Expert: Matt Lyons - 4/1/2011

Question
I have a 2000 pontiac trans am 6 speed transmission the problem im having i think might be the slave cylinder. The car shifts fine as soon as i drive it when cool once it warms up i have problems shifting from gear to gear also at high rpm ocasionally making a grinding noise. The clutch and pressure plate are for a Ls7 Z06 corvette and are almost new only got maybe 3k miles on them. The slave cylinder in the car went bad like a week ago so i replaced it with 1 i had laying around i believe its from a chevy s10. We pulled back the transmission to check the slave cylinder and saw it was rubbing on the main drive shaft of the transmission and could see their was grinded up aluminum or metal.Like I said i works fine but after 30minutes of driving or try to race i have the problem. All in all the slave cylinder in the car isnt for it is that the problem or is their something else

Answer
Sounds like you have a case of the classic mixed matched parts! I would get the correct slave cylinder for the transmission and make sure the stroke of the throwout bearing is truly disengaging the clutch. Sometimes when the pressure plate isnt actuated completely it will let the disc drag. This would cause shifting issues and noise especially when the temp comes up.

Measure everything and clean out those chips! Also make sure the shaft mount hasnt been weakened by the rubbing.