Flushing my clutch system worked. No more grinding.

It WAS the bleeding of the clutch!

THANKS ARNE!!

This is what my procedure was:

With girlfriend in the car dealing with pushing the clutch pedal, and myself opening and closing the clutch bleeder nipple....(with fish tank hose attached to bleeder going into a glass)

1. Slowly depress clutch pedal...when at 1/4 pressed, have clutch pedal person signal me

2. open bleeder and have person pushing clutch stop (critical to not go back but just hold). Reason why I had her stop was because the instant that the bleeder was open, her pressure would make the pedal go all the way to the floor very quickly...if I had one of my buddies helping me, I probably wouldn't have done this, but she wasn't very familiar with clutches (an automatic chick essentially). Having her stop at 1/4 when bleeder was opened seemed to work just fine.

3. once completely open, have clutch pedal person push until 2/3 of the way to the floor with pedal and signal me--during this time, fluid is being pushed out of the bleeder.

4. close bleeder and signal ok

5. pedal person releases pedal...when released, the clutch master fluid level will go down slightly, while the clutch pedal will returned to normal position.

6. I repeated this operation 10 times at least, and had to top off essentially 1.5 master cylinder reservoirs full.

Runs great now...should be noted that my pedal push rod that goes into the master cylinder is adjusted all the way out...no adjustments are possible at this point on my system...but I have 0% grinding on all gears and can peel out with ease.

I'm really glad this was brought up. I have had this problem since I bought my car 1.5 years ago. I always chalked it up to worn gears...really just an annoyance going into reverse, and also first just when cold and starting out in the morning.

I will give the bleeding a try for sure.

Thanks for the detailed procedures.

Savannah---

This is important!!!! I almost forgot!!!

Even with this procedure, I get a very very small grind going into reverse--this is with my 77 5 speed, which has the 5th gear and reverse on same shift fork--

I get absolutely no grinding, if I go slightly into the 5th gear directly AND THEN go down into reverse. So when I'm going into reverse, I act like I'm going into 5th gear, but only go up JUST enought to register to the tranny that I'm going that way and then immediately change directions and go into reverse--haven't had one grind that way, and it's as smooth as can be.

Small price to pay for a 77 5 speed I guess...I'm sure a newer style 5 speed isn't as temperamental....

Sometimes I roll forward in first, just a tad to release pressure(??), and then I gently proceed into reverse. This seems to work half the time to minimize grinding.

I'm always looking for something to fiddle with anyhow! Who knows how long that fluid has been in there.