is the slave rod always pushed out?

[Daeldalus]

I am doing an m52+zf320 swap right now using m20 flywheel and clutch and i noticed that the spring inside the slave cylinder always has the slave rod out to maximum travel.
won't this keep the TOB riding on the the pressure plate all the time?

does it stay 'in' once the system is bled? what would keep it that way? the pedal doesn't a spring that would pull back against the slave and the master doesn't either. the only thing that would push the slave rod back in is the PP itself but that would make the throw out bearing ride on it all the time.

am I missing something here?

[ForcedFirebird]

The TOB always rides the finger springs on the PP. The slave springs is no where near strong enough to "ride" the clutch, it's simply there to keep tension on the rod.

Quick way to see...push in the slave spring by hand, then try to use a 3/8" extension to push in the clutch release fork.

[Daeldalus]

So the PP always spinning against the TOB wouldn't cause the the bearing to go bad or at least wear out quicker?

[ForcedFirebird]

The pilot bearing always spins too.

[varg]

I drilled a hole in my getrag 240's bellhousing a while back so I could observe clutch operation and try to diagnose a sticking clutch. While the clutch is engaged the release bearing rides on the pressure plate fingers and spins. Doesn't seem that E30s have a high rate of release bearing failures, probably because even though it is spinning a lot it is under very little load.

The pilot bearing always spins too.

Only when the clutch is disengaged.

[ForcedFirebird]

Only when the clutch is disengaged.

True....