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I brought a 96′ suzuki sidekick JX Sport 1.8L 5-speed Manual Transmission this 2012 spring.
Mileage and overall condition are ok.
the ex-owner of this car only drove it between country and town in winter and have settled it for a year before sale.The symptom:
1. When I get into Reverse Gear, it always has noise like gears scratching each other (grinding), even if I push the clutch pedal correctly and the car is NOT moving. (I know usually there is no synchronizer on Reverse Gear. So the car should be completely stopped when shifting to Reverse Gear)As getting familiar with this car, I tried shifting 3rd Gear first and then quickly shifting to Reverse Gear, I have 50% time without significant grinding noise.
2. When I push the clutch pedal all the way down (completely) and totally release brake, the car would NOT move on a flat surface. When I release clutch pedal a little bit (15% of the total range) like a semi-linkage of hill-start, the car could move.
I think that means semi-linkage point of my clutch is very low.
3. (car is NOT moving) When I push the clutch pedal completely for more than 10 seconds and stay depressing it, and shift into a forward gear, and then shift back to Neutal, I could hear sound like gears are running when in Neutal and no gear-running sound when in other gears.
I think that shifting to a forward gear could force all the gear stop running when car is not moving, because the output shaft is not running at that time. According to my trail above, it seems the gears are still running. I guess the clutch might be not disengaged completely.
4. Before I start the car, it is easy to get into any gear; after I start the car, it’s much heavier and harder to get into gear, especially 1st and 2nd gear.
Other Inspections:
1. clutch hydraulic reservoir is full.
2. Based on my driving this car, the clutch plate is probably ok. I half engage the clutch in order to start on a hill, I fell the out power is not weak.Other opinions:
a guy in suzuki-forum.com told me it seems no external leaking based on full hydraulic reservoir, but it could be internal leaking between master and slave cylinder.Note that: the 1.8 Sidekick Sport is a different vehicle to the 1.6 Sidekick. lots of different design.
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Yeah, changing the fluid will not do much… I’m waiting for the end of the month to order the Redline MT-90 since I’m low on cash! I’ll report when I put it in! 😉
So, I really think I have a clutch problem here. Probably pressure plate or disc, since I can’t hear the throw out bearing! I won’t change the gear oil anytime soon, since Redline is expensive here and I don’t want to throw money out the window.
Again, the problem is horrible shifting when cold (especcialy 1st to 2nd, 3rd to 2nd and 4th to 3rd), still a bit notchy when hot! 1st gear is hard to engage only when hot!
I did a little video on the clutch slave cilinder and I think everything is working fine. The master cilinder was changed in July (it smoothed out 2nd gear for a while, but then the hard shifting came back) and the slave (still the original) doesn’t have any leaks (i pulled the rubber cover and it was dry).
A mechanic friend of mine told me to try and change gears with the car turned off. He says that that way I can diagnose if the problem is clutch or gearbox. Since it shifted like hot knife through butter, I belive the problem really is the clutch. What do you think?
Thanks in advance! 🙂
You may have an issue with bell housing alignment. If the transmission isn’t concentric to the transmission you can have these problems. If your bell housing is removable you can check it with a dial indicator attached to your flywheel, sweeping the transmission bore. A good indication of these parts out of spec, is the pilot bearing and transmission input shaft tip being trashed. If you search “dial in a bell housing ” on you tube, you can get more detailed information. Misalignment causes hard shifts because flexing the input shaft changes the position of the main shaft. This affects the clearances of the syncros. At rest the shifts are fine,running with the input shaft moving in an arch,not so much. It also affects your clutch because the disk is on the input shaft that is being moved in an arch. I corrected a chevy truck with similar symptoms that was out .020″ from the factory.
jenaflex, can you do a video on yours, so we can compare (altough they can be both bad)?
roywrench22, can that happen in a car that never had any accident nor considerable frame flex? :dry:
Here are the two videos of shifting gears.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuIG1G1d7zc[/video]
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxqsimLMC00[/video]
Splashonda, Bell housing misalignment isn’t caused by an accident. It is caused by core shift in the block,or a badly machined bell housing for example. It’s also possible the dowel pins that hold the two parts in alignment are missing. If someone caught something in between the block and bell housing during assembly,that would also cause it. If the crank shaft isn’t in line with the transmission input shaft you have problems.
