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Did your ACT clutch fail on you? If so, post here

Did the springs in your ACT clutch fall causing it to fail? Check all that apply...


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This thread cracks me up. Those that had it fail in only a few miles never said if they had the dowels. Those that didnt have the dowels should see why it happened, and then there are other who already have bandaids holding ther shit together. IE I even shimmed the pivot ball or what is step height?

To me it sounds like alot of improper instalation. DSM's owners are norotious for being cheap and using bandaids, we are also notorious for broken down cars, wonder why. When I change a clutch I change everything involved. The ball, fork, TOB, and I clean the hell out of the bellhousing. Most people dont want to do that because it cost money or they need the car running to go to work inthe morning, but they never go back and do it right.

It alwasy seems to be thet guy that has 15 wahser under the ball, a cracked fork, and no dowel pins that has to proclaim ACT sucks. Yeah they sure do. :rolleyes:

My 2600, Streetdisk, and flywheel are all top notch and have yet to let me down.
 
boostedinaz said:
This thread cracks me up. Those that had it fail in only a few miles never said if they had the dowels. Those that didnt have the dowels should see why it happened, and then there are other who already have bandaids holding ther shit together. IE I even shimmed the pivot ball or what is step height?

To me it sounds like alot of improper instalation. DSM's owners are norotious for being cheap and using bandaids, we are also notorious for broken down cars, wonder why. When I change a clutch I change everything involved. The ball, fork, TOB, and I clean the hell out of the bellhousing. Most people dont want to do that because it cost money or they need the car running to go to work inthe morning, but they never go back and do it right.

It alwasy seems to be thet guy that has 15 wahser under the ball, a cracked fork, and no dowel pins that has to proclaim ACT sucks. Yeah they sure do. :rolleyes:

My 2600, Streetdisk, and flywheel are all top notch and have yet to let me down.

I agree, however, Exedy, Clutchmasters, etc. don't have a problem like this on DSMs or most any other cars. Then again DSMs don't have a huge customer base with other manfactures for clutches like ACT does.
 
laserspeeddemon said:
I agree, however, Exedy, Clutchmasters, etc. don't have a problem like this on DSMs or most any other cars. Then again DSMs don't have a huge customer base with other manfactures for clutches like ACT does.


True, but I also have a feeing that if there was a post about Clutchmaster or Exedy like this, we would see all those that have failed come out of the woodwork.
 
i just got my SBR clutch this week.. comparing the SBR 3500 disk to the ACT 2600... wow... The SBR one looks alot nicer. The ACT center hub only uses 3 rivits. The SBR one uses 6. This thing just looks like it will take alot more abuse then the ACT.
 
Mine just failed over the weekend, with about 8,000 miles on it. I dropped the transmission yesterday and took out the clutch. The flywheel looks great, the pressure plate looks great. So doesn't the throw out bearing and the clutch fork. My disc isn't so lucky though. It literally looks like someone took a sledge hammer to it. I mean, all the springs are broken in half and kind of snarled out. I don't really know what could have caused this. The dowel pins are intact. I babied it for about 500 miles when I first got it installed. I don't see how this could happen without warning like it did, and the disc is the only thing that is messed up...damn!!
 
:rolleyes: another one bites the dust, hey hey, another one bites the dust. :thumbdown
 
Mine wasn't necessarily spring related. But my disk did go bad. Under 500 miles old, my disk chipped and lodged between the disk and flywheel. This caused the car to creep like an automatic. Since I waited to put it on, it went past the 90 or whatever day warranty, and now I'm stuck with a pressure plate I can't use, and out a couple hundred. Awesome.
 
Colossus said:
Mine wasn't necessarily spring related. But my disk did go bad. Under 500 miles old, my disk chipped and lodged between the disk and flywheel. This caused the car to creep like an automatic. Since I waited to put it on, it went past the 90 or whatever day warranty, and now I'm stuck with a pressure plate I can't use, and out a couple hundred. Awesome.


contact ACT and explain the situation, they may replace your part. If you call, all you'll lose is a couple of minutes, but you could save hundreds of dollars...





