Interesting topic title but fairly true. I put new head gaskets along with a new clutch and dropped the engine back in. Everything went together quite well until I put the slave cylinder back on. Is was not making contact w with the fork. I then made a mistake and hit the clutch pedal one time. Slave cylinder popped out and now is pretty much shot. The problem comes back to what appears to be a mis adjustment on the fork but no adjustments were made. Just a new clutch set installed. I did pull the motor back out and pull the clutch and compared to the old one. Throw out bearing, Clutch and pressure plate all look correct. It has to be something simple I am missing. Does anyone have any ideas?

I would look closely at the throw out fork ,  they have been known to crack. 

I did not see any cracks but it had started to get dark by the time I got the engine pulled back out. I will look in a little bit when I get back out there. Anything is a possibility.

Just checked and no cracks in the throw out fork. Time to look into some other things.

How much movement do you get out of the fork?

The slave cyl should be able to be put back together as it's just a seal cup.

You will then have to bleed it.

If you clipped the throw out bearing to the fork, there's really no where for it to go.

Sorry, no specific suggestions on the clutch issue.  But you only said that the salve cylinder push rod was "not making with the fork". Do you mean it was not aligned properly?  Also, how would the slave cylinder be damaged by this mishap.  I would think you could reassemble it and bleed the system.

 

To be honest, what I am more curious about is your head gasket issue.  How many miles on the engine and what were your symptoms, if you don't mind?

 

Mike V.

everything was aligned with the slave cylinder rod and fork. There was a gap between them. I may be able to pop the slave back together but with 253,000 miles on it I may just replace. The head gaskets are  the typical 97 2.5 issues except they had been replaced once before. The head bolts were not torqued properly as they came out way too easily. Symptoms were loss of coolant on drives of over 1/2 hour. Bubbling through the coolant recovery tank after driving was the dead giveaway. My daughters 97 did the same thing only she did run hers hot. Still running but still a possible issue in the future.

OK, now I see your info that shows the car to have 202,000 miles,  The reason I asked is because my '97 with 285,00 miles may be developing head gasket issues which is not common on this particular engine type.

Ah, ok.  You went for the 2500.  Gotcha.

Is there any resistance on the top of the clutch fork when you try to push it by hand?

Or does it feel loose?

Just got home from Christmas tree shopping and I took a quick look at the fork and throw out bearing. Checked the slave cylinder mount and my best guess is that the fork came off the ball stud mount. I will try putting it back together again tomorrow.

Is there any resistance on the top of the clutch fork when you try to push it by hand?

Or does it feel loose?

It was loose yesterday. I will find out more tomorrow when I attempt to put the engine back in again. Everything else looks good.

Engine is back in the compartment. Clutch works but slave cylinder is leaking. Tomorrow will be the day of truth. Bolting everything back up and testing. It appears the fork came off of its pivot the first time around.

Everything is back together and working, well sort off. Running on 2 cylinders with a P1507 code. Clutch works,  engine started and idle was stable as it could be with 2 cylinders, test drive was good except for lack of power. P1507 is for the IAC but I think the problem might be with the Neutral safety switch. A little digging when I have light will be in order.

P1507 was from a vacuum leak from a broken port on the vacuum switch on top of the engine. Newer battery and a set of new tires and it runs like a scalded dog.

Drove it to and from work all week. 80 miles round trip. Still running great. 25 mpg running down the road. New slave cylinder is here so since the old one is weeping I will go ahead and change it.

Neat feeling engine all apart then all those parts are moving and running!

 

Hydraulic clutches can be annoying to bleed.

Luckily this was the second 2.5 I have done. The first one is still running down the road. I had to bleed the clutch after the slave over extended and yes a bit of a pain but no worse than one of those silly ford ranger slaves that sit around the input shaft of the trans......

Well the old Roo is still running like a scalded dog. Running the 80 mile round trip to work everyday with no issues. From the sound of my daughters 97 I may be doing an engine swap. I can't get it through her head to check the oil every gas fill up. She lets it get three quarts low on a regular basis. I already told her I would be billing her for the spare engine.

Good work man! If your daughter breaks her car, make her do most of the engine swap!