I just recently did an engine swap into my hardbody, in which i replacedmy clutch with an oem. And everything is ready to drive, but wheni went to drive it yesterday i cannot get the truck in gear when its idling or running at all.

When I swapped everything out, i didnt screw with the hydrolics at all, so i dont know why it would have gotten air into it. All i did was remove the bolts that held the slave cylinder to the tranny. Anyways, i bled the slave cylinder and the dampener box in the engine bay for the clutch line... a few times. I notice that the pedal isnt hard to press down... it is a brand new oem clutch from nissan so it should feel similar to my old one, but its much softer than my original stock one.

When im under the truck watching the slave cylinder while my friend pumps the clutch pedal, i can see the clutch fork move a decent amount, and no very noticable leaks.

Im thinking maybe i need a new slave cylinder, or maybe i still have air in the system somehow. Or possibly that i may need to adjust the little screw and rod(under the dash) on the master cylinder itself.

The tranny doesnt have a problem shifting through gears when the trucks off, but will not when running. I know that i installed the clutch and fork/bearing correctly because i have down alot of clutchs before. I triple checked everything before it went on. So it has to be hydrolics.

Any help, suggestions or input is greatly appreciated. Thanks

I just had a similar problem with my clutch... turned out, one of the springs on the friction disk was busted out, as well as the pilot bushing in the motor was trashed. I had a new clutch kit installed, as well as resurfacing the flywheel, and that made the problem go away.

When you swapped the motor, did you use an alignment tool to get the trans to line up? You might have trashed that pilot bushing during the instal... or it was trashed pulling it from the donor truck.

I replaced everything with oem nissan parts, and used a clutch alignment tool... when the tranny went up to the motor everything slid together nicely. The flywheel has been resurfaced also.
I dont believe it to be mechanical, i just dont understand why its moving the clutch fork and it doesnt feel hard at all. I didnt have alot of time to look at it last night because i had to go somewhere, but from what i gathered it has to be air in the hydrolic lines or a bad slave or master cylinder.

Even if it was the pilot bushing (that i just installed), the pilot bushing wouldnt have a whole lot to do with allowing the clutch to engage/disengage. But like i said, if i had a problem putting the tranny up to the motor i would question the pilot bushing getting thrashed, but since everything slid together so nicely, i highly doubt it.

quote:

When im under the truck watching the slave cylinder while my friend pumps the clutch pedal, i can see the clutch fork move a decent amount, and no very noticable leaks.

Im thinking maybe i need a new slave cylinder, or maybe i still have air in the system somehow. Or possibly that i may need to adjust the little screw and rod(under the dash) on the master cylinder itself.

DO NOT adjust the screw and rod under the dash. You can easily mess up your master cyl by doing so. One the peddle is set from the factory you should never have to mess with it. If you adjust it make sure the rod doesn't go to fare into the master cyl.

Usually people adjust the clutch peddle, then the rod pushed to fare into the master cyl blowing all the seals. If you do need to re-set the peddle follow the cart in the FSM. Take all the measurements then adjust the peddle. DO not do it by feel/sight.

Check the book and make sure the clutch fork has all proper movement. If the clutch fork is moving in accordance with limitations then it's mechanical. Something is not right.

to resolve this problem and the thread...

This week i continued to bleed the clutch lines with a vaccum bleeder manytimes. Still the same movement in the clutch fork, and still a Not-so-great feeling when i push the clutch pedal in. The clutch fork actually moves a decent amount, so I tryed to source out a different problem.

I was thinking maybe the tranny was froze up or wasnt quite meshing up to allow me to put it into gear. So I put a jack under the rear diff, and me and my buddy turned the wheels while the truck was Off but in gear.

Now its letting me put it into gear, its a little difficult but at least it let me get into gear when the truck was running.

I then proceeded to take the truck for the test drive around and it shifts all the gears no problem. And now it throws into gear without any problems at all.

So that is my situation. I still dont understand how I installed the same clutch that used to be in my old vg30e only brand new from nissan, and it feels much much softer than the old clutch that had 216,000 miles on it. It doesnt have a problem grabbing, but it takes no pedal force to push it in.