regarding an 83 2.3 with 4 spd, which has the external slave cylinder, can someone tell me what is supposed to keep pressure on the fork/throwout bearing until the clutch pedal is pushed?
i replaced the master and slave cylinder and the slave cylinder always pushes the fork all the way back even with the clutch pedal relaxed.
near as i can tell these never used a return spring and the master/slave unit i put in was working before (but i don't remember how)
am i missing something?

 

The clutch pressure plate springs themselves should return the bearing, fork, and slave. Is the fork properly engaged with the throwout bearing?? Is the clutch engaged at all times, even though the fork is fully back??

 

well the fork wasn't all the way back after all, i don't know why i thought it was.
anyway it is working and i was curious as to how it did with no return spring but yes it is the pressure plate fingers that act as the return spring