Bill Curlee

Ohh,,,, EXCELLENT recommendation!!! Didnt think of that.. If the pilot bearing was bad it can also make noises and cause weird vibrations.

Excellent info!!

BC

NewFoundPower

Would a bad pilot bearing make a rattling noise when the clutch pedal is out that goes away when it's pushed in, and would it cause vibrations in the clutch pedal that can be felt with light pressure on the pedal? I do have my carpet and sound deadening out so it's pretty easy to hear all the noises the car makes - not sure if that's a normal one or not.

I got the Tick master cylinder installed (PITA as expected) and the car is drivable now. However, there is still slight but noticeable movement when I put it in gear before I let the clutch out. Not nearly as bad as before but still there. I've only bled the system using a Mityvac in the reservior for now and don't see any bubbles, but I'm going to try this method as soon as I get a chance just to be sure:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...errerid=178898

I also plan to adjust the master cylinder to see if that helps. I want to extend it to (hopefully) cure this problem, right?


If the next two steps I have planned cure the problem with the car creeping with the clutch in, does the rattling and pedal vibration I can feel indicate that I have yet another problem, maybe with the pilot bearing as mentioned above? Or if the creep problem goes away, are the other issues not significant enough to worry about?

NewFoundPower

Well I bled the system using the syringe method which worked pretty well. I got several bubbles out and lots of nasty black stuff, emptying and refilling the reservior with the syringe 6 or 7 times until the fluid coming up was clean.

I fired it up and when I put it in gear with the clutch in, the car still jumps a tiny bit as it goes into gear. It doesn't keep moving if I sit there with the clutch in, it's just a little nudge when it first goes in and then it stops.

Does that sound like something I can fix by adjusting the master cylinder rod length? I'll want to extend the rod and try again, right?

Bill Curlee

You dont want to overextend it but see what happens with a 1/4 turn at a time up to one turn. I would expect a change.

wcsinx

That would indicate your transmission isn't spinning down. As a test, when you disengage the clutch (pedal down), count to 10, then engage a gear. If you still feel that little lurch, then your clutch is likely dragging slightly.

Bill Curlee

I agree. If that is the case, theres a possibility that the clutch disk hub is slightly bent (can happen during reassembly if the installer wasn't careful) causing the clutch to never fully disengage..

wcsinx

Yeap, or the slave is leaking and contaminating the friction surfaces. Both of those happened to my last clutch.

lionelhutz

You should adjust the master following the instructions from Tic plus possibly a little more as indicated by Bill. Don't just go wild changing the length.

NewFoundPower

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll give all this a try this evening and report back. Fingers crossed!

1sickz51vette

Curious to this as well. My clutch makes some noise/vibration when i release the pedal in neutral. Is the pilot bearing different from the throwout bearing? To my understanding they were the same? Mine's been making this noise quite awhile now and I have a new throwout bearing on it.

lionelhutz

Pilot and throwout are 2 different things. The pilot bearing is in the end of the crank and it supports the input shaft when the clutch is depressed. It's very unlikely the pilot bearing is making noise when the clutch is released since the crankshaft and input shaft are both turning together.

NewFoundPower

So I worked on the pedal last night. I adjusted a few turns and fired up with no change. Then I figured out that the master cylinder rod isn't supposed to turn along with the link so I held the rod with some vise grips and turned the link. All I was doing then was un-threading the link from the rod so that didn't work either.

I re-threaded the link onto the rod, took the heim joint off the pedal and turned that while I held the master rod and the link. That visibly worked so I went to try again, and of course the car wouldn't start and I got a charge system fault message on the DIC. So I left a charger on overnight, but it still wouldn't start this morning (though no error from the DIC). In both cases the starter never turned over, I just got a few light clicking noises that sounded like electrical switches.

Is it possible that since the pedal position is changed, it's not hitting the sensor on the firewall that says the clutch is depressed and lets the car start? The clutch pedal is now just a little higher than the brake pedal, which is where the guy at Tick said to put it (I called yesterday afternoon).