:| anyone else thinks that sounds like a Geico commericial? :laugh:
 
I called act today cause i was having this problem to.. My clutch was making noise's and it would vibrate very badly sometimes till you push the clutch in. I pulled the trans today and found my rear dowel missing and the springs on the disc were really really loose.. So i'm ordering a new disc tomm. I'll get a dowel from somewhere no clue where but i'll find one. All in all the costumer service was very nice to me and explain what the problem was and that's was exactly it.
 
I was just driving along around 3k rpm, and my i starting hearing terrible noises from from clutch area. Then just a series of loud thumps, and my car stalled out. I soon found a couple springs on the ground that definately came off my ACT street disk. I had an ACT flywheel, the disk, and a 2600lb pressure plate. I have a feeling everything is destroyed. :(

I called ACT up, and they want to see pictures of all my stuff before they decide to replace anything. They say they can look at it and be able to tell.

1) Does anyone know what they are going to look for to determine if it was installation error or a part failure?

2) And why is it I've read a bunch of ACT users with this problem, and not people using any other clutches with this problem? Doesn't that mean it has to be mostly a part failure on ACT's behalf?

3) Has anyone been reimbursed from ACT for towing or installation expences if they decided it was a part failure?
 
Just pulled the tranny and got some pictures...
Think ACT will cover this?
 

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It looks like your block is missing the 2 dowel pins. This could be a cause for this. My clutch popped a spring out too a while ago and I noticed I too was missing the pins on the block I was running at the time. With the old block I never had problems either. OMG
 
laserspeeddemon said:
Because I had the samething happen to me, I have tested their theory with both a FWD and an AWD car, the only one that failed was the AWD when it DID NOT have the pins in.

ANd even with the pins in do you relize that out Engine and Tranny is hold together with only 4 BOLTS!!!! No other manfacture has a design as fragile as that, those 2 pins are the only thing that keep in somewhat aligned. So anyway you look at it, ACT is not at fault.

They only safe thing would be for ACT to stop selling clutches to the DSM community. But then they would lose alot of money. On top of that other clutch manfactures might back out as well. So all you can do it take it with a grain a salt and move on.
Only the dsm's have 4 bolts holding ont he trans...
Try GM, Ford, Chrysler... they all have 4 bolts to the trans.

Not every clutch that goes bad is installer error.
Not every bad clutch is manufactuer error either.
But the manufacturer, once a trand is seen for a certain time line, has to admit that they may have produced some bad set ups.

I cannot stand the manufacturer cop out of "incorrect installation".

Sometimes, yes it is.
Mostly, no it is not.

I will suffice it to say, that No I have never used a ACT clutch, I almost bought one when I was doing the engine, but for some reason I did not. And after reading this, I will never buy one. I have a hard time believing that so many people that work on thier cars cannot install a clutch propperly.

Personally, I am a Centerforce fan. I have used them for decades with -0- trouble. So why change now...
 
I only had it about 1000 miles...

And how many dowels are there supposed to be from the block to bell housing? I have 1 dowel (on my bell housing) that would match up with the bottom left hole on the block. So would that mean there are 4 bolts and 1 dowel? And are there supposed to be bolts where the dowels are?


like this? cause this is how mine is.
 

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Drewcool2 said:
I only had it about 1000 miles...

And how many dowels are there supposed to be from the block to bell housing? I have 1 dowel (on my bell housing) that would match up with the bottom left hole on the block. So would that mean there are 4 bolts and 1 dowel? And are there supposed to be bolts where the dowels are?


like this? cause this is how mine is.
the top 2 holes, are just bolts.
The lower 2 holes are bolts through the dowels.
The very bottom 2 holes are for the dust shield.
 
Bostedquest said:
Only the dsm's have 4 bolts holding ont he trans...
Try GM, Ford, Chrysler... they all have 4 bolts to the trans.

