Re: GTV6 revival woes

[Jaap Bouma <j.h.bouma@domain.elided>]

At 02:02 AM 5/9/99 -0700, Obadiah Fayth wrote:
>	A couple of months ago I bought an '83 GTV6 that had been sitting

>and the slave. Now the pedal feels firm and it doesn't use any fluid, but
>it doesn't want to disengage. The first few times I drove the car the
>clutch worked ok for the first 5 minutes or so and then refused to
>disengage, now it won't disengage at all. Is the disk hanging up on the
>input shaft splines? Do I have to take the clutch apart to fix this? Does

I had a similar problem with the clutch in my '86. It wouldn't disengage
unless I revved the engine with the pedal depressed, at which point it
disengaged with an audible click. No problems with the hydraulics that I
could find. Other suggested explanations included rusted/sticky splines,
bad fork or pivot, and damaged pressure plates. After replacing it with a
single plate Milano/75 unit (definitely recommended if you like positive
clutch action) and taking the old clutch apart, I found that everything was
in good working order except for one friction disk which had been cooked.
It was pitch black, polished to a mirror sheen, but had cracks everywhere.
Why did it stick? The theory is that when the disk and flywheel are
polished flat, a vacuum is created once the disk starts rotating relative
to the flywheel. This sucks the disk onto the flywheel, preventing proper
disengagement. I've seen this in one other car (my dad's Pajero/Shogun) and
in a tractor. 
I would suggest the following: first, while driving (any gear) try to rev
the engine with the clutch pedal on the floor. If the engine rpms continue
to follow road speed, chances are that the problem is somewhere in the
clutch actuation (hydraulics, fork etc.). Otherwise it's probably the above
problem. Sticky splines seem unlikely, as the clutch worked ok the first
few minutes. Those first few minutes were probably the time it took to
polish away any surface rust and dirt that had formed over the years.
So, your options are to replace the friction disks, or to replace the
entire unit. For both options the clutch has to come out, which isn't too
bad a job as long as you can raise the car off the ground by at least 8 or
10 inches (more is better here, obviously).

>be shot. It makes a light whiring noise in nutral which went away when the
>clutch was working and it was disengaged. 
Imo, this is more likely to indicate slight wear in the gearbox bearings or
the bearings of the clutch shaft.

>	The second problem was with the brakes. When I press the pedal it
>sinks down about 2/3 of the way and then is very hard. It works well enough
>to stop the car but is definitely not confidence inspiring. I thought maybe
>the booster was bad so I disconnected the vacuum hose where is connects to
>the plenum and now the pedal feels much more normal. 
But it is NOT normal. Without the booster action, the effort required on
the brake pedal is many times the normal effort, so that is what you feel:
the pressure required to sink the pedal 1/3 down increased many times over
by the lack of booster action. If you were to drive the car in this state
(don't!), you would find that your braking distance has doubled or tripled. 
Without more information I couldn't say what the problem is, but if I were
in your position, I would start with a rebuild of all the calipers with new
seals and new brake hoses, put some new fluid in, and try again. With a car
that's been off the road for several years I wouldn't take chances with
something as potentially life-saving as brakes, so I'd rebuild them anyway.

Hope this helps.


Best, Jaap Bouma (Netherlands)
'87 GTV6 2.5 Grand Prix

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