Moved to C5 Tech.

 

If there's no leaking under the car (how slaves fail) I would change the clutch master cylinder. Internal valving seems to be shot.

 

Did you try pumping the clutch pedal several times, similar to leaking brakes? Could get you into gear, though as you sit the car will quickly start to move on it's own...
Could be either master or slave -- though my experience says the master is more likely (and is accessible). Either way, you're more than a little screwed in that a bleed is absolutely necessary. Why on earth Mother GM didn't include an accessible bleed screw is beyond logic.

 

Air in the clutch lines would do it. Bad master cylinder would do it.

 

 

 

 

pull the center console and check the shifter alignment before you take it somewhere else... also check the bolt that holds the shift box to the shift rod and make sure it hasn't loosened up... with the car off shift it through all the gears and make sure the shift rod is moving with the shifter and not losing any of it's motion, when you get the console off you will see what I mean

 

I'd throw an ls7 clutch setup in it personally. Give you some added holding power with the same driveability.

 

same sticking pedal when making hard pulls too

 

This is an almost inherent problem with LS6 clutch unfortunately. I don't think much can be done about it. As said above, LS7 clutch is a great option but you need the flywheel too. Some go with McLeod clutches. I have the LS7 setup with Fidanza aluminum flywheel in mine and it's the bomb.

 

Don't know if this will help. I did the turkey baster, then did the cleaning of the bell/clutch area....

CLEANING AND REPLACING CLUTCH FLUID-INCREASING AIR FLOW
However, what is stated here will help extend the life of the clutch by keeping the clutch cooler and the fluid cleaner for much longer than any other method. This is primarily meant for those of us with stock clutches but will apply to all the aftermarket clutches as well. We have heard of many people that have put clutches in their vehicle when it may not have been necessary or many feel it is a mandatory upgrade with more power.

On our shop car we have a heads and cam C6 z06 with 585RWHP and 535RWTQ and 82K miles STOCK clutch from new and the car is driven like it is stolen, daily. The car has some drag racing time on it at the track but it is mostly thrashed on the street and road coursed as much as time and the budget allow. We have NEVER had the pedal stick to the floor and it takes about 5K miles for the fluid to change color let alone turn dark.

Drag racing does play havoc on a clutch but hopefully this will get those that are apprehensive out there to beat the tar out of their cars like they should be, it’s good for them!! It has been our experience that the 2 worst GM V8 vehicles out there for having issues with clutches are the GTO and the F-bodies. I would like to point out one thing that they have in common: They do not have an "exhaust" for clutch debris and heat. The back of the bell housing does not have vents like the Corvette and especially the C6. The 2 C6 vents are about 2" by 3/4" just beneath the clutch and in the back of the bell housing whereas the C5 was about 1/3 the size. The late model Camaro has a large vent roughly equivalent to the C6 size.

I mention all of this as an important backdrop that we will come back to shortly and I will try to tie it all together.

Even though this is a LONG write up IN SHORT it will only help even if you aren't have any issues.

I tried to illustrate with my kindergarten drawing ability Check out the clutch airflow pic at the bottom.

-Bleed the clutch line
For many of us are familiar with Ranger's articles about using a turkey baster to draw out dirty fluid and then replenish with clean the fluid.

This helps, however it is not the solution for the larger issue, you will still continue to get filth in the clutch and reservoir.

Please understand I am extremely grateful for his contributions to the corvette community. Ranger sent the fluid to a lab to analyze what the dark substance was in the fluid and established that it was clutch material. Without this important piece of info we would have much less knowledge about this system. THANK YOU RANGER!!

As you USE the clutch you consume it and where does the debris go? As the clutch material is flung around within the bell housing the material gets past a seal into the slave cylinder and then the hydraulic system the fluid is contaminated and begins to darken. If allowed to worsen you eventually will have a sticking pedal and lose hydraulics. In most cases not permanent but often at the most inopportune times. It is best to address this as early as possible so you do not have permanent issues with the stock slave.

We are not sure but it seems likely that damage may be caused to the slave cylinder by the clutch particles embedding between the bore and piston of the slave. Catch it before its too late. Naturally a clutch should give off the most debris upon break-in.

The factory system moves a very small amount of fluid in a line from the reservoir to the slave, fore and aft. Naturally the most contaminants would be at the point of entry into the system, not just the reservoir two feet away. Bleeding the system like a brake or any other hydraulic system until the fluid is clear would rejuvenate and minimalize the contaminants.

A remote bleeder is nice and convenient but not all of us are willing or able to put a remote bleeder in or quite honestly I don’t know if you can even get one installed without tearing the torque tube and clutch out. So what can we do that is not too labor intensive and wont cost much? Or How can we optimize this system and make it last? Whether its the basic STOCK clutch setup or a rather expensive aftermarket clutch this should only help. We are going to tell you how we do it in the car without too much labor.

