My bucket truck is a 94 gmc with 6.5 turbo 5sp manual shift. I had a mechanic instaall a new clutch kit from Laycooks. SM flywheel has been turned, new throw out bearing, new fork, new pivot bearing, new pilot bearing, new master cylinder, new slave cylinder, but it still will not go in gear. When you press the clutch in, you still cant put it in gear.

Is there a chance the clutch kit he got was meant for a dual mass flywheel, and not the single mass? Is there a chance there is a bad synchronizer? How do I tell exactly what transmission I have in the truck?

Im an electrician, I need a real mechanic to advise me on how to sort out the problem. My mechanic is bumfuzzled. I need to know how to tell if the newly installed clutch kit is a match for the sm flywheel I have ,or vise versus.

 

Can you shift between all gears whit engine shut off ? If you can, there probably is a problem with the clutch or the linkage. If you can't, and the shifter is stucked or feels out of gear position,then it's the gearbox or linkage.Did the gears work before the clutch change?

 

Most likely ive had a problem for awhile, not with shifting between the gears but when clutching, sometimes it hung a little bit or it was really stiff, i put new master and slave cylinders on it and it helped but sometimes it would still hang but usually it felt normal. The day it all went to crap it just suddenly wouldnt go in gear at all without forcing it. I limped it home and attempted to pull the trans on my own but I had to hire a wrench man with a jack to take over for me so I could get back to my confracting bussiness. There is a solid flywheel on the truck now but im sure it came with a dual and has been converted. Im wondering if he asked for the original parts for that truck from laycooks and thats my problem. He said he had the flywheel in hand so they shouldve know, i would thjnk. Someone said there is a spacer that goes on the shaft to take up that slack between the throwout bearing and clutc h diaphram but I dont know. I bought another throwout bearing to put in Front of that one to see if that would help but it still would not shift into gear with motor running. It would shift into gear if motor was off and we could bump the motor with th starter and it would fall into gear that way. I didnt try all the gears though, just ffirst and second. I pulled everything apart yesterday and another guy is coming to look and see if it all a match or not or if it needs a spacer, but he is not specialized in the matter of this truck either.

 

Can it be so simple that the clutch disc went mounted backwards? The pedal might feels ok but there's no clutch function in some cases.

 

I took all my Flywheel and the new clutch disc and pressure plate back up to Laycook's yesterday evening. I talked to the owner and the technician about the problem, the technician went back to the warehouse and picked out my old plate and brought it up to the counter and it was definately not a match. The old plate was about 1" deeper than the new one that he sat on the counter for my mechanic to pick up. He took the parts without double checking because he trusted their work and had been rebuilding clutches for over 60 years, honest mistake right. A mistake that I, in the end have had to fix and jeopardized my competency to handle the workload of my customers, and Ive had to pay for. I almost puked when I saw the 2 plates side by side, and the guys there just acted like it was no problem of theirs, and wasnt even concerned about the fact that the clutch was more than a clutch to me, its how I make my living, and support my kids, and run my business.
Let this be a lesson, and always assume that the people you do business with have their minds on other things besides their work, and you must always check behind them. The fact that theyve been doing clutches for over 60 years is more reason to double check them because they have become complacent and dont feel the need to double check themselves. Id rather do business with someone who is just now starting out on their own and they are the ones who are most likely to go the extra step to take others situations into consideration and double check.