point on the pedal , as in when does the clutch want to grab and the car want to move ? close to the floor or middle or top ?

 

[haswesley]

Sure sounds like your clutch pedal, under the steering wheel, has wore out. Specifically, a steel rod runs from the top of the clutch pedal to an arm that then connects to a small pushrod that goes directly into the master cylinder located on the firewall. The steel rod, where it connects to the arm that pushes the small pushrod into the master cylinder, wears out and the only real fix is to replace the clutch pedal assembly. Very common on 90 and 91 cars. It a full day job to replace it as the steering column even needs to be lowered. Don't attempt to weld it as a weld will only be a temporary fix and it will leave you stranded some day. Believe me. Hope this helps.

 

[Clinical]

Pedal issue for sure.

Do the known test, push the clutch pedal down and hold it down for 10-15 seconds.
Let the pedal come up, and then see if you can pull the pedal up any further. If it comes up further when you're pulling on it then yes you have a bad assembly. My talon's had about a half of inch of play where it'd come up after being held down and I'd pull it up.

Otherwise, simply try adjusting the clutch pedal out.
People make it out to be a pain in the ass, but compared to other stuff i've done on a DSM it's cake, just uncomfortable.

Just lay your drivers seat all the way back, lay down backwards on your seat with your legs going to the backseat, get your head under the pedals. A light helps you find it. Dont think because you're messing with the clutch it's above the clutch pedal. It's above the gas pedal, up above a coil looking thing. There's a rod with a nut on it. Take a 12mm wrench and loosen the nut, then take some pliers and grip onto the rod and rotate the rod a HALF a turn to a FULL turn TOWARDS THE FIREWALL to adjust the pedal's engagement CLOSER to you. Make sure you know which way you're adjusting!!!

A half a turn on the rod is a pretty moderate change, a full turn rod is quite a change. Use your best judgement on how far you need to adjust it in/out..

A couple tests you can do to see if it's just an adjustment issue, put the car in first on level ground while stationary, hold in the clutch pedal and rev it to 7k. If the car starts moving forward then it needs adjusted.

Otherwise, just use basic judgement, if your clutch is engaging with the pedal right as you start letting it up, or right as it comes up from the floor, then that's a damn good sign of an adjustment issue.