beatswellington
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- Jan 28, 2021
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Hi guys, my 2005 Mustang GT is currently in the shop for a clutch replacement and, according to my mechanic, is the car from hell. Stock engine and transmission, 126,000 miles. As it sits right now, we replaced the clutch, flywheel, pilot bearing, rear main seal, braided clutch line, tried two slave cylinders, clutch master cylinder, and the transmission has been out 3 times.
The issue is that the car doesn't want to go into gear when it is sitting on the ground and running. When the car is off, the transmission goes into gears perfectly fine. When the car is turned on and in the air, it shifts a little easier. There were no issues driving it to the shop, the clutch was pretty cooked but still worked fine and the transmission had no shifting issues. According to my mechanic, the system is 1000% bled.
Here's the parts list:
(off Facebook marketplace for reference)
Exedy Mach 400 Stage 1 Clutch
McLeod lightened steel flywheel
Exedy Slave Cylinder (replaced with equivalent slave for testing)
Braided clutch line
Flywheel and pressure plate bolts
OEM Ford pilot bearing
The clutch feel and travel seem to be doing what it needs to be doing. The clutch is being depressed, and the pressure plate is being pushed in. It seems as if the clutch isn't travelling far enough to dis-engage from the engine. Here's what we troubleshooted so far:
1) Took out and bench bled Exedy slave cylinder after installation and metal bits came out, replaced slave cylinder, bench bled, and installed. Did not fix issue
2) Called Exedy and McLeod to verify that their parts could work in this combination and they verified that everything should work if it's within OEM spec.
3) Ordered replacement Exedy Mach 400 clutch and Exedy lightweight racing flywheel to compare widths and clutch travel. Everything looked the same within 1/16th of an inch or so, Facebook parts don't seem to be the issue.
3) Suspected internal failure of the clutch master cylinder which might not be allowing enough pressure to fully disengage the clutch. Replaced clutch master cylinder and bled system, did not solve issue.
We're out of ideas. Only other thing we can think of is that something happened to the transmission when it was pulled off the car, since it was so corroded. We discussed shimming the slave cylinder and my mechanic has never had to do that after hundreds of clutch jobs. My mechanic has triple checked his work at this point and as far as the clutch job goes, it was done right.
My options are to A) Put in a brand new Exedy Mach 400 clutch (instead of Facebook part) in and see if that fixes it, although there's definitely a risk it won't. B) Put an OEM clutch in just to see if it works vs the performance parts. C) Take the car to a different shop that can more accurately diagnose the issue, because at this point we're just throwing parts at it.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
The issue is that the car doesn't want to go into gear when it is sitting on the ground and running. When the car is off, the transmission goes into gears perfectly fine. When the car is turned on and in the air, it shifts a little easier. There were no issues driving it to the shop, the clutch was pretty cooked but still worked fine and the transmission had no shifting issues. According to my mechanic, the system is 1000% bled.
Here's the parts list:
(off Facebook marketplace for reference)
Exedy Mach 400 Stage 1 Clutch
McLeod lightened steel flywheel
Exedy Slave Cylinder (replaced with equivalent slave for testing)
Braided clutch line
Flywheel and pressure plate bolts
OEM Ford pilot bearing
The clutch feel and travel seem to be doing what it needs to be doing. The clutch is being depressed, and the pressure plate is being pushed in. It seems as if the clutch isn't travelling far enough to dis-engage from the engine. Here's what we troubleshooted so far:
1) Took out and bench bled Exedy slave cylinder after installation and metal bits came out, replaced slave cylinder, bench bled, and installed. Did not fix issue
2) Called Exedy and McLeod to verify that their parts could work in this combination and they verified that everything should work if it's within OEM spec.
3) Ordered replacement Exedy Mach 400 clutch and Exedy lightweight racing flywheel to compare widths and clutch travel. Everything looked the same within 1/16th of an inch or so, Facebook parts don't seem to be the issue.
3) Suspected internal failure of the clutch master cylinder which might not be allowing enough pressure to fully disengage the clutch. Replaced clutch master cylinder and bled system, did not solve issue.
We're out of ideas. Only other thing we can think of is that something happened to the transmission when it was pulled off the car, since it was so corroded. We discussed shimming the slave cylinder and my mechanic has never had to do that after hundreds of clutch jobs. My mechanic has triple checked his work at this point and as far as the clutch job goes, it was done right.
My options are to A) Put in a brand new Exedy Mach 400 clutch (instead of Facebook part) in and see if that fixes it, although there's definitely a risk it won't. B) Put an OEM clutch in just to see if it works vs the performance parts. C) Take the car to a different shop that can more accurately diagnose the issue, because at this point we're just throwing parts at it.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
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