This is seriously frustrating.

wcsinx

Yes, that is probably what is happening. You've adjusted the MC pushrod so far that now you're bottoming out in the cylinder and hence not hitting the clutch interlock switch. The switch is easy to see on the floorboard. Just back off the adjustment on the pushrod until you're fully depressing it.

NewFoundPower

Ok will do, thanks! I'll report back on how it goes.

NewFoundPower

I got everything adjusted and the car runs much better now and I can shift ok just driving around. If I push in the clutch and wait a couple of seconds before putting it into gear, then it doesn't move, but if I put it in gear right away it still does a little bit. I've adjusted the clutch pedal out to just above the brake pedal per my discussion with Tick. I can shift at high rpm better than I could before, but I wouldn't say it's smooth - it definitely still takes some effort even with the stock shifter.

Considering all this, should I assume that I'll be having another problem sometime soon as long as I keep driving it? It's nice to at least be able to drive it around for a while finally!

AverageVetteNut

allot of great advice here.

I'm having the issue where the car doesn't really want to go into reverse. It "chiks" when I put it in and a few times the car still moves back when it's NOT in reverse anymore and have the car in neutral and let out the clutch.

Was hoping it's something kinda "easy" ( not replace/rebuild tranny or replace clutch yet. )

Bill Curlee

Sounds like you have a synchro issue and or a shift fork pad issue. If the pads are damaged, the shift fork cant fully engage the slider over the gear.

Check out this post. The reverse gear and all the reverse parts ar in the rear section of the transmission. You can actually fix it without fully disassembling the trans:

- C5 ragtopws6, T-56 Build (whats in my tranny?) : http://forums.corvetteforum.com/nort...-smoother.html



I also added a couple of cool rearend build post too
- C5, ragtopws6 , Upgrading your C5 rear with C6 Z06 guts, : http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...-z06-guts.html
-

- C5, Its_Go_Time, Output Shaft Install - Left and Right: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...post1573407966

AverageVetteNut

well, that seems certainly beyond my means and talent. I adjusted the shifter last night and it seems at 1st glance to have helped a lot. I had this happen when I first bought the car back in 08 and I had to do that before, so I HOPE this will fix it.

If not, then I guess I'll be looking for a shop I can trust to look into it over the winter.

SeeFiveZee06

Ancient thread, sorry to resurrect but it matches the symptoms of my 2003 Z06 with 112K miles exactly - when I first start car, impossible to get into gear. If I pump the clutch and force into gear (need to be careful with this) then the car will move even with clutch fully depressed. It will try to move more and more until it finally dies (brake depressed) even with clutch fully depressed. If I pump the clutch ten times or so, it will shift better. When driving, even when warm, I would say it never shifts that great and if trying a quick 0-60 run under hard power first to second is like a second long shift - it just won't go in.

This is a new to me C5 so hoping it's not too bad, like a new transmission needed. Prior owner did say he installed - apparently self installed - a Stage 3 Monster Clutch. Maybe incorrectly? Clutch fluid looks clean in reservoir but I have not performed a flush yet.

From reading above it seems the clutch bleed/clean/flush perhaps contributed the most to the recovery? Or was it the after market slave cylinder? Not clear what led to the most improvement. But what was happening hear sounds just like what mine is doing. Any more recent experiences welcome, will update at some point when I get this fixed with what worked for mine.

@NewFoundPower

NewFoundPower

Hi, I would guess that it's a clutch problem because before I got it fixed the clutch came apart and destroyed the bell housing. This happened on the street on the way to work not long after I posted this. Granted it was at full throttle and shifted 1-2-3 pretty quickly since I had a good straightaway at the time. Luckily I was able to coast to the parking lot. Replaced with LS7 clutch and aluminum flywheel and the problem was gone. I can't believe I still have pictures but there they are below.