I have just finished working on a Formula that couldn't be put into First or Reverse without turning off the ignition first. Then when the engine was restarted, the car would try to move with the clutch depressed. It would even pull itself up a slight grade. The clutch pedal wasn't bent and the banjo rod was installed properly. The pedal rested above the brake pedal as it should. The point that the pedal started to give resistance against the pressure plate was almost to the bottom of travel.
Upon inspection, I noticed what appeared to be an extremely short slave pushrod. It only protruded from the slave for about 1 to 1.5 inches, so I got a pushrod from my parts cabinet.
I removed the slave and as I separated it from the mount, the pushrod boot extended. When I inspected it, I found that it actually did have the correct pushrod. It was just fully depressed into the slave, so I reinstalled the slave and pushrod.
Next, I moved the car to an incline, placing the car at a 45* so that the left front wheel was positioned well above the level of the right rear wheel. I then topped up the clutch slave with fluid and opened the slave bleeder valve. Air bubbles galore. Two reservoirs of brake fluid run through it and it's still got air bubbles. Tapping on the side of the slave brings out even more air bubbles that were stuck inside the slave bore.
After a couple more reservoirs of fluid passed through, I closed the bleeder, topped off the fluid and had the owner depress the clutch pedal to the floor and hold it. The pushrod extended way out and I opened the bleeder to find there were a few more bubbles. Closed the bleeder, released the clutch pedal and repeated. On the 3rd press, no more bubbles.
Now the car goes into all gears with the engine running and the owner goes home with a smile on his face.
