I've read that it is absolutely important to make absolutely sure that the clutch system is properly bled - no air - no air at all allowed.

Are you absolutely sure that that is the case?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Sounds to me like he's got the opposite problem- too much throw or stackup keeping pressure on the pressure plate somehow. But I don't know what to say other than tear it apart. It might even be hard to figure out once it's in bits....

I would be wondering if I had used the right parts for the car...

For one thing, there are different lengths of master cyl pushrods, different slave cyls, different release bearings.

__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

I was going to do a little research before posting about this but before you pull the tranny it might be worth investigating. I installed a clutch in my Euro TD and when I was done and tried it out the clutch would engage when the pedal was barley off the floor. I adjusted the eccentric and it helped a little. Turns out my clutch master push rod was too short. Could it be you are having the opposite problem? Both clutch master cylinders in the pics are exactly the same except for the length of the push rod. The difference in length is 6mms.
I have installed several clutches and never new there was any difference in masters. I don't believe the early and late slaves can not be interchanged.

Actually there is a difference, The long push rods have a BLACK plastic top and the short ones have a white top...hummmm

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________


1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

I suspect the pressure plate may have a broken finger causing the clutch to be partially released.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I keep thinking about this possibility, as I stumbled across another post similar to mine which resulted in a bad pressure plate. However, I have less than 5k miles on mine, and can't bring myself to terms with this as a possibility...

Oh, with 5K it certainly should not be a broken finger.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Good to know you feel my sentiment...I'm trying to avoid dropping that trans, as this time I'll likely have to do it myself.

However, if I decide to drop it (keeping in mind its been about 10+ years since I serviced a clutch), do you folks have any suggestions for a good trans jack?

Just thinking of it makes my shoulders ache!

After rereading your first post I'm not sure which T/O bearing your car uses. Its determined by your chassis number, so I would check and be sure the proper one was installed. If the high shoulder one was required and the other one was installed that would fit your problem. It would be much better to figure things out before dropping the tranny.

__________________


1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Sorry for the late response...I barely got home and was out in the rain trying to get a good look at that darn pushrod.

Bad news...the pushrod I have is white...I was hoping it's black which would make sense, but no, its white.

Of course, these type of things only happen to me, so I'm not really surprised. I'm not really sure what to do at this point...I don't want to start throwing parts at it, but it looks like I may be forced to do that in lieu of dropping the trans.

And as rs899 said earlier, I might not get much from opening the trans up either. I'm stumped...