The easiest way that we have found is to pull the intake manifold for the C5 and C6 Corvettes. We have ported hundreds of manifolds so we have become proficient at pulling intake manifolds. (Total time to clean head ports and put it back on about 45min.) This will allow one to lay in and across the engine bay. With your head right at the firewall with a 9mm combination wrench and a light just barely have enough room to see the port, pop off the rubber cap (leave it off) and open it while someone else is depressing the clutch pedal. Bleed it just like a brake system, one person (A) holds pedal, the other (B) opens the port till fluid pours out and then closes, (A) pumps pedal till firm again and then repeat till fluid is clear, 3-12 cycles. Remember to check the reservoir! Refill it so you do not get any air in the line. Earlier F bodies and GTOs may be accessible from under the car and may not require pulling the intake manifold.

-Open front of the bell housing by removing the plastic panels.
There are 2 black plastic panels that cover the front side of the bell housing. The driver side has a small 3” panel held in place by 1-10mm bolt. The passenger side panel surrounds where the starter engages the flywheel. Disconnect battery; remove the 2- 15mm bolts and push the starter forward enough to pull out plastic panel. Before you reinstall the starter you can benefit from this wide open space. Check out the next step, Compressed air.

Total time will be between 10min and 1hr depending on stock exhaust manifold or headers and adjoining piping and space restraints and if on a lift or on the ground.

I would imagine that the panels were put in there to keep things from getting into the bell housing but the irony could be what was meant to protect the clutch hurt the longevity of it. The Driver side is shielded by the oil filter and the starter on the passenger side. It is quite amazing the amount of air moved by the clutch at idle from the “exhaust” ports of the bell housing, imagine what it would be in CFM@155mph 7k rpm. Ever heard of Smokey Yunicks flywheel supercharger?

Opening the front side of the bell housing is a crucial part of keeping things cleaner and cooler within the clutch. By allowing the front side of the bell housing to ingest airflow we now have a cross flow of air coming in and out of the bell housing and the faster we go the more volume of air through, like a radiator. With greater volume of high velocity air the clutch debris is expelled much more quickly rather than staying in the bell housing longer like the stock stagnant closed-front-entry (or it doesn’t exit but through a tiny hole like earlier Fbodies and GTOs). On our C6Z we even “ported” the “exhaust” side of the bell housing to even more aid in getting the airflow out. Furthermore, after about 7K miles we again cleaned it there was very little debris in the clutch and bell housing area and the fluid was in great shape too.
We feel that this is conclusive that it does keep the clutch much cleaner and cooler. What happens to a radiator when you block its airflow?

One more thing to mention about the GTOs and Fbodies: It has been our experience that the Heat and the clutch debris can very quickly ruin your fun. A few years back we had a ‘05 80K mile GTO with about 390RWHP and bolton’s, stock clutch. The vehicle was at a road course event and as the vehicle heated up it would lose hydraulics and not even be able to execute a gear shift by the end of a lap. We would have to draw out the DIRTY fluid and replace it every lap. (It is unknown how large a role the heat played it is difficult to test independently. When both sides of the bell housing are open it seems that it is no longer an issue.) Now looking back upon those experiences I know we could have resolved or at least greatly extended the proper functioning of the clutch. Since GTOs and earlier Fbodies do not have “exhausts” on their bell housings I would like to machine a few passages in there and see what happens......Now we have done the aforementioned methods to said vehicles and it has helped rather significantly but they NEED is the “exhaust” side opened up. When you take a look at the bigger picture you can see that it needs both clean high speed air in and high speed air out, just like an engine. Having only one side of it is merely half the battle.

-Use Compressed air and brake clean to blow out bell housing
Now that the panels are off you can get in there with a compressed air probe and blow out all the crevices of the clutch. We have been in there for over 10 minutes still finding more areas that blow out clouds or clutch debris. When you think you’ve blown it out enough keeping going. Then rotate the motor over with a breaker bar and do it again till there is no more clutch debris coming out. Next take 2-3 cans of brake clean and spray it all through anywhere you can. Wear a respirator and have some fans going in a well ventilated area; this is not good stuff to breathe in. Reassemble it and go beat the **** out of it.

We have a customer with a 30K mi 600RWHP C6Z that began to have some clutch slippage. We opened up the front side blew out and cleaned out the bell housing and has yet to have the problem again. One thing to consider is the contact surface of the disc and flywheel. If there is a boatload of dust in there, the surface has been compromised. The grip integrity of a clean surface has changed. Now it doesn't lay all the dust out evenly either so there is an even better chance that you will develop hot spots on the flywheel if one area slips on its own dust and another area grabs. Slowly we began to see how one thing leans on another, heat and dust, dust and heat.

 

Hello everyoneI'm using Ronnie's post to ask his two helpful questions:, what is the average life of a clutch in normal driving on a mechanical gearbox? Lifetime of synchros ?

Thanks !

 

I went with a Monster level two clutch kit. Very pleased so far, about 800 miles in.