Engine Swap partial success, clutch don't work, but why?

[SilviaSativa]

I know it's the clutch because I can't shift into gear with the engine running, but can with it off. When I try to shove it into gear the car rolls forward slighty.

We checked pedal freeplay and height. I can't get the height within spec, only to 174mm. We bled the clutchline with a quickdraw airgun and used a whole quart of fluid, we think it's good.

We had these local 240 owners help us with the clutch install and I think they messed it up. My s13 motor we pulled out didn't have any bushing in the crankshaft, the s14 going in did, it was from an auto.

We went through the trouble of pulling out the bushing in the s14 motor. But then they reinstalled it along with the smaller pilot bushing that came with the clutch. They hammered it in :hammer: because they said there needs to be no gap between the two bushings. I don't know how they installed the release bearing but they had trouble with that too. The tranny and engine still mated together alright, and it does roll forward a little when I try to put it in gear.

I just read that installing both the automatic bushing and pilot bushing is crazy. So we just need the pilot bushing that came with the clutch, right? Can I still use this clutch assembly? I hope we can get them out of the crankshaft. What should I do?

[mikespeed95]

does the clutch come up all the way? it really sounds like you might still have air in the line.

[Mr. Spool]

your pilot bearing or fork might be missplaced when I did my engine swap this is what happened with my my clutch, Go under your car and see if you clutch fork has exsecive play, if it is not tight this is your problem, there should have been no way for any fluid to get it the line.

[Eternal_240Sx]

I had the same problem you did but mine drove fine for a little bit without the pilot bearing. Then my clutch started acting up, like you i could only shift into gears with the car off, but when i turn the car on there was only grinding. I could not shift into any gears. I replacing everything (tranny, clutch, put pilot bearing in) but the only thing that fixed my problem was after i replace my slave and master cylinder so i suggest you try replacing that.

[SilviaSativa]

Yes the clutch pedal comes back up. The hardline bleeder snapped but doesn't leak, my uncle said we will just have to bleed the new slave cylinder longer.

When the clutch pedal is pushed in I can't move the clutch fork, but with the pedal released I can move it a little.

What really concerns me is the new pilot bushing being hammered into the original auto bushing. Is this keeping it from going into gear?

What's the damage report?

[SilviaSativa]

Today while we were adjusting the timing we tried the clutch again and were able to get it into 2nd gear and reverse. The car started rolling forward while trying to put it in gear, but the clutch wasn't disengaging the flywheel at all.

I just want to know if I should keep working on bleeding the clutchline better or if the two bushings are causing the clutch to not disengage.

[goofynick6]

ANy updates on this? I hammered my pilot bushing in yesterday and now I'm having the exact same problems. I have a new slave cylinder and it has been bled. I think when I hammered in the pilot bushing (which is what I thought you have to do) it somehow got tight and the diameter smaller. So when the tranny went in, it was tight on the input shaft. Now the shaft is basically suck in that bushing and doesn't want to spin freely in it..

NIck

[lsx_257]

yo just a thought cltuches might different. im useing a dohc cltuch in my car which is a sohc motor but im using a custom made slave that pushes the fork out further.

TP, to get out the pilot bearing, wet toiet paper and jam it in the hole, hammer it in with the same size hole like a socket or short metal rod and slowly it will pop out. it does not scar anything. its ghetto but its works, its an old 240z trick that worked for me.

[goofynick6]

Well I figured out my problem.

DON"T POUND THE PILOT BUSHING IN ALL THE WAY! I've read a bunch of times to do that. If you look in the crank where the bushing goes, near the end there is a step in the diameter that gets smaller. I'd pounded mine all the way back into there and it crushed the bushing so it was supertight on the input shaft and didn't let it spin.

Yesterday my buddy and I unbolted everything, removed and reinstalled the new busing, and put it all back together with fluid in 2.5 hours

NIck

[SilviaSativa]

Whoops, sorry I forgot to update. We used another quart of brake fluid w/o the quickdraw air gun bleeder(shitty air compressor) and were finally able to engage/disengage the clutch. I'm going to remove the secondary bleeder box crap like in this tech article on zeroyon soon. It should reduce the time bleeding the system tremendously.

I have close to 700 miles now with the two pilot bushings. During the 1st 100 miles or so I noticed there was a slight delay after shifting before I got going again, but it rarely happens anymore. Also, around 3K my speedo and RPM needles bounce around.

Anyways, now that I have a job, I'll be upgrading the clutch and flywheel, and installing the pilot bushing right this time

[goofynick6]

Yeah, remove that auto bushing, but it shouldn't be a problem now because the manual input shaft is a bit smaller than the auto, so it won't affect it being in there.

Nick