Hello all,

I recently did a tranny swap in my 1994 3.4l. The old t5 wc had 188,xxx on it and it was time for it to go. I replaced it with a used one with what I was told had 59,xxx miles on it. Upon receiving the transmission all looked good and proceeded with the swap.

After I got the car back together, I tried to go for a drive, turns out the car was very hard to get into gear etc. I had to pump the crud out of the clutch pedal to get it into gear. I thought I had some air in the system so I tried bleeding it. I was able to get what I thought to be a substantial amount of air out of the clutch hydraulic system. So, back on the ground the car went and still the car didn't want to act right. It was better but I decided to go ahead and replace the clutch master, the slave cylinder and the reservoir as all these components were old and worn. I ordered a pre-bled complete system from rock auto (wagner brand). The car is much better now but I still have some inconsistent clutch disengagement. Sometimes the car might shift perfectly into all the gears and I can drive the car normally. Other times I have a really hard time getting it into gear. I put the car on the lift this weekend and had the car running with it in gear, when I pushed the clutch down, the driveshaft was able to be turned by hand, telling me the clutch had disengaged. My buddy and I did this for about 20 minutes to see if we could find a problem, selecting all different gears. Went to drive it home and again, inconsistent clutch disengagement. Seems the worst when put into reverse, last night, the clutch pedal was to the floor and backwards the car went.

Question is, is there anyway I still have some air somewhere in my system? Is there anyway better than others to try to bleed this stupid sealed system? I thought maybe the throw out bearing isn't on the clutch fork properly?

I really do not want to take to anyone as I always try to take care of my own repairs, but I am at wits end. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Ancestor720

 

How about the pressure plate itself, how did it look. As a general rule if the clutch is not disengaging going into reverse it will grind. Reverse is not synchronized so it will grind every time.

Sometimes the pressure plate will fail and be uneven, this can cause a slight engagement and is it not real bad it will seem like it comes and goes, getting worse or better hot/cold.

 

The pressure plate looked pretty good in it. The motor was rebuilt about 15,000 miles ago and we went ahead and put a new pressure plate and clutch in the car then.

I tried bleeding it some more last night and I continued to get some air from the system, so I think I am going to continue with this route and see what happens. The car seemed to go into gear a little better last night after the bleeding session so hopefully this will get me on the right track.

Thank you for the input, I will keep the pressure plate in mind if my situation doesn't get any better.

 

The T5s had nylon shift fork shoes that would wear uneven and cause shifting problems. There are metal shoe replacements available if needed.

 

I went for a drive in the car last night and I think I finally was able to get the system bled. I didn't have any gear changing issues. Hopefully, I am out of the woods on this finally.

Thanks to all for advice and other areas to look at.