Thy symptoms for a failing clutch and failing slave are completely different in my experience. Short oedal engagement and difficulty shifting indicates that the clutch is not properly disengaging from the flywheel. It's an issue with the actuation of the clutch, which in Miatas is typically caused by the clutch slave.

Try pumping the clutch pedal a few times. I bet it feels different after a couple pumps.

Typically they don't leak externally but internally so you can't tell it has failed from a visual inspection.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Pumping the clutch after just starting it didn't seem to help, but driving it for a while made it better. When I first started it, I couldn't even have it stopped in first without it wanting to stall. Coming off the brakes, she would move on her own. I didn't note a change in performance after shifting either. She would shift smoothly and be responsive.

The car also only has 110k on it if that says anything.

Symptoms are still consistent with my diagnosis.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope you are right. I'll keep you up to date.

Slave pushrod stroke is about 15mm when the hydraulics are working correctly.
Got 15mm, its the clutch.
No gots 15mm, its the hydraulics.

What exactly do you mean? I'm assuming you mean the travel before the clutch engages. It's hard to tell but it's definitely like an inch if not less.

And I had to press down on it quite hard to get it into gear at first. As in, to the floor and then push a bit harder.

Is it possible that the slave cylinder has enough pressure to push the clutch pedal back to its normal position, but not enough to move the clutch itself? A symptom of a bad slave is the pedal sticking to the floor. Mine doesn't do that, and I can't say for certain if the clutch feels "spongy" compared to how it was. I'm used to the heavy clutch in the e30 so it always felt soft.

I also forgot to mention that when I first bought the miata I did a test of the clutch. I drove it at highway speed in fifth gear, pushed the clutch in and revved it to about 6k then dumped the clutch. The tach immediately dropped, no stuttering or hesitation.

I'm overthinking this whole thing. I'll know the problem by tomorrow I suppose hah.

I'm feeling a bit of this right now

:eggplant:

Definitely overthinking it.

Clutch slave is a $40 parts and an hour job. My gf did it in 45 minutes and she had never seen a clutch slave before.

I'm afraid I don't get the eggplant reference haha. I'd fix the slave myself but my tools are packed away since I'm in between moves right now.

Thanks for your help guys. Really do appreciate it.

It takes a 12mm socket and a 10mm flare wrench

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1447169043

It's the slave! Car seems to be fine now. Thanks for everyone's input!

Time to go back to more important things. Like go-fast parts.

On a more serious note, I have a couple of leaking issues I have to address. When it storms bad there's a leak somewhere between the hardtop and window that causes the driver seat to become damp. Also realized that moisture gets into the trunk as well. I know one of the symptoms of a clogged drain tube is a wet trunk, but if I have a hard top I don't have anymore exposed drains do I?

I got a little package in the mail today, my delrin door bushings from Garage Star!
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1448320223

They definitely stiffen the ride a bit. The only gripe I have is that the hardware they gave me was utter shit. One of the bolts sheared off in the driver side top mount and I ended up making the mounting bracket the bolt goes into break off. If you use these, use your stock hardware. Hopefully running one bolt won't cause too many problems. If it does I'll have to find a bolt that will thread into the frame itself.

Also found out that I seem to have an oil leak somewhere. Another problem I have to address.

It's hard to tell where exactly the leak is at the moment. There's some sort of plastic guard under the engine that the oil is dripping onto, then it drips on the group. Oil looks fresh, but then again the oil that is on the dipstick is pretty clean as well.

Here's to hoping it's something simple again. As it seems to be at the rear of the engine, how many things can I rule out already?

Bet you a dollar its coming from the CAS.

Hoping so. Not sure if the CAS was reused or if the PO got the 1.8 sensor from the donor. Can I just hand check the sensor to see if it's leaking from the top?

Oh, its a 1.8, I take my dollar back. It would be leaking from the bottom though.