I bought my manual 84 about a month ago and trailered it home. The guy I bought it from told me I just needed to bleed the clutch. Admittedly I have never worked on cars before, but that seemed simple enough so I thought I'd be on the road within a few days. I decided if I was gonna bleed the clutch anyway I might as well install a replacement slave cylinder from Rodney Dickman, so I did and have bled the clutch a couple times now. Jacked up the driver side of the car while doing so as I read this will help get all the air out. I also noticed that the clutch was replaced in 2013 by a previous owner so I would hope there are no issues with the clutch itself.

The shifter moves around fine when the car is off, but when the engine is running, it will not go up into the 1st gear position, and makes an awful grinding noise when I try to put it in reverse (I have a video of this if it's helpful at all).

After doing some searching around on here, I also took note of my clutch pedal being non-magnetic and sitting slightly below the brake pedal, not above it. So maybe the pedal is bent and I need to replace it? Or perhaps it's an issue with the cables?

Any help or advice is appreciated!

This is an issue discussed about one million times here over the last 22 years. Seriously (almost). The archives are overflowing with info on This topic.

If you aren't getting about 1-1/8" travel at the slave, then the clutch isn't disengaging enough. Sounds like something is bent alright, as yes, the clutch pedal should be sitting above the brake pedal. Besides the pedal itself, make sure the banjo isn't bent, and that the loop is in the "up" position.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 04-05-2021).]

quote Originally posted by Fienix: I decided if I was gonna bleed the clutch anyway I might as well install a replacement slave cylinder from Rodney Dickman, so I did and have bled the clutch a couple times now. Jacked up the driver side of the car while doing so as I read this will help get all the air out. I also noticed that the clutch was replaced in 2013 by a previous owner so I would hope there are no issues with the clutch itself.

All good so far.

As Patrick said check clutch pedal and banjo. See here:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/...060206-2-062105.html

If there's a problem with the Master Cylinder a new one from Rodney with the adjustable banjo will be the fix.



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[This message has been edited by fierosound (edited 04-05-2021).]

Oh and don't forget some of the clutch arms are prone to bending too.