Cool video. I have been told that the flywheel should move no more than 15mm in either direction, and that it should return to just about the original starting position after movement. Since my flywheel moves about 17mm in either direction, and does not return at all, I am going to be replacing it... I was able to find an OEM used one for only $168 with warrantee.

Shifting issues solved, I first replaced the master and slave cylinder since this was a $67 shot just in case, figured with 86k on them it was cheap insurance anyway. But since changing them didn't fix the issue, I now have spares just in case.

I replaced the clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and flywheel bolts with new and even changed the flywheel with a NOS unit and the problem is gone, shifting is a breeze. But one thing I noticed is that the pedal pressure is a lot softer than before, I assume this has to do with the new plate.

But either way, problem solved, it was a lot of work, probably a total of 7 hours labor. I learned a lot about the back-half of my 986, and picked up a few trick along the way. Like it was easier to just disconnect the linkage from the tranny instead of trying to pop off the linkage from the ball fittings, and also that removing the exhaust in one piece is not saving any time since the unit has to be disassembled at the cat-back connectors anyway to get it back in. Also, plan on replacing the push-rivets that hold the spoiler cap in place, since they will probably break anyway. Reinstalling the slave cylinder before mounting the tranny mounts makes the install of the slave a breeze. Using a compressor driven vacuum bleeding system worked great to both drain and bleed the system.

So with a total of $596 spent on parts and new tools, my car is happy again. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with ideas and suggestions.

As the clutch wears the disc gets thinner. As the Clutch gets thinner the fingers on the pressure plate get over center and more cone shape. It is harder to push the clutch in when the clutch is over center because of the lack of leverage.


This is also why in most instances (esp when using a cable clutch) the pedal grabs in a different location of the pedal throw now.