Looking for some help in the Bay Area

[frazman]

Hi all,
I moved down to San Francisco from Seattle in my '91 E30 318is and had some drivetrain trouble around Bodega Bay. Good news is that I had just signed up for 100mi free towing with AAA but the bad news is that something between the engine and the rear wheels is in need of some attention. I haven't been able to get under the car yet so it's all guesswork at this point.  At least most of the drive was turny and fun:-)

I'm new to the Bay Area and don't have any garage space at the moment. I was hoping to connect with the local owners to see if anyone has some space I can use to check the car out and fix whatever needs fixing, which may potentially include--but hopefully not--pulling the engine to get at the transmission and clutch. Any help would be awesome!

Thanks a lot
Ben

[DesktopDave]

What's the car doing...or not doing?  The most common troubles there are the clutch; or hopefully the center support bearing or the guibo.

My bet is on the "guibo."  It's just a rubber flex disc, doesn't last forever.  It connects the tranny output to the driveshaft.  I'll bet you could replace that in a parking lot in about two hours.

[frazman]

I don't have a whole lot on the symptoms yet but the basic problem is that I had a sudden loss of power going from the engine to the rear wheels, which happened downshifting to head up a hill.  I can't lift up the rear of the car--it's parked on a hill--so I can't tell if the driveshaft is spinning but my guess is no because I can usually hear the transmission spinning, even in neutral, and it's a little too silent at the moment.  Clutch pedal seems springy and the engine is running fine otherwise.  No unusual noises.

So I'm guessing it's the clutch but I'm not sure what the issue might be because it would be stuck open (no power to the trans) and I don't know what would cause that.  Do slave cylinders get stuck open like that?  Any chance of a pressure plate working itself loose?  Anything easy to test/fix?

Here's a little background:
Just replaced the engine over the summer with a used one--didn't do a rebuild but took it apart and looked everything over, replacing all the seals and the thrust bearing in the process.  Put it all back together and replaced the center bearing while I was at it.  Clutch had plenty of life left (based on measuring the thickness of the disk) so I didn't do anything to it, which might have been a terrible mistake...but hopefully not.  Guibo looked fine but there's always a chance something happened to it on the drive down south, seeing as I wasn't exactly taking it easy.

Thanks,
Ben

[DesktopDave]

I wouldn't think the slave would jam wide open, but it's possible.  The TOB would make a racket if it failed.  I can't think the pressure plate would silently give up the ghost...

I'd have to guess it's something in the clutch too.  If it's the clutch plate I'm not sure how it'd wear out that fast though.  They can last a long time on our cars.  Maybe it's an odd one like the clutch pivot, or a bent clutch fork?

[frazman]

Yeah, I've been wondering about all the little stuff I should've just replaced when I was in there as well...  But I feel like if the pivot or fork broke the clutch would still be connected to the transmission, or at least I'd have felt/heard some terrible noise in there.  I'll be praying for the slave cylinder so I can do this in an afternoon rather than a week:-P