manual transmission problem.

[g046678]

I have a 1978, L82, manual transmission corvette. Occasionaly, when I try to put the car in first gear and I depress the clutch, something is still spinning, and I hear grinding. At first I thought I had'nt depressesed the clutch completly, but since then I have confirmed that the clutch pedal is fully depressed when I try to put the car in gear. Any ideas on what may be wrong?

 

[69MyWay]

You might want to make a quick adjustment to your clutch and see if you simply are not getting a good solid disengagement. Look under the hood, firewall side of the clutch pedal and you will see that it is basically a threaded rod that you can adjust.

Give that a shot and let us know.

 

[JohnZ]

If you haven't done this before, adjust the nuts where the swivel attaches to the lever on the bellcrank so you have about 1" of free pedal travel between the fully-up position (against the rubber bumper) and the point where you feel resistance when you depress the pedal.

 

[smurfvet]

Also check the cross link rod that goes from the threaded rod adjustment to the throwout bearing lever. It's a black piece of tubing right below the master cylinder that connects directly to the theaded rod mentioned above. Another connection on this tube by the engine goes to the throwout bearing arm. Mine was loose on one end (a nut loosened up due to lack of a lock washer) and caused erratic operation of the clutch. Just grab it and yank on it- if it's loose, you will see movement. Check the nuts on the end mounts.

This tube normally has no effect on the clutch operation, if it's tight, but if it's loose, a lot of goofy things can happen, like erratic operation. I swore my clutch plate was oil fouled or the flywheel surface was bad. I was lucky I found the loose bolt before tearing out the trans. It's an easy test.

 

[cntrhub]

Z and 69 are stepping on the right direction. Your clutch plate is just kissing the flywheel and that's why it keeps spinning..thus the grind in 1st. This adjustment will move the friction disc farther away from the flywheel. Select 2nd gear initially, and then shift to 1st gear. This will move the syncro's in line and make shifting into 1st gear eaiser.

 

[g046678]

thanks for the responeses

Thanks to all that responded. I recently took out and reinstalled the clutch linkage, and I guess I have some problems. I'm glad that the evidence points to a n adjustment and not a transmission or clutch problem. I will tighten everything up this weekend and let you know if I still have problems. Thanks again.