My drivetrain has been acting weird lately. It's a T56 w/ pro 5.0, McLeod performance clutch with custom kevlar disc, stock flywheel, stock driveshaft, and Moser 12 bolt. Here's the symptoms:

-Clutch engages way too early, approx. when the pedal is one inch off the floorboard.
-Difficult to put into gear. It feels like clutch almost will not disengage. I attribute this to the clutch engaging so close to the floorboard.
-Horrible vibration. Extremely noticable at 4000 rpms and higher, but I can also feel it through the clutch pedal at idle.

One thing I noticed tonight is that it is much easier to shift if I slam the pedal down as I would if I were racing. ANy help would be greatly appreciated since this is making the car almost not fun to drive around!

 

Could it be a problem with the hydraulics between the clutch pedal and throwout bearing? Master/slave cylinder or line messed up or low fluid? I got an A4 so these are just guesses.

 

There should be a pivot ball when you install the clutch. This will pivot the arm to the throwout bearing. Should be adjusted to the clutch manufacturer spec. Also, it could be a throwout bearing issue.

I'd check the arm first...

 

Theres no adjustment in the master or slave cylinder. The slave assembly is either good or bad, you could have a small leak which is causing you to have to push the pedal down so far, get under the car and inspect the braided steel line that goes in the side of the tranny and goes up behind the engine to the master cylinder, well before that check the fluid level in the master cylinder. Let us know after you do that.

 

Thanks guys. I'll check that. Any other opinions?

 

master cylinder is full. That's the black thing on the driver side firewall right? My jack is broken, so i can't get up under the car right now. But i'll try to get ahold of my friend. he has a lift. Where is the slave cylinder, and how can i tell if it's going bad? i've heard a few people say that when the slave cylinder goes bad, the pedal feels like this, and it's hard to get into gear.

If that's the problem though, that wouldn't explain the bad vibration. I never noticed it before, but could it be an out of balance driveshaft? or would having a stock length driveshaft on a 12 bolt rear end bend my input shaft? Thanks for the help.

 

Got it up on a lift this morning. We checked the line, and it was fine. We took off the slave, and a metal piece fell out. It is pretty thick, and it looks like a coil from a spring. What is this?

Also, what is the part that sticks out of the transmission and conects to the slave cylinder? It seemed very loose. I need to figure something out soon, because it's getting harder and harder to get into gear, and almost refuses to go into reverse.

 

Theres your prob. What kind of clutch do you have, sounds like you threw one of the springs from the disc off. That would explain the vibration, and it could very well explain why it wont completely disengage. Your gonna have to pop the tranny off and have a look, nothing should ever come out of the tranny when you take the slave off. Do it right away, I wouldnt suggest driving it except to get it on the lift, your only gonna make other things worse like the flywheel will get burned and warped, might **** up the tranny too.

 

Yeah, that's alot of my worry. I don't want to mess up anything else, so I guess I'll get to it asap. Shouldn't be that bad with a lift and an experienced guy with me, but this will be my first time to take the tranny off. One more question. If i did pop a spring, where could i get a replacement? It's a McLeod performance clutch and custom built kevlar disc.

Never mind. I just found a picture of a disc, and I completely did not think of this. The part that fell out looks just like a piece of one of the center springs on the disc. guess i'll have to get that off, and go get a new one. This is a HUGE relief because I now know what it is, and a new disc will only be about 150 bucks or so, which is much better than the 900 I would have paid for the street twin when this one goes bad. Kudos on the problem solving. I really, really appreciate it!