After putting in my rebuilt transmission, clutch, flywheel, etc. I notice that while the transmission is mounted to the car the release arm is rather "slack". The lower 3-4" of the movement area has no tension, but the upper 1" or so of the area does have tension (alot of it at that).

Also, the release arm doesn't spring itself back down if I pull up on the arm. I know the TO bearing has a spring on it and should normally spring back down, but is this for some reason not the case when the transmission is on the car?

I hooked up the clutch cable and no matter how it's adjusted the transmission doesn't feel right. (the car isn't running yet, this is all with the engine off, etc.) With the clutch in, and running through the gears, it's pretty notchy, and won't go all the way into 4th. Getting the transmission into the gears actually feels no different with the clutch in or just doing it without.

Is this normal? I don't see why it would suddenly feel better/normal with the engine running. I'm paranoid that something isn't right and I don't want to put the wheels back on and get the engine running only to have a transmission problem.

 

Mine doesn't have the slack your talking about, i dunno what the cause is though sorry.

 

Update:

I dropped the transmission tonight, and noticed that the pressure plate 'teeth' are perfectly flat. The clutch is brand new. I thought the pressure plate 'teeth' were supposed to angle outward a little bit?

Does this pressure plate look normal to you guys?





Sorry the pictures are dark but it's the best I could do

 

no it doesn't look normal.... it could be defective... call up the company where u got it from, also make sure the alignment of the clutch and the preasureplate is propper... they dont give you an alignment tool for nothing.... either with a ruler(harder way) or your finger, make sure there is equal space around the tool and plate.... i just did my clutch saturday too

 

The problem is that I bought the clutch a year or two ago and am just now getting the car all back together, so I'm not sure I'd have any recourse with the company.

And yeah, I did use the alignment tool, and the clutch is definitely aligned properly, but the PP just still doesn't look right to me.

 

that doesnt look terribly abnormal to me.. but was the clutch plate installed backwards? they are directional. don't ask me how i know what that looks like...

 

Did you have the flywheel resurfaced? Did they cut the step down as well? If they take too much meat off the flywheel friction surface, and they don't remove some material from the step that the pressure plate bolts to, you end up with the pressure plate springs being compressed more than they should.