Down Shifting

I switched to redline and it was night and day. Try that. Congrats btw, hope to see you soon on Bay Area event

 

Where is the clutch pedel when it starts to bite, as its giving problems in the ford and reverse gears it sounds like the clutch friction is buggered. If you floor the accelerator can you see the revs going up quickly but the speed not doing so.

If the clutch is not biting until the pedel is allmost full up then it is well worn. Put the handbrake on and let the clutch out slowly and see if the car stalls, in a bad case it will engage with the handbrake on.

If you do the gearbox oil use a 75/90 synthetic , not the 80/90 as per the book as it makes gear changes easier.
My clutch did 16000 miles so i find your miles a bit hard to believe to be honest

 

Awesome clutch advise by mike32, check out the NorCal forum and FOG. Let me know if you want to check one out next time and I'll invite you. Next one is Oct 1st starts on Pinunsula

Cheers

 

Could be very worn synchros. Until you address the fluid, read up on "double clutch downshifting". Basically, you blip the throttle before the downshift with the clutch pedal in to bring the revs up, the job the synchros are supposed to do. If that doesn't help, do the blip with the gear lever in neutral and the clutch pedal up. It is like doing 2 shifts, higher gear to neutral, blip, neutral to lower gear.

If neither of those two techniques help, it is not the synchros.

Regards,
Jerry

 

I am wondering if i am getting this the wrong way around ? If the friction was worn then the clutch would be slipping, for the gear engagement to be giving trouble i am wondering if the clutch hydraulics are not disengaging the friction from the flywheel when the clutch pedel is pressed.

One of those times when u wish you had the car outside.

 

Ditto, sounds like clutch actuation hydraulics - slave cylinder or master cylinder... or just low fluid? (would want to check for leaks...)

 

Sure, you can get by with rev matching downshifts, but that's a band-aid, not a solution. A properly adjusted system on a 308/Mondial has no problems downshifting with the clutch in... therefore your car's setup has a problem.

I'd still bet on hydraulics, especially since you say the slave is new. It's not that uncommon to get a bad component out of the brand new box, that's one possibility. The slave cylinder is on the engine and subject to heat...

 

15 years? !!!

My first thought is why didn't your mechanic suggest changing the gearbox oil? Most of us do it every two years or so, or every year if you want to be OCD about it, lol!.

I would start with that. Even if it doesn't solve your problem, it needs to be done.

Then you can move on to check out the clutch and linkage adjustment.

Also, if the car sat for a long time before you got it, it is not uncommon to actually see corrosion inside the gearbox due to lack of fluid covering the parts when it sat.
Alden

 

My Two Cents Worth

The hydraulic clutch system on these cars is a frign nightmare. First, I beg each and every one of you NOT to buy the Alpha parts even though they fit, and work. For awhile. Bleeding the system was like Chinese water torture. I will not even try to explain how my local wrench did it eventually correctly.

As others have stated, how far off the floor does the clutch take hold in first gear? I think I get about an inch or so. Anything much less then that? If you really really need to stomp down on it for shifting then there is not enough disengagement play. That would mean a bad hydraulic bleed. [A worn clutch would show by needing more travel to engage.]

I believe these cars have very strong synchros and can be bang shifted both up and down if you put some some beef behind it. However, I find double clutch downshifting to be silky smooth; although second gear requires a bit of finesse to get it right.