Well today I finally got the Maxima to fire after going through the "how to start your maxima thread"! And now I am having a clutch issue, vehicle was in neutral and went to let out the clutch and I felt it start grinding a banging a bit at the friction point.
I dropped in this replacement motor about 2 wks ago or so, with 42,000 miles on it. And yes this was the first time dealing with a clutch on my own. Disc was aligned with the alignment tool and pressure plate was torqued correctly and in sequence, but Im wondering if this has anything to do with the clutch release cylinder on top of the trans. I noticed that when i moved it with my hand I heard a clunk, went back in the car and noticed that i didnt have any pressure to the pedal. Or maybe its something different, I really dont know. I did notice that there is a vacuum line coming off the top of the trans. can anyone tell me what that hooks up to? Its been about 4 -5 months since I ripped the motor out and cant really remember and I dont see anywhere for it to hook up to.
Thanks in advance for the help!

 

I'm hearing noise from the clutch as well in my max. I'm going to see if record it and post it, once I'm allowed to post. :P

I'll take a look in the manuals I have to see what you're asking about in terms of the vacuum line.

 

Anyone have any suggestions? I guess I should of titled this thread as "Another Clutch issue".

 

when u hooked ur shift linkage back up did u make sure both shifter was in neutral and trasmission it self was in neutral

 

Hmm! that may be it, I didnt make sure of that. How would i make sure the trans is in neutral along with the shifter?

 

disconnect the linkage and put the shifter in neutral then ur going to have to play with the trans mission side of the linkage and spin the wheel to see if its in neutral use jack stands please i dont want to give advise and then u get hurt ill feel bad lol

 

Thanks, I will give it a shot in the morning! Its still sitting on the jackstands. getting ready to replace both CV axles! But thanks for the concern anyway!!!LOL

 

ha! we take care of our members

 

This is true! much appreciated!!

 

Well I really havent had a chance to mess with the trans much as I was in the process of getting the motor running and and replacing the drivers side cv axle.
But I did notice that when I finally got the vehicle off the jackstands and was pushing it around in the garage a bit, I put it in gear to see if it would go into gear and it didnt. So there definitely is an issue, will keep updating. Any more suggestions please throw them out! Later...

 

did u ever check to see if u had linkages lined up

 

No i havent....I have been dragging *** a bit, spending countless hours on other parts of the Max, but it will be the next issue that I address.
....Im just glad it fired and only seemed to have a little idle issue!

 

the rubber hose coming off the trans is just a breather hose, you won't notice if it's hooked up or not, don't worry about that.

So the problem is, you press the clutch and it doesnt come back/theres no pressure? Did you bleed the clutch lines? Is the release lever/spring/boot properly installed? As for the chattering, did you lightly sand off the flywheel surface?

 

Yea I did finally see that was just a breather hose, I do have pedal pressure, the only thing that was taken off of the trans was the shift support rod. I did clean up the flywheel and removed all the heat marks with a 3m scuff pad. One thing that I forgot to mention was that the bracket on the passenger side cv axle is broken so the axle is probably not sitting properly in the trans and of course there is no fluid in the trans axle. Im not sure what the deal is, I cant let the clutch out passed the friction point, it just sounds like something banging.
Also I moved the clutch release cylinder on the top of the trans, went back in the drivers seat and seen that i didnt have pedal pressure, moved it back to the position it was in before and the pedal pressure returned! tks for the response

I think It would be better for me to asses what needs to be done once I get the new cv axle and bracket installed and fill the trans axle with proper amount of fluid.
After reading what I just wrote above....Im waiting for someone to say "Hey dum ***!! put some fluid in the trans axle!!!!

 

What kinda clutch did u buy? OEM or preformance. I have hrd org members speak of some performance clutches crappin out right out the box

 

This is the clutch out of the old motor, everything was good to go on it and the trans performed fine before the motor swap. Im sure its just something minor (I hope), I really dont want to drop the trans again. but I guess I will if i have to.

 

Your clutch will move in and out and your tranny will shift without trans. fluid, or axles. The clutch interacts with the input shaft, not the differential. However, if the axle isnt in right, or the CV joint circlip popped out, you'll get a bad grinding sound, but you should still be able to go into gear. Assuming youre clutch is intalled properly, something is up either with the clutch's hydraulic system, or the clutch release assembly (which consists of the boot, the lever, the retainer spring and the release throwout bearing). Remove the rubber boot, and check to make sure the two sides of the retainer spring are in the side slots of the lever, and that the spring itself is over the fat part of 'nipple/axis' on the trans case. There shouldnt be too much side-to-side play in the lever. If its not that, then your throwout bearing might be on wrong (it matters which way the grooves go on the two side 'clips' where it connects to the lever, if its on wrong it might not move enough to get past the friction point.

 

Well now that I think of it, the passenger side axle did pop out beyond the clip and now its just sitting in there improperly. Saturday I will be taking it out and replacing with a new CV axle and a new axle to motor bracket. tks.

 

I've done the same thing, it's not a happy sound.

 

Yea...I was nervous enough being this was the first start with the newer motor, and for some reason (luckily enough) I was very timid and letting out the clutch very slow, and I could hear and feel that light clunking. Glad I didnt just let the clutch out all the way and do some major damage!!

 

Good news...it was the CV axle. Got everything installed yesterday, fired right up and no noise!! I should be on the road in a matter of days!!!

 

Well whenever there is good news...usually bad news follows it right up!! Well got everything together and started pouring in the trans axle fluid and what do ya know....the passenger side differential seal is leaking!!! Took a couple of hours to find a replacement seal, got home took the old one out and tried installing the new one and ended up tapping it in too far! Soooo luckily they are only about ten bucks, because i will be ripping this one back out
( damaged im sure!!) and have to purchase another one! The passenger side diff seal is a *****!!!!

 

yes it is but thats why we love these cars

 

Put in the 2nd differential seal today, filled up the trans axle and no leaks!!! Vehicle is running pretty rough, and wont stay running, so Im guessing that i need to clean the intake, IACV and such. Im also thinking that the cat. conv. may be plugged up a bit, first time i started it up of course it was blowing all the coolant and crap out and it seemed to run pretty smooth, but today it was a different story, at first it seemed ok, but after a few different starts it started running rough...so I will be doing some cleaning tomorrow!!