Clutch Problem

[blakeg]

Background
Car is a 162 celica with a gen 2 3sge from a SW20 and a S54 from a 6th gen celica i believe
Before this it had a gen 1 3sge (not original and hella dodgy installed) with a severely slipping clutch and burned more oil that petrol, so i went to the new donk and box above when i pulled the box from this, the clutch still appeared to have a reasonable amount of meat on it though

i Had the flywheel machined and installed a new excedy sports tuff (heavy duty) clutch and new bearing into the combo before i dropped it back into the car,

i then bolted up the original slave on to the new box

at first it was ok, perhaps the friction point was just a little high in the pedal travel though,

however now its just annoing

it has 3 stages as i call them

1 Foot flat to floor lift 2/8's and clutch grabbs feels ok but 3rd crunches on downshifts Plenty of freeplay at the top of travel

2 Clutch feels normal, resonable freeplay at top, and engages about 3.5/8 up however still crunches into 3rd on downshifts

3 is annoying No Freeplay at all clutch engages a fraction before you lift off your foot around 7/8 up NO CRUNCHES AT ALL !

this appears to be random and is quite embrassing when you go from the lights thinking car is being 1 only for it to be in 3 and skidds occur or vice versa and you stall

so far i have tried bleeding the system multiple times and have fiddled with the adjustment nut to no avail

my next thought was to change the slave > and if its not that have the master reconditioned ?

[Dale]

Is your flexible line secured to the gearbox?

[blakeg]

come to think of it ....no :S would that have this effect ?

[allencr]

When the hydraulics are OK, there isnt anything 'variable' in the system, and it'll work the same way every single time, unless the crankshaft has a lot of end float.
I think the MC seal is worn & coming apart, and its little fragments do this.
I've thought it may be little clumps of clutch dust & dirt breaking loose and getting in the pressure plate's pivots when this has happened soon after startup, and I know the MC is OK.

[Dale]

come to think of it ....no :S would that have this effect ?

Certainly could do!

Does the master cylinder drop fluid?

How old is the fluid?

I'd try these before changing the master cylinder, on the subject of master cylinders I'm about to rebuild one for my 162, can let you know parts to buy if it comes to that

[blakeg]

fluid was changed when i swapped the engine

[RobertoX]

From what you have said I would say master cylinder.I had a similar problem caused by the master... When it got to "stage 3" as you describe (when there was no free play) I would flick the pedal with my toe and it would sort itself out, a new/reco master isn't expensive...

[Cuts]

get the master and slave rebuilt, prehaps a stainless braided clutch line, should cost around $60 for a stainless braided clutch line from a brake/clutch place.

whats the fork like? and its pivot ball? 3s do have a problem with the clutch pivot point on the fork and ball wearing out. prehaps its worn unevenly or something and when its pivoting on a diff point is giving diff lifting points.

[pato]

i had this problem no more than a week ago,
tried to bleed it, and continually had air in the system, yet it wasnt leaking fluids

swapped over to a spare master i had and it has seemed to fix the problem,
worth a go