Thread: Transmission problem

Had a strange problem turn up this weekend while off roading near Jenolan. It became more and more difficult to change gears and I seemed to be pushing through the sychromesh. The clutch seemed to be coming in very low to floor and it seemed as if it wasn’t declutching completely when fully depressed. If in gear but with clutch depressed, couldn’t change from high to low range or vice versa, had to go into neutral first. Couldn’t get into reverse gear if stationary. If I turned engine off, could easily work through the gears but not if running.

Checked hydraulic fluid, ok, no leaks from master or slave cylinder. Got a new clutch and DM flywheel about 15k ago.

Came home early today and having got to bottom of Kurrajong Hill on Bell road suddenly everything seemed back to normal. May have been my imagination or wishful thinking but seemed to be a sort of clunk sound from transmission somewhere after which was normal. Could get into first easily and into the other gears whilst going. Got onto M7/M2, doing 100km/hr, temp gauge goes back up to peak operating temp and now back to gear changing problem.

I seem to remember having a problem getting into gear just after installation but problem disappeared. Again it might be my imagination but it seems to be temperature dependent, or perhaps, whatever I’m doing that gets the temp right up also creates the problem.

So, I am wondering, what could this be? Is it possible under high load something is displaced and pushes clutch plates together? Is it just likely to be a clutch or slave cylinder problem? Hydraulic fluid? Could the clutch installer have done something silly or incomplete?

Any ideas?

I had this same problem. When ever i would go for a longish drive the clutch fluid would some how get air in it . Definately had something to do with run time and nothing to do with using the pedal as i could be sitting on the highway in 5th geat for an hour and then go to change gear and have no clutch function . Then i would pull over and bleed heaps of air out of the slave cylinder . I ended up replacing the slave and master cylinder at the same time and it fixed the problem but i don't know what exactly was the cause , sorry.