Ooooh, ooooh I have an idea. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Either bypass, or replace the clutch dampner thingy. It is a small, square thing bolted to the firewall (or front DS fender) that is between the MC and the slave. It should have a bleeder screw on it too.

Why you ask? Well, if the problem was engage or disengage only, I would suspect the TO, maybe. You also said the problem continued after a new clutch. So, the suspisusion is not with the components within the bellhousing. It was not desctibed the exact state of the various components that were removed, but it seems to be implied that the first TO bearing was contaminated. It may have been concidence. A) to fill the bellhousing that much, would have destroyed the rest of the components too. B) To truly have seized, it would not have been driveable.

As Chris alluded to, it would have destroyed the pressure plate fingers in no time and made a very very bad noise. Besides, contaminated bearings (especially ones with grit) do not usually seize, they eat themselves from the inside out and become very loose. Now, I am not saying that yours was not siezed, but I would call it less common than the above.

Now, assuming that clutch #2 has not been pulled, I would bet that TO bearing #2 is OK. That leaves a problem between the clutch fork and the pedal. We can assume the the MC and the slave are OK, but they may not be. What that leaves us is the dampner. It is supposed to modulate the engagement for smoother operation. When it fails, it can prevent engagement, disengagement or whatever. But, it usually does it randomly. Hosing out the bellhousing may have seemed like it fixed the problem, but I would bet it was enough time for it to sit and "unstick" itself.

There, that is my 2 cents.

Michael