Driving Patti again

[entirelyturbo]

I don't know what to do.

I thought all was fine when I got the Legacy started today. No electrical problem, just didn't push the clutch in far enough.

Then the clutch wouldn't grab. At all. Releasing all the way at the top. Cable tight as far as it would go. Clutch might be ruined...

Still using grandfather's truck, XT still has huge exhaust leak.

I don't know how much more I can take. Some might say "It's just a car," but that car is my life, and that car is dead. Feels like my life is dead.

I don't know what to do.

[legacy92ej22t]

Man, that sucks bad, I don't know what to say.

Isn't your clutch pretty new? Didn't you not replace it because it only had 10k on it or something? I don't know that much about it because I haven't had to do any tranny work myself yet but are you sure you put everything back together right? Could there be anything you may have over looked? It seems strange that it just wouldn't engage at all, if it was correctly installed.

[TireIron]

yea usually its the other way around with clutchs, normally they dont disengage when something goes wrong. are you sure your trannys engageing into gear? unfortunately it looks like youll have to pull the tranny again and make sure everythings put together right...

[vrg3]

How would the clutch be ruined? Did the disc have a chance to be exposed to oil?

It seems more likely the cable is stretched. Didn't you have clutch cable trouble recently? Did you end up replacing it?

[entirelyturbo]

I don't understand it either. I sprayed some lithium grease on the clutch fork components and the input shaft, but I didn't get any on the clutch assembly itself. I don't understand why it would be slipping.

The cable worked fine when I last drove it. The cable "issues" I had were nothing to do with the cable at all, it was the throwout bearing separating itself from the clutch fork. I mistakenly thought that it was the clutch cable...

I'm not sure why this would work, but I'm going to try loosening the cable. I wonder if there is a range in which too loose would cause it to release too late, and then as you tighten it, it starts releasing too early, and then as you get even tighter than that it starts going backwards. Yeah, stupid, but I'll try that tonight and see if that does anything.

If not, I'll see what a new clutch cable will do. I'm trying to think about every possibility outside the transmission. I don't really think it's the actual clutch.

It just burns me up that I have two cars and I can't even keep one running!

[entirelyturbo]

I wonder if there is a range in which too loose would cause it to release too late, and then as you tighten it, it starts releasing too early, and then as you get even tighter than that it starts going backwards.

This very idea was right!

I got home from work, reattached everything and tightened the cable down, but not near as much as it was earlier. I started her up, and was able to move her pretty good without slipping. Still was releasing too high, but it wasn't slipping.

So I took it out for a drive. Still releasing too late, but the clutch won't slip. It held all the wonderful EJ22 power VERY nicely! God, I missed my baby!

So yeah, the cable was (and still is) at fault. It's still apparently stretched out, and as soon as I get a chance, I'll get a new cable. But I can and will drive it, so I can still say my Scoobs get me where I need to go, and so I don't hafta drive the pickup everywhere!

Back on the road again!

[vrg3]

YaY!

That's quite a relief. So a $30 clutch cable should resolve the problem entirely.

[entirelyturbo]

Okay, drove the car to school. About a mile from school, I got that terrible vibration that drove me bonkers a while back. Worse than it had ever been before. But at least this time I know what it is.

Threads are not my friends apparently. I cross-threaded one of the bolts that holds the center bearing for the driveshaft on the body. I got where I couldn't turn it anymore and it still was loose. So when I got on it (which I missed doing so much ) the driveshaft would shift and then start vibrating. I drove it back home much more reservedly and it didn't do it once. So I hafta baby it for now...

Normally I would be infuriated by something like this, but I'm going to do something I haven't done in quite some time: let someone else worry about it! That's right, I'm going to take my Legacy down to the dealer, let them replace the clutch cable, let them tap new threads into the body and put a new bolt in, and then I can drive the car pretty much worry-free while I concentrate on more important things in life. I've already done more than enough work on the car myself, time to relax and let someone else get dirty this time!

[vrg3]

Sounds like a great plan! Then if anything goes wrong with again soon, the warranty on their work should apply.

[entirelyturbo]

I feel dumb...

My friend with the 91 turbo said he'd replace the cable for me...

He looked at it, and said "You don't need a new cable, dude" went and got two wrenches, played with it for about 30 seconds and said "Try it now." Hopped in and it felt like magic!

How he managed to get the adjustment spot on in 30 seconds whilst I couldn't do it in HOURS is beyond me!! But hey, it's fixed, and I now have a spare clutch cable sitting in my closet!

[vrg3]

Huh, wow... How did he adjust it correctly?

[entirelyturbo]

Apparently clutch cables take some more fine-tuning than I gave them credit for. Leave them too loose and the clutch will release too late. Tighten them too much, and for some strange reason, they will again release too late

All he did was back off the adjusting nut a little bit and said "Try it." It had the inch of play at the top like it was supposed to and released about an inch off the floor.

When I put the car back together, I tried it in nearly every possible spot the cable could possibly be, and I still always got it to release too late.

I dunno, I'm going to do something I usually don't do and not worry about it one bit.