Tranny shim questions

Brickrocket

Registered User
I recently bougth a 94 5-speed from a member on this board. It was hard to get in gear and the clutch will stay lightly engaged with the clutch all the way in. Owner said it would probably need to be shimmed and possbly need a new slave and or master cylinder. He installed the new master cylinder before I picked the car up. It didn't help. he also supplied a new slave cylinder. The car has a fresly rebuilt tranny with new clutch. It also has a new clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder, and throw-out bearing. I pulled the tranny tonight and installed one shim from an LS1 cars tranny. (they have the exact same master cylinder) The shim was approximately .050 in thickness and went behind the slave cylinder. After all was done, it didn't help much. The clutch engages a little closer to the floor but it is still very hard to get in gear at a stop and will still stay engaged with the car in gear and clutch all the way in.

My question is, how many shims did you have to use on yours. I know the flywheel was surfaced but couldn't have been that much, right? I have another shim for the slave cylinder but not sure if it is enough seeing as how one didn't do a whole lot.

Any advice from previous experience is appreciated!

Jason
 
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more shim

I had to shim my slave to get full disengagement on my 94. My shim was .100 in. and worked perfectly. It releases a few inches from the bottom now. Of course I had to find out the hard way I needed to shim it.

I have my 94 ford manual with all the specs for thickness, etc. If you want to go to town scientifically with the micrometer and dial indicator I can get the numbers for you. At least all those bolts have been broken loose.

Bob
 
That gives me a good Idea of where it needs to be. One more shim should do the trick I think. Like I said, the pedal did get a little closer to the floor when I did one .050 shim, but didn't fix the other problem. Was yours hard to get in gear before you shimmed it? Just trying to pinpoint that is in fact the problem. Thanks for the info!

Jason
 
what kind of clutch do you have?
If your running a .100" shim I would say your flywheel is getting near the end of it's life. you might want to try bleading the clutch first.
 
before

It was very tough to get into gear before I shimmed it, could barely drive it. This all happened after I put in a new clutch and flywheel.

Your pedal shouldn't be getting any closer to the floor, after a shim, but the clutch should disengage higher in the range of motion as the shim gets thicker.

Bob
 
I had to do this with a brand new Mcloed flywheel but that was several years ago. I used a .125" shim I think. Also make sure that your clutch disc slides smoothly on the input shaft. I've seen some that bind which also causes a problem.

The slave is self bleeding. There is typically no need to bleed it.
 
Not sure about the net. I got my flywheel shim from NAPA a few years ago. Same application as a 5.0 Mustang. I think it was around $5.
 
XR7 Dave said:
I had to do this with a brand new Mcloed flywheel but that was several years ago. I used a .125" shim I think. Also make sure that your clutch disc slides smoothly on the input shaft. I've seen some that bind which also causes a problem.

The slave is self bleeding. There is typically no need to bleed it.

XRZ Dave: If the slave is self-bleeding, then why does it have a bleed valve on it with instructions on how to bleed it? Seriously, I'm not trying to be a smarta$$. Did they change the slave on the 94-95 to a different style? Also, did you use a flywheel shim or slave shim? I am going to stay away from shimming the flywheel if at all possible. Doesn't sound to me that is the best way to go if you can shim the slave and accomplish the same thing.

90 coug: The ones I have came from SPEC with a LS1 F-body clutch kit, which uses the same slave cylinder. I am sure you can order them from SPEC.

MartianBob: I didn't mean the clutch pedal was actually closer to the floor. I meant it seemed to be engaging closer to the floor. Before the shim, it was engaging higher from the floor.

Thanks for all the great info. I'm going to install the other shim I have to see if it will help. I think that is the right direction since the shim I have now is only around .050. Hell, a friend of mine had to shim a LS1 Camaro slave cylinder out around .200. He said it worked perfect afterwards though. That car also had a new clutch, flywheel, slave, ect. We shall see.

Jason
 
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