Sudden Clutch Problem (New Clutch) please help

[98DropTop]

Ya so everything was fine, driving around today, then I went home for a min. came back out to take off, and I cant select any gears.... I can go into gears when my car is off, but soon as i turn it on it feels like there is no clutch pressure or its not grabbing and I cant select any gear and reverse grinds big time..... Please give me some ideas....

-oh ya, I have a brand new ACT 2100,ACT Xact Flywheel, shift cable, b&m shifter, clutch fork, pivot ball.. cant think of anything else atm.
-master/slave cylinder are one summer old.

 

[cano86]

Ya so everything was fine, driving around today, then I went home for a min. came back out to take off, and I cant select any gears.... I can go into gears when my car is off, but soon as i turn it on it feels like there is no clutch pressure or its not grabbing and I cant select any gear and reverse grinds big time..... Please give me some ideas....

-oh ya, I have a brand new ACT 2100,ACT Xact Flywheel, shift cable, b&m shifter, clutch fork, pivot ball.. cant think of anything else atm.
-master/slave cylinder are one summer old.

Does the clutch pedal has any resistance at all or does it feels soft when you press it, if its kinda soft you might have to bleed your clutch line it may catch air eventhough not expo to it. Also you might want to check your tranny oil level might be low if you lost any while changing your clutch

 

[cavillac]

is the pedal soft? Does the Clutch res have fluid in it.. if not..look below

Look inside under the dash at the clutch pedal assembly and see if there is fluid leakage close to the firewall..if not try underneath the trans to see if you see any leaks that would signify that you have a leaking slave cylinder.

 

[bklyn_evo]

I have had problems with my act clutch as well. How it occured to me was, while driving, came up to a red light, put it in nuetral, went to put it in gear and them grind grind grind... couldn't put it into gear.. Yes this was after a full rear main seal, flywheel(fidanza) and clutchkit job, and it turned out that the disc spit out one of the springs and it got caught in between my flywheel and disc. The story gets better, i have a ffriend w a 03 celica gt, he also had the same exact setup installed in the celica and sure enough 3 months later the spring poped out of his act disc as well. I dont wanna break bad news but act is not a welcome name in my garage

 

[98DropTop]

The oil level was low... and I added a quart of oil after my clutch was fixed... not sure if that helped the problem of my car.... I was thinking maybe the clutch fluid..... I was hoping that was all that was wrong with it.... Have not checked that yet.... it is 3:00am right now

Man I was hammered when I made that last post... hahah........ Ya so I hope all I need to do to help fix my problem is bleed the clutch.... I need to find a clutch buddy to help me though.... Ive never done it before, but it doesnt seem too hard by reading up on it.... Im hoping its not a spring popped.... I would be soo pissed.... If that is the problem, is there anything about warranty on ACT clutches?

-Like this happen very suddenly.... My car was running perfectly, I pull into my driveway and go inside for about 20 minutes.... Come back outside and go to leave and it wont work...

 

[TSiAWD666]

It might be clutch pump up. I JUST had this happen on my car, and realized what it was thankfully after dropping it off at a shop but before they started working on it. Adjusting the clutch pedal stop, which is the cruise control switch as well, back so that I had more free play at the top of the pedal travel.

It didn't make sense to me when I first thought about the problem as it occurred, because if the clutch was being engaged due to pump up you'd think I'd be slipping. This was based on my assumption that pushing the clutch pressure plate in just makes in disengage further and further. However in some thread I found someone offered up that our push-style clutches when depressing the fingers on the plate will disengage the clutch up to a point and then actually re-engage it. So if you could get the clutch to depress enough, like theoretically when your master cylinder is having the pump up problem, when you fully depress the pedal you could have your clutch engaged and so you can't get into gear. I would guess you could also then get into gear by not fully depressing the pedal but I didn't test this idea. Personally I am not sure if this is true or what was happening, but I gave the free-play adjustment a shot and sure enough solved my problem.

Someone more versed in how the clutch pressure plate works might be able to confirm/deny the explanation but I can't. I never stared at my pressure plates too long before having them installed.

 

[98DropTop]

Ya so I bled the clutch, I dont think I bled it enough to get all the old fluid out because it was still kinda dark coloured, but I did it enough times that I thought would be helpful... The fluid level was fine before hand, the reservoir was right to max.. It still didnt solve my problem, cannot put it in gear once car is started...

-my carpet was stained under my dash, so it might have been leaking, I think that could be from a while ago though, not sure, because the level was fine when I checked today..

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Your master is leaking. Replace it.

 

[luv2rallye]

... However in some thread I found someone offered up that our push-style clutches when depressing the fingers on the plate will disengage the clutch up to a point and then actually re-engage it. So if you could get the clutch to depress enough, like theoretically when your master cylinder is having the pump up problem, when you fully depress the pedal you could have your clutch engaged and so you can't get into gear.

Interesting...I just had that very thing with the clutch partially re-engaging when pressed to the floor only mine was because I had the pushrod adjusted wrong. So if you have no leaks and no air in the system, check that.

TSiAWD666: where did you read about that (link please)?

 

[TSiAWD666]

Honestly I don't remember. I just did some quick searching to confirm my pump up theory when I had the problem two days ago heh.

Thinking more about it I wonder if it's not really the clutch re-engaging at a point, at least not in the normal sense, but the fingers themselves actually hitting the pressure plate and causing enough friction to have it seem like the clutch is re-engaging. /shrug

Anyway, it was a comment by one guy in a thread about clutch disengagement, but yeah I don't recall who

 

[98DropTop]

I have had problems with my act clutch as well. How it occured to me was, while driving, came up to a red light, put it in nuetral, went to put it in gear and them grind grind grind... couldn't put it into gear.. Yes this was after a full rear main seal, flywheel(fidanza) and clutchkit job, and it turned out that the disc spit out one of the springs and it got caught in between my flywheel and disc. The story gets better, i have a ffriend w a 03 celica gt, he also had the same exact setup installed in the celica and sure enough 3 months later the spring poped out of his act disc as well. I dont wanna break bad news but act is not a welcome name in my garage

I hate to say it, but I think that is what happen to my car as well. I was talking to the mechanic that I bring my car to and he said everything else is fine, I didnt want to give me any ideas as to what I thought it might be so I let him tell me what he thought.. He was saying something either could have warped or something come loose and fell in the clutch... Soon as he said that in my mind I was like F%&$... So I said like maybe a spring popped out..

So this happen just under 5 months of me having my Clutch..... So pissed off right now. Also any ideas as to another clutch similar to the 2100, not ACT?? Also I would probably have to get my ACT flywheel resurfaced as well right...?


Oh ya he suggested I just get an OEM clutch since it lasted basically like 10 years and this one 5months.... But a brand new OEM probably costs similar to a nice upgraded clutch....