After my last track day, my trans began grinding when trying to shift into reverse. The forward gears also felt a bit stiffer when at a stop. I figured the clutch was dragging, so I jacked up the rear of the car and felt the resistance to spin the wheel by hand when in gear with the clutch pedal in. It definitely had more resistance than when in neutral. Is this an accurate test to confirm that the clutch is dragging?
A few days later, I bled the clutch slave cylinder and went for a test drive. The first few times I shifted into reverse fine with no grinding. After driving for a bit, the same grinding issue came back.
I also noticed the pickup for the clutch line from the fluid reservoir is up high on the left side of the reservoir. And, I was sometimes shifting during a left sweeper on the track. So, I thought maybe that's how I could have sucked in air. After bleeding, I topped off the fluid all the way up to the cap, but the issue is still present.
I did some searching here, and someone previously mentioned a broken clip on the pressure plate caused a similar issue. I don't quite understand what clip they're talking about. But, what else can I do before replacing the clutch and pressure plate? How can I check if the slave cylinder itself is bad? I did notice that the boot over the push rod is torn on my car, but I did not notice any leaking.
I also found this product, and thought it was interesting, but I didn't see any info about it on these forums:
Speed Source Clutch Push Rod - Toyota 1ZZ 2ZZ All - SSI-CLROD-ZZ van Speed Source - Monkeywrench
Has anyone here installed the extended push rod? It seems like it may possibly help my condition, but would probably be a bandaid fix instead of finding the real issue.
