Howdy! New member, new owner, and a question

[JohnnyRockit]

Hi everyone, I’m John from Dallas and I picked up my first ZR-1 yesterday. It is a 1991, red/red with 22,000 miles and looks to have no mods.

I flew into Detroit yesterday morning, went to Discount Tire to replace the original Goodyears (didn’t trust 24-year-old tires for the trip) and hit the road back to Dallas. I did a little over 800 miles yesterday, so 400 to go today.

I have maintenance records and receipts from every trip to the dealer from day 1. The “Service LTPWS” and an occasional “Service Ride Control” message comes on, but I tried to read through the archives on the site over the last week, so I have a pretty good idea where to start with those. No radio sound as well...

The question I have has to do with the clutch operation. The clutch engages at the very top of the pedal travel, I mean if I touch that pedal with my foot I can induce slip. When driving down the highway at say 1800 rpm, if I accelerate, I can see the revs climb about 400 rpm momentarily and then drop back down. So, what do you think, worn disc, bad clutch cylinder, bad fluid?

From the maintenance records, I’d say it is on it 3rd or 4th clutch master cylinder at this point…so it looks like every few years they addressed some issue with the clutch.

Let me know where I should start and I hope to meet some of you!


John

[Karl]

The fluid goes in under the ecm. You need to remove a couple of small nuts and carefully remove the cap on the fill point so it wont crack when you take it off.

[gbrtng]

Has the clutch and flywheel been serviced too? The entire system is self-adjusting if the right parts are used. If the MC fluid level is too low, the clutch will not release and you can't get the tranny in gear if the engine is running - that is not your problem. Post the part number of the MC - it may have the wrong one installed.

[WARP TEN]

You may have a small leak. I would check the clutch fluid (as noted above, under the ECM). The ECM comes loose with two 10 mm bolts; just lift a bit and push out of the way. In the mid-90s, I had this happen on my '93 on a trip to Indiana and had to drive quite a while without a clutch. The pedal just got higher an higher until it went away completely. Then luckily found a small Chevy dealer in Indiana (which had never seen a ZR-1 and loved it) and they topped it off for the trip home. Later replaced the master and slave cylinders as I recall. Good luck!--Bob

[We Gone]

Congrats and welcome, I can relate to buying a car sight unseen and than driving it home over hundreds of miles or more done it twice. Sounds like the guys have given some good advice so far only thing I can add is when refilling be very careful not to over fill, it will have a small black cup under the cap remove it and fill to just below the fill line as the cup when replaced will displace some fluid. I always stuff a rag under the assembly when working on it just in case.

Good Luck looking forward to pics when you get home. You'll be in good company in Texas Lots of ZR-1's live there.

[PhillipsLT5]

If its not too late come thru Phx AZ and go to Bill B place

http://zfdoc.com/

[XfireZ51]

Sounds like it could use a new clutch. If it's slipping on an uphill, there isn't enough material to keep it engaged. That's why the slightest amount of pedal disengages the trans.
Also, checking the fluid, if it's black, at a minimum it needs changing.

[JohnnyRockit]

I made it back home today, what a long trip! I figure 20 hours together is a good way to get to know a car anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will change the fluid first and see if that makes any difference. I have a feeling that XFIREZ51's idea about not enough clamping force is what might end up being the root problem.

I'll check the MC part number as well.

I may need to go clutch shopping, anybody have a favorite replacement?

John