240D changed clutch slave, now gears barely engage.

[sun tortise]

Ordered a clutch slave cylinder from Pelican for my 81 240D by vin #, pre filled it with fluid. It was a ***** to install, hard to hold it close into the mounting hole enough for the bolts to engage, but with the help of some longer bolts to draw it in which i then replaced with the right ones, got it.

Now the clutch pedal works too well. Seems a tad harder to push maybe. When it is all the way out, the gears are not quite to barely engaged, not driveable. It's as if the clutch pedal is partly pushed , but it isn't. Used to engage very well, about 1/2 - 3/4 up from the floor.

The rod length appeared identical.

What did i do wrong? Could there be too much brake fluid in the cylinder? When i was struggling to get the cylinder on, the rod might have been at an angle, hard to tell. that should make it shorter if anything, no?

The car has 95,000 miles on it, and the clutch worked perfectly as long as i kept brake fluid in the cylinder(had a leak).

Baffled and frustrated, spent many hours on this. have to take my mom to the dentist monday.