Just another reason Not to buy a car built by someone else

[deja]

Ever since I got this 280Z8, little over a year ago I have had on going issues with the transmission/clutch. About 6 months ago I thought I had it all fixed by replacing the master and slave cylinders and the braided line. The old fluid looked like it had been cooked by the headers and I figured that somehow took the seals out. Things were much better but it was still hard to shift on occasion. I sort of wrote that off as an old abused Monza 5 speed. Friday on the way home from work it was very difficult to shift up or down. Sunday I got under the dash and messed with the pedal height adjustment and got under the car to take a little "slop" out of the linkage, things seems very much better. I rode around for a few hours complementing myself on a job well done. But I spoke too soon. Today at lunch I decided to take a joy ride. I got about 2 miles when suddenly the clutch pedal was gone! WTF! I pulled over to discover a bolt on the floor mat and the master cylinder linkage hanging loose, this can not be good. With no tools and very limited space I was totally unable to fix it. Of course without the missing nut I couldn't have fixed it anyway. I started it up in 1st and limped to the nearest place with tools, Kauffman Tire. After about an hour of trying to get a bolt back into the clevis we gave up and took it and its threaded rod out. WTF, this thing was bent about 30 degrees, what could cause that is beyond me, its a big hunk of steel. We put it in a vice and beat straight again (temp fix just to get me home). Eventually we got it all back together and it is smoother than it has ever been. When I changed out the hydraulics I did not replace this part, obviously a mistake. Tonight I looked at the Datsun shop manual and this thing looks nothing like the stock parts, not even close. Once again this guy used questionable methods to hook something up and I was stupid enough not to assume that and replace everything. I will be swapping out my drive train for a LT1 and 4L60E soon so I doubt I will do much to make this right other than replacing the re-straightened clevis with the new one that came with the WilWood.

[MONGO510]

If you have that heim joint bolted to the side of your pedal, then you introduced a side load on the M/C piston. It needs to be a straight-on push with no angularity. The stock clevis should work just fine.

[JMortensen]

This was probably an attempted fix for a badly wallowed out hole for the clevis pin. You could either go back to the stock clevis, or shorten the push rod and make the clevis part of the clutch pedal and the rod end part of the push rod. Then the rod end can be used in line with the clutch pedal. I like the idea of the rod end because the stock clevis pin and the pedal both tend to wear out, it was just poor implementation by the PO. Sounds like an easy fix though, and then it will be better than new.