No they only have 4 bolt hold the tranny to the bell hosing. The bellhousing to the motor is at least 6 for Chevy.
 
Can someone with a 7-bolt judge my picture better. I can see the top 2 on my diagram are definately bolts. Going down the front, the center right hole is also a bolt. So are the bottom 2 supposed to have dowels and bolts through them, meaning a total of 5 bolts?


*The circle in the middle of my diagram is not a bolt, but I was trying to show that it is the crank on the block.*
 
Wow, I just ordered an ACT 2100 now I'm having second thoughts... But I guess as long as it's installed correctly its all good. I hope.
 
boostedinaz said:
No they only have 4 bolt hold the tranny to the bell hosing. The bellhousing to the motor is at least 6 for Chevy.
For V6 and V8 yes there are 6.. for 4 bangers... THERE ARE 4.
 
Bostedquest said:
For V6 and V8 yes there are 6.. for 4 bangers... THERE ARE 4.

I have never owned a Chevy 4 banger. Are the bolts in a square pattern or are they a bit offset like a DSM? If they are square then they are spreading the clampin load evenly were as our cars wont do that.
 
boostedinaz said:
I have never owned a Chevy 4 banger. Are the bolts in a square pattern or are they a bit offset like a DSM? If they are square then they are spreading the clampin load evenly were as our cars wont do that.
same kind of pattern as ours... not square by any means.
 
I would like to refer a couple of your posts.
A reason to not street race :: pics inside::
Just sold my pc, need advice on a laptop
My point here is that you sometime talk from the anus, and I have a hard time believing you at some times. So I'm going to pick apart your post.

Bostedquest said:
Only the dsm's have 4 bolts holding ont he trans...
Try GM, Ford, Chrysler... they all have 4 bolts to the trans.
I work mostly on imports; mitsubishis, acuras, hondas, toyotas. The DSMs are the only car of the bunch that had such an unstable design.
Bostedquest said:
Not every clutch that goes bad is installer error.
Not every bad clutch is manufactuer error either.
ACT's clutchs are RACE proven, if they are so problematic, why do you think Sheperd and Rau still use them. I've had two ACT's clutchs in my Talon. The first one failed, when I installed the second one (after talking to ACT) I noticed BOTH dowel pins were missing. After replacing them I've had no problems with mine OR the other ones that I installed in 2 other DSMs.

Bostedquest said:
But the manufacturer, once a trand is seen for a certain time line, has to admit that they may have produced some bad set ups.

I cannot stand the manufacturer cop out of "incorrect installation".

Sometimes, yes it is.
Mostly, no it is not.
I beleive you meant "TREND" here, but I'll let that go. I see that you are flexing your infinte knowledge of civil justice again, but again you are wrong. They don't have to admit anything. Especially since they have test results verifying there response to the problem. Did you call ACT and ask them anything about this issue. No you didn't. Cause you wouldn't be talking out your ass now if you did. ACT told me that they have been doing alot of R&D on this problem. They only resolution they found was to INSTALL IT CORRECTLY (meaning having the dowel pins in place)

Bostedquest said:
I will suffice it to say, that No I have never used a ACT clutch, I almost bought one when I was doing the engine, but for some reason I did not. And after reading this, I will never buy one. I have a hard time believing that so many people that work on thier cars cannot install a clutch propperly.

Personally, I am a Centerforce fan. I have used them for decades with -0- trouble. So why change now...

Good!! Save them the trouble, because as soon as you get it, you'll probably install it wrong, and then call them to get a free replacement. I can hardly believe that you had ANY clutch for 20+ years, that would make you AT least 36. You sound like you are 14.
 
Well I blew my 2600 up today. Had 9k miles on it. Never made any kind of vibration or noise, just stuck the floor. Clutch fluid level is fine, still no pressure. :cry: Will have pics up when i pull the tranny and clutch.
 
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