Shifting improves when I drive car hard

[Caithness]

When I drive my car hard the shifting gets a lot smoother. Normally in day-to-day driving around town, shifting is very notchy and it requires a bit of effort to go into gear. When I do a hard launch, bang through a few gears, for the next few minutes shifting is smooth as butter. The shifter glides into each gear with no effort and no hang-up. Also, the clutch disengages slightly higher and feels a bit lighter.

The setup is an ACT flywheel, South Bend 2200lb clutch with a Kevlar/Ceramic full-face disc, symborski kit and skate bearings, and a rebuilt tranny with double second synchro. It never grinds; my clutch completely disengages at all times as tested by revving to 7000 in first gear with the clutch in- the car doesn't start to bump forward until the clutch is half an inch off the floor. It's just very notchy and takes a bit of force to go into each gear until I get the clutch heated up.

Any ideas on what's going on? I want the smooth shifting all the time, not just when I'm beating on the car.

 

[elfroggo]

Check your tranny fluid?

 

[Caithness]

I check it every few months. It's full, checked it a few weeks ago and this has been going on for the last few months. I'm going to change it in the next week or two. It's Pennzoil Synchromesh with only about 2500 miles on it, but this stuff does seem to break down pretty quickly in the Florida heat. Wish I could afford to fill it back up with BG II/Neo RHD.

 

[slipstream808]

You answered it right there when you talked about the clutch engaging higher! You need the clutch to engage higher so that the pressure plate and the flywheel are far enough apart to FULLY disengage the disk when you push the clutch in. Readjust the clutch for a higher engagement point. But first, if you didn't bleed the whole clutch, do that. And make sure you don't need to weld the clutch pedal assembly.

1/2" is too low to engage off the floor. And just because the car doesn't move as you rev with the clutch out in first gear, doesn't mean that when driving it is FULLY disengaged. Hope that helps.

 

[1stGenRocks]

try pumping your clutch a half dozen times and see if the pedal feels higher then. If the pedal moves up after pumping it then you have air in the system

 

[Caithness]

I will try pumping the clutch repeatedly and see if it has any effect on the disengagement.

I would be very much annoyed if it was air in the clutch line. I spent over an hour with a friend following an elaborate bleeding procedure using a MityVac, under the dash manually depressing the master all the way, flushing the line, then moving the slave through it's travel manually. It was posted here and on another board as the end-all bleeding method to make sure there's no air in the line.

I have a 1-year-old new OEM slave and master and stainless clutch line. I have checked the clutch pedal for play and it exhibits no signs of any play (and I've done the same test on a car that needed the weld job, so I know what it looks like when it's bad). I have moved the top clutch switch to the outer limit of its travel and then adjusted the master cylinder rod until only about one thread is actually threaded into the clevis bracket. This pushed the top of the disengagement range up to the very top, right below the raised clutch switch. Oh, and my shifter is rebuilt and shimmed and adjusted properly.

Can you tell from that list that this is just the latest in a series of disengagement/shifting problems? It was much, much worse with the 2600. Trying everything ever posted on the internet I could never get that clutch to disengage properly and consistently. I'm about to give up and throw a six puck in the car. There's no question of "is it fully disengaging while I'm driving?" with a six puck. It's on or it's off.