Car wont go in gear when hot
 

So this is a thread about what I experienced and how I fixed it. I did a lot of searching and didnt find too much on it.

My friend bought a 95 NA8, and we have been prepping that car for turbo time. To get to the point...

We put a clutch, flywheel and slave cylinder in about 2 weeks ago. We drove it for about 10 min all was good than parked it. A week ago he drove it for the first time since than to his house an hour away with some city driving at the end of the trip and after a while when he would try to shift it would fight him to go in to gear it just wouldn't want to go in gear, any gear. He called me up and I told him to come out this (yesterday) weekend. I drove it and the clutch engagement was odd to say the least after it sat for a few hours.

First thing I checked was if there was still fluid in it- Yes
Next was to make sure the slave cylinder was moving - Yes
We replaced master cylinder even though it showed no signs of leakage.
We replaced the clutch line craziness loopty loop (not neccesary but we were already there).
Next was to check to see if the clutch rod was adjusted right- It wasnt since I wasnt able to push the slave cylinder in. We loosened it up a quarter turn at a time till I could push the slave cylinder in easily.
Flushed fluid got all the air out of the line. Make sure you buy a new container of fluid as hydraulic fluid absorbs moisture and makes it worthless. Drove it and tada it works!

Notes: the slave cylinder should move more than 0.5", at first it only moved about <0.25" until we adjusted it and completed all steps.

Hope this helps anyone.

Yup - this procedure is actually outlined in FM's clutch installation guide, you basically need to take almost all of the freeplay out of the clutch engagement.

Yea wish I would have know that prior but it only took 45 min to diag and repair. He bought a new 2nd hand exedy clutch and flywheel so I was worried at first when I got the call that it might be a warped pressure plate or many other possibilities.

I should look into this. The engagement for my clutch has always been a bit weird.