Jumpy first gear

[macman]

About a month ago, I bought this car, and when i began to drive it i noticed that if you engaged the clutch at a reasonable speed while in first, the engine would jump like crazy, the tires would spin spontaniously and i would sortof take off in little jumps. So, i took a look and saw that my engine mounts were shot. so I replaced them (with proper touque) and now, the car is better but it still seems to have the problem with "jumping" off like as though I wasn't giving it enough gas, is it possible that the clutch plates are warped? any input would be apprecieated. Thanks!

[Conrad W Peden]

You might want to check the clutch cable tube where it is connected to the body of the car at the firewall. I have had two cars where the welds have broken or become loose. It makes the clutch do funny things. It can be rewelded but be careful there are gas lines etc. in the area. You may also have to cut a hole in the tunnel between the seats to finish it properly. Only one of my cars had the tunnel cut open so it may not be necessary to do so. The car with the hole cut in the tunnel had one cut near the pedal cluster as well so I think the problem may have been more involved(or the person who fixed was a hacker, Ya know if it doesnt move get a bigger hammer).

You may want to pull the tranny to inspect the flywheel and clutch assembly. If you have the right tools it doesnt take too long. While you have the tranny out you should check the throwout bearing arm bushing. They can cause problems when worn out, but I dont think the problem you described can be caused by this.

If it comes to welding I recommend removing as much stuff from the area as possible because the firewall gets hot in the area of the welding. Rubber grommets and electrical wires tend to melt at welding temps. The brake lines are also near by you may want to move or protect them as good as possible.

OK, now I am rambling so there you have it.

Click on the shades icon for my email address and let me know if this was the problem.

Glad I could offer my opinion.

[This message has been edited by Conrad W Peden (edited 04-21-99).]

[This message has been edited by Conrad W Peden (edited 04-21-99).]

[macman]

The engine mount was defective (i think). When i tightened the mount with the screw on the bottom, it seemed to move easly. I tried to loosen it (to see if i had stripped it out) and when i pulled it back out, the bottom metal half lf the engine mount came our with it, so i am assumeing that it was just a bad mount. when i went to tighten the other side, it felt as though it was stripped also, i unscrewed that half and it wasn't, after inspecting the mount, i noticed that my problem could possibly be just that the threading dosen't go up far enough, so when i tighten the bolt real hard, it just goes as far as the threading will go, than stops, leaving a buffer of space for the engine to jiggle. To test this, I will probably put a bunch of washers in before i screw in the mount to see if that is my problem. thanks for the advise!