clutch pedal drop

[HaWiiLuVeR]

as you can see in my signiture, i have a 69 charger that i put a t-56 behind a 440. i am having some problems with the cltuch pedal though. its fine until i tach the engine up with a good amount of gas pedal. once i do that, the clutch pedal goes to almost nothing, and makes it very difficult to get into second gear. it takes a minute or so after that for the clutch pedal to come back to normal. i have bled the crap out of that slave cyl, and have even tried replacing it with a new one. but nothing seems to work. has anyone experienced a similar problem to this? please help.

 

[joe117]

Do you have a slave cylinder inside the bellhousing the way it is on a Viper?

 

[HaWiiLuVeR]

yes. i purchased both the master cylinder and slave cylinder directly from the dodge dealer. i am using the factory viper trans in its original configuration. the only thing different in my setup, is that i am using a weber clutch setup for a 440, with a 12" clutch.

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

Any chance the clutch has a weighting system to produce more clamping force at higher speeds and the pressure plate fingers are pushing back on the release bearing at high speeds enough so that it's too far away for one clutch pedal stroke to disengage the clutch? The excess fluid would simply go back into the reservoir. It's a stretch (pun), but after Viper Wizard's pump-like-hell for 20 strokes advice, I can only imagine that the stroke on the slave cylinder is small (which might sense given the force multiplication needed?) and you have to pump the clutch pedal a few times to get it close enough to work again.

 

[HaWiiLuVeR]

i kept away from centerforce for that very reason. i have heard of many problems about cars not being able to get out of gear, because the clutch is fighting back and clamping too hard.

i thought about the stroke thing too. but its wierd because pumping it doesnt help. i have to let it sit and regain its own fluid. kinda similar to when you are bleeding the system. you open the valve and then the pedal goes to the floor, and it takes a minute to return to the normal height.

one thing that i am wondering, that goes along with the stroke not being long enough. maybe i need a spacer behind the slave cylinder. im wondering if because of the different clutch, maybe the slave cylinder is reaching the end of its travel, and maybe the spacer will give it that extra that it needs.

any thoughts?

thanks for the help so far!

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

If it works at all, it would seem you don't need a spacer. But if you want to try it anyway, what you need is a "ring" or washer that goes under the plastic release bearing skirt. The skirt is held on by only one tang in the 6 o'clock position - just pry the plastic skirt over it. Besides the plastic skirt you could see, there is also a plastic "tube" that reaches inside the slave cylinder. The spacer should fit into that; If you've replaced the slave already, take it apart and you'll see what I mean and I won't have to describe odd orifice structures...

You can also try to bleed the system from the bottom up. Attach some sort of fluid supply to the bleeder and either pressurize it or hold it higher than the reservoir and push the fluid "backwards."

 

[joe117]

The only thing that could cause this is the clutch fingers moving in at high rpm.

 

[HaWiiLuVeR]

ill give the reverse bleeding a shot. it just seems wierd cus its fine unless i mash it through the floor. Thanks.