Gear Grinding in my BJ8

[shorn]

Lately I would experience some grinding when attempting to shift into first or reverse gears in my BJ8. Yes, the car was completely stopped. At first I thought there might be some air trapped in the clutch hydraulic line, master or slave cylinder. After a couple of attempts at bleeding the system, the occasional grinding remained. Although it did not appear to be losing any fluid, I looked under the dash to inspect the master cylinder push rod. It was then that I noticed that there was a little sloppiness in the clutch pedal. I removed the clevis pin and noted that it was significantly worn. Installing a new clevis pin seems to have eliminated the grinding. I guess the sloppiness kept the clutch from totally disengaging the engine. I wish I had changed the clevis pin before the bleeding the slave cylinder. That was a bear to get at.

 

[John Loftus]

Skip,

You can restore the push rod through holes by welding on some appropriately sized washers on each side and then do a bit of grinding to get close to original looking. Or you can just weld up the sloppyness and rebore (helps to have a mill and big vise to bore the new hole cleanly). Sure makes the clutch feel like new again to get rid of the slop.

Cheers,
John

 

[BUNDYRUM]

Hello shorn, John is right when he says it makes the clutch feel like new again fixing the worn holes. What i did on my BN7 was to drill out the holes in the clevis and the pedal and press in some spacers then ream them in place back to original size. The other thing i do is when going into 1st gear make sure you go into 2nd gear before, as this will stop the gears rotating in the gearbox, making it easier to select 1st. Also the same goes for going into Reverse, select 3rd or 4th then go into reverse. Regards, BUNDYRUM.