It’s common for these gearboxes (I don’t know if yours is exactly like mine, since mine is a 2.0l diesel) to grind reverse. Mine as long as I shift 1st, 2nd and then R, no problem, never grinded.
My 2nd gear when cold is reeeeeally hard to engage. And 3rd I can feel it (but nor hear) it grind and hard to engage too. 1st is a bit hard when hot. 4th I feel something holding it very very slightly. 5th only rarely has any issue.
It’s a shame this gearbox problem. I really like my car and the ‘box on these when properly maintained is really smooth and pleasing to shift… here’s a photo of mine btw! 🙂
[quote=”roywrench22″ post=38924]Splashonda, Bell housing misalignment isn’t caused by an accident. It is caused by core shift in the block,or a badly machined bell housing for example. It’s also possible the dowel pins that hold the two parts in alignment are missing. If someone caught something in between the block and bell housing during assembly,that would also cause it. If the crank shaft isn’t in line with the transmission input shaft you have problems.[/quote]
But wouldn’t that make itself noticed when the car is new or low mileage, or earlier than 15 years and 200.000km in my case? I’m sorry for all the questions, but I never heard of this problem before! 😉
You cant have grinding going into reverse unless your transmission mainshaft is spinning.
With the clutch fully depressed the mainshaft should be completely at rest, unless you are rolling. The only way you can spin the mainshaft with the clutch fully depressed is if the clutch disk doesn’t completely disengage from the flywheel and pressure plate it is sandwiched between.[quote=”roywrench22″ post=38931]You cant have grinding going into reverse unless your transmission mainshaft is spinning.
With the clutch fully depressed the mainshaft should be completely at rest, unless you are rolling. The only way you can spin the mainshaft with the clutch fully depressed is if the clutch disk doesn’t completely disengage from the flywheel and pressure plate it is sandwiched between.[/quote]I agree with you. On a flat surface, when I release a little clutch pedal at 1st gear, the car could move slowly.
It shows up as hard shifts on a new car. As the pilot bushing or bearing wears the end of the input shaft is no longer supported and the disk can flop around with the clutch depressed. I’m not insisting this is the case with this car. It’s just one possibility. It could also be rust on the input shaft spline, or some hydraulic issue with the slave cylinder or clutch master cylinder. The bottom line is the clutch is not disengaging.
If you want to learn about bell housing misalignment look at dialing in a bell housing on you tube.[quote=”roywrench22″ post=38937]It shows up as hard shifts on a new car. As the pilot bushing or bearing wears the end of the input shaft is no longer supported and the disk can flop around with the clutch depressed. I’m not insisting this is the case with this car. It’s just one possibility. It could also be rust on the input shaft spline, or some hydraulic issue with the slave cylinder or clutch master cylinder. The bottom line is the clutch is not disengaging.
If you want to learn about bell housing misalignment look at dialing in a bell housing on you tube.[/quote]My car is old, 96 sidekick JX sprot 1.8L (totally different car from 1.6L sidekick or tracker). It is the pre-2.0L and V6 Grand Vitara. My car is at 107k miles, but dusty, some rusty. The ex-owner sit the car in the garage for a year before sell.
Based on your videos I would say you have a clutch disengagement problem meaning that the clutch is not fully disengaging the transmission from the engine. Given that you just replaced the master cylinder I’m wondering if you can adjust the freeplay of the clutch so that it releases better. You have to be careful with this because if you go too far you can damage the throwout bearing. I don’t know the specs on your set up but freeplay is usually just a few mm. For a better explanation of free play I’ll post this video even thought it’s about adjusting a cable clutch and not a hydraulic clutch set up.
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