I have an 86' 944 that I just rebuilt the engine on. I didn't touch the clutch, other than study the wear on the plate, because the previous owner had just had a Porsche dealer replace the whole clutch assy within the last 10,000 or so miles.
Upon my engine install, everything was perfect. But within the first 3,000 miles, while driving and pressing the clutch, it slammed to the floor and got stuck
... much like I have learned from many of the wonderful threads on this site. But, I believe my issue is much more than a master and slave rebuild and bleed job.
When I take off my slave cylinder, I can grab the release lever and activate it back and forth with out any issue... in fact it seems to have too much stroke
.
I can't get my head into this location to really see clearly what is happening, so I have taken a couple of photos to assist me with the view. Here they are:
This first one is a little further back for a better overview:
This next one is closer in to see the throwout bearing and clutch plate in more detail:
From what I am seeing through the inspection hole is that it seems that the throwout bearing has come loose from the pressure plate. In fact, when I imagine the motion of the slave rod pushing on the release fork, it appears that this system is designed to have the throwout bearing "PULL" on the pressure plate to release the clutch.
My experience from other cars is that the throwout bearing is always pushing on the pressure plate to release it. But this car seems to have a method of "attaching" the t/o bearing to the pressure plate and it "PULLS" it out to release the clutch... IS THIS CORRECT???
The following illustration is what I "IMAGINE" is happening. Could someone confirm if this is right or wrong? If this is my problem, then it looks like this car will be dead until someone can do the 20 - 30 hour grueling task of a clutch removal.
Here is the crude sketch of what I think is happening:
Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I want to make sure I really need to do a complete tear down before I attempt it.
Thanks - Brett