Reply to "New clutch adjustment...Help!"

Mooso,
Yes, you check for the free play through the sight opening on the top left, drivers side of the ZF bell housing.

This is something that's done after everything is back together.

You should check the disengagement distance at the flywheel. In a Pantera, this is done with a feeler gauge thru the bellhousing access hole. With the clutch fully depressed, you should be able to insert a 0.040" feeler gauge between the disc & flywheel. This means 0.020" clearance on both sides of the disc: barely-enough. If not, you have too much slop in your system and no amount of adjustment on the slave cylinder will help. Less than 0.040" means that the clutch drags at each shift, wearing the synchros in the ZF trans. ZF synchros are all-steel so when they wear out, they take the mating gear with them, so it behooves everyone to adjust for maximum disengagement, regardless of 'freeplay'. (Jack's quote)

I got my new clutch slave cylinder from PI International, for if I remember correctly about 100.00 and it's a very nice piece. Call Jerry at PI, he's a great guy and doesn't mind questions and helping you get through the installation of it. He taught me a lot.

Absolutley on the bleeding. If there is ANY air in the system, your not going to disengage completely. Which will cause the dragging of the clutch plate and grinding of the gears. A real BIG NO NO.

Tons of experiences, the longer you own the car, work on it and stay involved on this website, the more you learn. Part of the fun of owning the cars.

Recently I thought I had second gear problem, popping out while driving in second gear. So I figure it was the second gear itself or the synro ring. But it was something that just started overnight. So I started thinking what I had done recently that could effect the ZF. It appears now that it turned out to be the shifter interior boot that I had just replaced. It was new, very tight and was putting just enough pressure on the gearshift lever in second to push it out of gear. I removed the boot and didn't have the problem anymore. So I modified the boot to releive the pressure and it solved the problem, for now anyway. Something so simple caused weeks of worry and hassle.

There is a bunch of adjustments with the shifter, linkage, master and plate to flywheel. They all have to be just right for everything to work perfectly. Check all the linkage, make sure everything is clean and greased, bleed the system several times, check all adjustments and try it again and see what happens.

Hope this helps.