New clutch won't engage

[jake4bowhunting]

It all started when my 98 cavalier 2.2l started to shift hard, and sometimes grinding gears. So I went ahead and replaced the slave cylinder and the clutch. But the first time I pushed the clutch in I heard a snap. Unfortunately the sound I heard was my master breaking from the two bolts holding it. After replacing my master cylinder I went ahead and blead the system... Now my gears are not engaging and i dont have alot of pressure on the clutch. When I put into a gear it sounds like the gear is right there almost catching. Could it be I blead the system wrong or might it be that my internal slave unit didn't disregard the two plastic pieces holding it compressed. Any input would be great.

[KCMike]

My first concern is why the master cylinder snapped off. My thoughts would be that the master cylinder could build pressure at that time but the resistance downstream like a bound up pressure plate or line pinched off. At this point you probably do have air in the system but I worry about a repeat of the master cylinder breaking if you get it bled properly. If you do bleed it and start to get resistance, don't push a great deal harder than you pushed for normal operation before. There is a problem if you have to push extremly hard. I need to look in service information to refresh my memory on the type of slave cylinder used on this application. I will try to check back in on your progress later and offer any tips I can. Good luck and take it easy with the foot when testing.

[jake4bowhunting]

Thanks for your replie, but i forgot to add why the master broke in the first place. The connection between the master and slave was not connected all the way so the pressure i put into the master had nowhere else to go, and i have never worked on an internal slave unit before so this is very new to me. The resistance in the peddle now is just like before i had problems. Perfect in every way; except it won't go into gear. Thanks

Originally Posted by KCMike

My first concern is why the master cylinder snapped off. My thoughts would be that the master cylinder could build pressure at that time but the resistance downstream like a bound up pressure plate or line pinched off. At this point you probably do have air in the system but I worry about a repeat of the master cylinder breaking if you get it bled properly. If you do bleed it and start to get resistance, don't push a great deal harder than you pushed for normal operation before. There is a problem if you have to push extremly hard. I need to look in service information to refresh my memory on the type of slave cylinder used on this application. I will try to check back in on your progress later and offer any tips I can. Good luck and take it easy with the foot when testing.