I'm in the middle of having a shop replace my clutch with a SPEC stage 2 (part # SO132) for a 1998 pre VIN break single mass flywheel car. While they are at it I asked them to re-install a more fresh M56 from a 98 S70 internal slave car instead of my old transmission which has a bad 2nd gear. Basically they are converting my factory single mass flywheel external slave car to an internal slave car. They just called today and said it's all back together but the car won't go into gear. Frick.
They said they bled the line twice and it looks fine and that the clutch pedal feels fine as well. They think I ordered the wrong parts because they say since the transmission is from a post VIN break car it needs a post VIN break clutch and pressure plate. I tried to convinced them that what matters is the clutch and pressure plate need to match the corresponding flywheel style and that the transmission itself doesn't matter. I told them plenty of people have swapped their dual mass flywheels to singles still using the internal slave.
Last week I gave them the newer transmission with a new internal slave/ throw out bearing installed and a new clutch line for the internal slave cars. I kept the same clutch master cylinder installed since I couldn't find evidence that it needed to be changed for the internal slave swap. Many people with factory dual mass flywheels and internal slaves have successfully swapped to single mass flywheels and a corresponding SMF clutch. But, as far as I know, the only thing different between my car and one of those newer swapped cars at this point is the clutch master cylinder. There are 2 part numbers for them based on the VIN breaks and they look slightly different. My theory is that the older style clutch master isn't supplying enough pressure or displacing enough fluid to move the throw out bearing into the pressure plate fingers, thus keeping it from going into gear. I'm thinking if I have them swap on the newer style clutch master I might be OK. How does that theory sound?
After I installed the Quaife and resealed the case, I turned the input shaft and shifted through all the gears. Everything felt fine. If it's not going into gear it's gotta be something with the slave/ throw out not traveling enough, right? What else could keep it from getting into gear? Could anything be going on with the shift cables maybe? I'm going to stop by the shop first thing in the morning and see if I can see what the TOB is doing by peeling back the dust cover where the clutch line goes into the transmission case. Depending on what I can see with the TOB, I might try shifting with the levers on top of the transmission to see if it will go in gear. Let me know what ideas you have!
See different clutch master cylinders here: http://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/43753/Clutch-Master-Cylinder-KG19004704/