Clutch Complete-Need Advice

mattk

New member
Allright, finally got my ST165 back from the shop and looking for advice. I had an exedy sports clutch put in with 19% greater clamping force. Big difference was the fact that the throw was approx. 2-3", which I saw as good and bad. I have to completely bottom-out the clutch to get it to fully disengage, and its really choppy by nature. Is there any way to adjust this? The mechanic I worked with said he thought the best thing to do would be put in a new master and slave cylinder and that might help.

2nd-- I had brass clutch linkage bushings put in and they seemed to almost make it tougher to shift. That might also have to do with the clutch pedal also and the fact it has to be bottomed out to shift.

Third, he replaced the inboard boot on the tie rods, and the alignment seems funky (steering wheel off-kilter) and steering not as "tight." I left the car with him, but any guesses why this might be?

Any help appreciated. To be honest, after 2800 dollars on my car, it sucks to be disappointed at all.

I still love my car, though.

Matt
 

mattk

New member
Is this clutch situation normal? Anyone? I have to go check out the steering today with the mech-- any help is appreciated.
 

Fastrac

New member
Have you tried adjusting the clutch yet? There is a threaded rod attached to the clutch pedal that is rotated to make any needed adjustments. The procedure is in the BGB.
 

all-trac's plus

New member
mattk":b3uk3xud said:
Allright, finally got my ST165 back from the shop and looking for advice. I had an exedy sports clutch put in with 19% greater clamping force. Big difference was the fact that the throw was approx. 2-3", which I saw as good and bad. I have to completely bottom-out the clutch to get it to fully disengage, and its really choppy by nature. Is there any way to adjust this? The mechanic I worked with said he thought the best thing to do would be put in a new master and slave cylinder and that might help.

2nd-- I had brass clutch linkage bushings put in and they seemed to almost make it tougher to shift. That might also have to do with the clutch pedal also and the fact it has to be bottomed out to shift.

Third, he replaced the inboard boot on the tie rods, and the alignment seems funky (steering wheel off-kilter) and steering not as "tight." I left the car with him, but any guesses why this might be?

Any help appreciated. To be honest, after 2800 dollars on my car, it sucks to be disappointed at all.

I still love my car, though.

Matt

Your mechanic might be correct by recommending new master & slave cylinders. However, if it was OK with the old clutch, chances are these are not the issue. Take a look first at the linkage adjustment procedures. If this appears to be OK then take a look at the master & slave cylinders. As part of the clutch change, he had to remove the pressure lines. This means that he had to bleed the system. My bet is that there is air in the lines. If bled properly, all should be OK unless one or both of the cylinders leak.

The brass linkage bushings shouldn't affect anything. However, he may have played with the adjustment during installation.

Regarding the boots on the steering gear rack, your mechanic obviously made a mistake. If he removed the rack to do the work then your problem could be in two areas. If he removed it then he didn't reconnect the u-joint above the rack (to the steering wheel) in the correct position. This can be repositioned without much trouble, but it takes two people to get it right. The other possibility is that he didn't put the tie rod ends back in their original position. If the error is small, you (he) may have to adjust these in opposite directions (on & off) until the steering wheel is centered. Remember that alignment can be affected if done improperly. I have no idea as to why the steering would not be as tight.

Hope this helps.

Tony (75 miles away)
 

Andy

Member
On your clutch, it sounds like you just need to adjust it under the dash.

However, it is not necessary to undo the clutch line when replacing a clutch or pulling an engine. We always just unbolt the slave and the clips that hold the line to the transmission. We then pull the line with the slave to the side until we put it back on. This means no bleeding is required, less time, less mess.

If this is the way they did it then you could bleed it and flush it with new fluid. The thing to watch for is the color/condition of the old fluid if it's dirty/black then the seals may be bad, allowing leak back.


On your shifter, if it is stiff when moving from left to right in neutral, not 1-2 or 3-4, but the neutral cross over like 2-3, 4-5 etc. Then there is "pivot lever"? not sure of the exact term, at the end of the neutral cable on the transmission. If the point where this pivoting occurs is dirty, or "to tight" then the neutral crossovers in the shifting process craps out. If you think this may be the issue then you can get to this from under the car or through the wheel well, but just barely. Disconnect the neutral cabel and see if it is stiff on the cable side to the cabin or the lever side to the transmission. Keep in mind the gear selector lever needs to be in "neutral" for the nuetral lever to move "its" full length. This lever has bushing in where it pivits, my friends 185 shifting got real sticky, once it was well warmed up, but was Ok when it was cold. When he took it out they were dusty dry. He cleaned and lubed it good and his shifting became got a lot better. So, just a maybe....

This by the way is where a lot of the slop in our shifters come from. I would like to have a brass bushing to replace this one.


Andy
 

Aaron

Member
As far as your clutch pedal travel situation, I've heard people have had luck installing the longer slave cylinder rod that is offered on speed-source.net.
 

coyoteboy

New member
There should be no reason to install a longer rod unless your clutch is out of OEM spec by some way. If the engagement range is large and the rod is adjusted correctly to give the correct free-play before disengagement starts then the clutch is incorrectly designed as a longer rod will simply bring the disengagement further up towards the normal pedal position (which could be done with the adjustment under the dash). Its only any good if the clutch doesnt start disengaging until a long way through the travel. Also a longer rod will push the seals down to a place in an old slave/master cyl where they've never moved before and so likely cause seal problems after a while.
 
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