danx

For the past few months, I've been having a problem with a stiff, sticky clutch, with the sticking occuring near the end of clutch travel. It started as a barely noticeable problem, but has gotten a bit worse over time. I've tried various things, from searching on the board, but to no avail.

Here's what I've done so far:
A. Ground smooth and regreased shift fork from slave cylinder, twice.
B. Changed clutch fluid via gravity bleed.
C. Adjusted clutch pedal first to minimum freeplay, then back to spec freeplay.

So I think I've eliminated clutch fluid (B) and shift fork (A) as a source of the problem. I also think I've ruled out the possibility of the inside end section of the master cylinder being scored (C').

I am suspecting it might be the throw out bearing at this point, but first I want to take off the slave cylinder and work the clutch to completely rule out that segment of the mechanical process.

So my questions are
1. Is there any danger in doing this? The slave cylinder should only move within its normal range of motion, right?
2. Should I try changing trans fluid? My mechanical instinct tells me that's not really associated w/ the problem, since my actual shifter action is fine.
3. Before I PM Supertech, is there anything else I could have missed?

ahrmike

TRY non-gravity bleeding it. just my 2cents. If you did it wrong (like I did) the grav bleed will make it worse. I had to manually do it (With two people) and it worked like a charm.

danx

Hmm -- can you elaborate a bit further on what you think the root cause might be? The only two sources of problems in the clutch hydraulic system I can think of are air bubbles, which would result in a lighter clutch due to their compressibility, and gunk in the lines, which I'm reasonably sure I flushed out during the grav bleed.

ahrmike

^I believe it developed/kept air bubbles in the system while gravity bleeding it. What I THINK happened (dont quote me on this, its just what I noticed) is that the tension in the line wasnt enough to 'draw' the fluid through. Like if you have a large enough straw, the liquid will drain from the side versus just staying there if you seal the top. I just know that when I gravity bled it, There was some major problems. I went to the old 'pump three times, hold it, bleed it' method and it worked great!