Clutch opinions

[Bradical]

I am looking for some expert opinions-

About 6 months ago I replaced all of my clutch hydraulics after my master failed- the master, slave, hard lines and blue hose. Everything.

I have no idea how old the current clutch is but it measured 23-24mm on the wear check. I haven't had any problems with it.

I took it out for its first AutoX this weekend and on my second run the clutch began slipping pretty bad. After my horribly embarrassing run not being able to make it over 30 miles an hour I pulled over to the staging lane and found that dropping the clutch wouldn't stall the car.

I was able to drive home no problem, which is about a 20 minute drive for me. At the entrance of my neighborhood I dropped the clutch again and it grabbed like a son of a *****.


I am inclined to think that I didn't have enough free-play and the clutch was slipping because of the hydraulics, not a worn disc. The way I had it I could completely disenagage the clutch in the first quarter of downward pedal movement. I started pulling the transmission when I got home anyhow. My dad was up front pulling the starter while I prepped the tranny and he pulled the slave before I had the opertunity to rotate the torque tube so I asked him to put it back. He couldn't get the slave to compress back, so I cracked the bleeder and installed it, then bled the air out with my motive and noticed how much more free play I had now as opposed to before and it really got me thinking. Again, I re-measured wear and read 23mm. That's a clutch at about half it's lifespan, right?


I have been itching to drop the exhaust and transmission for a input shaft reseal and a new o2 sensor bung so no loss there. I am still planning on removing the torque tube and inspecting the clutch and RMS.

What do you guys think?

[Bradical]

I should add that this car is my weekend fun project and it maybe has had 200 miles MAX since the hydraulics were replaced.

[Rasta Monsta]

Sounds like the disc is contaminated or the PP is damaged. Either way, an inspection is called for.

Autocrossing a Porsche is hard for me to get my head around!

[Techno Duck]

If the free play at the pedal was not adjusted correctly it could be the reason you have slipping. As the fluid in the system absorbs heat (and expand) it can cause the throwout bearing to press up on the pressure plate causing the slip. I had this exact problem on my 951 when i bought it, all components were replaced but were not adjusted correctly. The factory manual details how to adjust; you need 1-2mm of freeplay at the pedal which can be adjusted at the linkage.

[Bradical]

I have already got the transmission out, i need to replace the input shaft seal anyway... I am going to keep going and inspect the clutch, RMS and everything else. I am convinced it was a hydraulic issue after all the reading I have done, and after the wear check I did.

Thanks for replying guys, you were the exact two people I wanted to hear from!

[h20cooled7]

Techno Duck is dead on. We had one at our shop not to long ago doing the same thing. Guy brought in for clutch replacement and we test drove after didnt fix it . Set freeplay at clutch pedal and slipping went away. The freeplay being adjusted to far in is not allowing your clutch to disengage all the way!

[Bradical]

Thats what I am thinking. Again, wear check was good. This was the hardest I have ever driven it and then I sat in the staging area and didnt let her cool off before I did run 2.

The clutch pedal disengaged the clutch in the first 1/4" of throw, meaning there was basically NO freeplay.

[Bradical]

I went ahead and pulled the transaxle and the clutch housing. The clutch and pressure plate look just fine but I am going to go ahead and do the job. I don't like the way the throw-out bearing sounds.

I needed to replace the transaxle input shaft seal anyway... What a can of worms. I couldn't remove the fork lever rod so I had to remove the clutch housing with the pressure plate. I was delighted when every single pressure plate retaining bolt backed out without putting up a fight. When I got to the very last bolt I woke it up, put pressure on my breaker bar and the head sheared out like it was made of putty... Can't say I wasn't expecting to have to pull out the bolt extractors, but REALLY? The LAST ONE?!

Also found out that my +55mph whine is the torque tube bearings. I am glad i decided to pull her apart.

[Techno Duck]

In case you didnt, in the future loosen the pressure plate bolts in sequence and dont fully untorque them until they are all loose. The pressure plate fingers are pushing up on the flywheel and if you fully unthread the other bolts, the last one will be nearly impossible to get out without stripping.

[Bradical]

That explains it.