Do I need to replace my clutch?

[1984CJ7]

Hey guys! I am new to this forum and new to owning an E30! I bought her back in November 2018 but only now just started driving it. After Putting in a 4.10 LSD in it and burning the clutch a bit too much doing burnouts the shifting has become very irregular. Taking off is fine and 1st to 2nd is smooth. Going into third there is increased resistance and 3rd to 4th is extremely hard. There is a large amount of resistance and I typically have to double clutch to get it to get into gear. I can usually slide into 5th just fine. My first idea would be new clutch , but I'd love to make sure its not something else to do with the drive-line. I have learned that some things on e30s can be different than what I'm used to working on? Thanks so much for any advice!!
For whatever it counts it has 187k on the clock (not actual). I can only assume its not on the factory clutch..... However a clutch job isn't in my service records that I have that date back to 1992...

[325e '87]

As far as I know, a clutch that is near to failing is diagnosed by starting off in first and then shifting to fourth or fifth and going full throttle. A bad clutch will slip instead of allowing you to gain speed.

I’d guess thrashing on the car tweaked something else.

[1984CJ7]

Thanks, I'll go through a proper clutch test sometime in the next couple of days and see what I get.

[1984CJ7]

So I did a clutch test, and the clutch was in-fact able to stall the car. And it doesn't seem to slip on hills or when dropping gears. I did some reading up on people having similar issues. Many noted they changed the tranny fluid and it helped. Some also said rebuilding the shifter fixed it. My shifter has tons of play, it feels like moving a thin stick around in a wide hole. So I guess a rebuild of my shifter is in order and some new tranny fluid. In your experince whats the best fluid to put in there?

[AndrewBird]

You're clutch slave and/or clutch master may be going out, causing decreased travel. Look for leaks under the car or in the foot well. Check your brake fluid level as well. A low reservoir could indicate a leak.

Sloppy shifter would be my second guess.

Third would be worn out syncros in the transmission. New oil may help this.

[e30davie]

3rd and 4th are on the same shift rod internally. You might have damaged that shift fork. I bought a gearbox with this problem, 1st and 2ns were find, 3rd only just went in and 4th wasn't much better. never confirmed but i came to the conclusion that the 3rd/4th selector rod was bent or worn out.

I would be checking everything mentioned above though. Worst case take it to a drive line shop and they will very quickly be able to diagnose it for you.

[1984CJ7]

Thanks for the help. I changed the fluid with some 75W90 syn. This helped but didn't make the problem go away. Totally forgot to inspect my master/slave cylinders, but i'll do that next time i am in my shop. I am going to order a shifter rebuild kit soon and seen where that gets me.

[ForcedFirebird]

Thanks for the help. I changed the fluid with some 75W90 syn. This helped but didn't make the problem go away. Totally forgot to inspect my master/slave cylinders, but i'll do that next time i am in my shop. I am going to order a shifter rebuild kit soon and seen where that gets me.

Remove the fluid immediately if it's gl5, never put gear oil in a BMW gearbox - they take ATF, actually. At the shop we prefer Redline MTL (75w80 gl4). For a box store replacement, you can use Syncromesh.



gl5 eats yellow metal synchros (any Getrag/ZF).

[1984CJ7]

Remove the fluid immediately if it's gl5, never put gear oil in a BMW gearbox - they take ATF, actually. At the shop we prefer Redline MTL (75w80 gl4). For a box store replacement, you can use Syncromesh.



gl5 eats yellow metal synchros (any Getrag/ZF).

Thanks for the advice... Im not trying to doubt you but I did a few hours of research and could not get a definitive answer on what fluid to put in the transmission. It seems like half the sources I found said to use 75w90 gear oil and the other half said to use ATF. I did find a post saying to look for a tag on the transmission and if it was a certain color I was supposed to use ATF over gear oil. I could not find that tag.
I used Lucas oil synthetic 75w90 high performance oil. nowhere on the bottle does it say "gl5"
After reading this I checked Alldatapro, the dealer approved info source I use in my tech classes, it said the correct fluid was 75w90.

Again, i mean no offense or anything and Im not trying to doubt you
Just very confused now....
I am a new e30 owner so please cut me some slack for my lack of knowledge.
thanks

[ForcedFirebird]

I own a small shop that specializes in e30/e36's and just renewed my 10th lease (there's 13 e30/6's here now). We also have several race cars that we support/drive. I also have alldata and it states gl4 as I had suggested in the previous post.

As far as the tags, I ignore that and put MTL in all of them. We support several endurance race cars and one of our clients decided to change his transmission fluid himself and used off the shelf gl5 from a box store. By the end of the very next 14hr race, it was popping out of 4th gear, and the oil came out glittery.

See links...

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4975973/gl4-rated-gear-lube-for-getrag-260

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1674043

https://www.widman.biz/uploads/Transaxle_oil.pdf

Here's a screenshot from my shop pc:



Over the years I have learned ALL Getrags require gl4, and GM used the Getrag 282 and 284 (hence GM having syncromesh fluid specific for their FWD manual cars).

[1984CJ7]

Hey, again sorry. I did a few more hours of reading and looking at the spec sheets for the fluid I used. I now understand what you meant and I will be changing my fluid as soon as the Mid-Atlantic thaws-out. I apologize, meant no disrespect. I was just simply confused.

[ForcedFirebird]

No need to apologize, just trying to look out for a fellow e30 owner ;) No harm no foul. :)