1G 1G ACT Clutch will not disengage, tried everything!

[JdawgDSM1G]

Hello all, im new to the forums here. ive had this issue with my race car for quite some time now. its been so frustrating that i had stopped bothering with the vehicle altogether for over a year and actually tried selling it a couple times. about a year and a half ago i installed a fresh stage 3 tranny from TRE and an act 2900 kit with my factory lightened and stepped flywheel. i put the car together only to find that the clutch wouldn't disengage at all. i then proceeded to pull the transmission back out and check over my work. i added a larger washer for my pivot ball shim. installed a brand new oem clutch fork. brand new ACT throw out bearing. and put it all back together. once again no clutch disengagement. so i started with the hydraulics. put a brand new master and slave and a stainless clutch line. bled the crap out of it and still nothing... i then tried the crappy extended slave rod as i was getting desperate, guess what. nothing.. i got so disgusted i let the car sit, until last week. i sat and tried to figure out what else could be wrong and finally decided to pull the clutch pedal assembly. turns out it was quite worn where the z bar connects. so i had shep rebuild it. i have now installed the pedal and boy did it help but i still cannot shift the vehicle in gear while its running. i have the master fully extended as far as i can go and the slave seems to be moving pretty darn good. so here i am hoping a fellow dsm,r can help me with my craptastic situation ...

jdawg

 

[1990AWD]

I may have missed it, but you did say you adjusted the master, correct?

 

[3kgt2nv]

brand new ACT throw out bearing

these have been proven to be junk. get an oem throw out bearing in there

 

[griffin81]

Is It posible you over extended the clutch pedal and pushing the throwout bearing into pressure plate binding up clutch.

 

[3kgt2nv]

also very possible you over adjusted the master and its past the bleed off point and not allowing the slave to work

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeah i was hoping the act throw out would have been okay but im gonna grab an oem tomorrow. i was wondering if the over extension might cause something like that but wasnt to sure. and i belive the 1G masters dont have the back flow valve like the 2G's do but i could be wrong :/

 

[3kgt2nv]

im assuming you watched jacks video but incase you didnt here it is
Proper Clutch Adjustment - YouTube

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yep ive seen it quite a few times , each time i hope i find somthing that i missed prior. ive adjusted the clutch in almost every possible way :/ i almost have a feeling that the clutch disc is too thick or that's most certainly how it feels.

 

[this_tsi_8urV8]

On TRE's trans, you need to make sure everything is up to par. Bleed like 3x's, make sure pedal is perfect height, have perfect fluid level or a lil more is ok, and everything else checks out well. You need to turn on the engine and let it run for a while. That way the trans gets lubed well before moving. Once all checks out and engine is fully warm, you can start moving the car. If necessary, put it in gear First before starting it. IT will be hard to get into many gear for a while. I have 1300 miles or so and now it's feeling to its old self. Shifts like butter, or as good as u can get with a DSM trans.
I bought the Hi Tq trans and couldn't get it into gear until I did all those procedures multiple times. I even bled it 2x after driving it for a few miles. Also change fluid after no more than 300miles to change out all the particles in the fluid.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

interesting, i defiantly have a bit of clutch drag though even with the pedal to the floor. i can indeed start the car in gear and stay stationary. but as soon as i rev her up i get burnt clutch galore.

 

[3kgt2nv]

what did it do without the shim behind the pivot ball? I have 2 trannys in the garage and neither is shimmed

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

i never tried the tranny unshimmed. it came from TRE pre shimmed. i added a thicker shim but never attempted to go without one. figured it would put the fork to far towards the passengers side anyway so i never thought to bother.

 

[3kgt2nv]

take the shim you added out and try it. if it came from tre like that it should be good to go.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeah im hoping that between that and adding an oem throwout i might see some changes. its just so odd. im getting quite a bit of throw via the slave and still having this hard of a time with disengagement

although i recall adding an extra washer because the fork arm was so far towards the passenger side. maybe i should go thicker again and not thinner?

 

[isaiah]

In what condition are your motor mount bushings in? I had bad disengagement problem when i had torn motor mounts and i replaced them and it shidted beautifully. just my .02$

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

they are Full prothane motor mounts with about 100 miles on them. the motor sits nice and still for the beast it is . so i think they are holding up well. but deff possibility most wouldn't even consider

 

[avengerKid]

Is your tranny snug against the motor when you press the clutch the tranny isn't flexing away from the motor any? My buddies car wouldn't go into gear due to that reason.

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

Have you verified what the step is on the flywheel? A mis-stepped flywheel will NEVER engage properly!

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

No flex in the tranny luckily. i still have my dowel pins intact too witch i know can cause an issue. as for the step height. ive tried two flywheels, an ACT streetlight and a Factory lightened and stepped flywheel by a local machinist nearby. i never did check the measurements myself though. probably something im gonna try and do this weekend when i pull the tranny.

 

[kchaazz]

Remember the part in Jack's video regarding the master adjustment. When adjusting the master, go the the fork and make sure you can push the fork easily by hand to the drivers side of the car, otherwise the master cylinder rod is too far out and definitely be careful about over extending the fingers on the pp by having the rod out too far, Ive done it and it usually makes a nice little grinding sound. Ive also found that overshimming, as mentioned above, actually reduces slave travel because it seems to put the piston within the slave all the way to the bottom, and it seems to need to have fluid in the cylinder behind the piston initially, otherwise you run out of travel in the master before the slave moves as far as it should. Overshimming can also put the fork so close to the pp that the throwout bearing will always be submitting some pressure on the fingers. The problem with the TOB that ACT supplies, is that the tabs that the retainer ring hook to are prone to break off- if you look at a picture of the OEM piece next to the ACT piece, youll see why. The ACT TOB is also metal sleeved, vs. plastic sleeved on the OEM piece to prevent excessive wear on the imput shaft.
I am very sure that your problem lies in the shims on the ball, however, if the flywheel is indeed stepped correctly, and you are still experiencing this issue after adressing the pivot ball, I would look into your new master and slave cylinders. Are these OEM? Reason being that the aftermarket units are known to have significant internal differences which have caused many people trouble.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

thanks for the input bro, im quite certain my issue lies in the shimming also but i am going to try and get the tranny out within the next week or two and have a thorough look at everything. im going to put an oem TOB in and im gonna put the Act flywheel back in too. unfortunately my master and slave are not oem. i hope those arent my issue :/ it appears that im having a good amount of travel in the slave but its justttttt shy of not dragging the clutch with everything adjusted to its max. im going insane .

 

[Nasty Dream]

it appears that im having a good amount of travel in the slave but its justttttt shy of not dragging the clutch with everything adjusted to its max. im going insane .

My ACT 2600 engaged at the top of the pedal when it was new. Told the guy at the shop and he said "oh, we can fix that". And now it engages too low ever since.

I recently heard ACT engage near the top for a while then it fixes itself after some use. But you should verify that.

Sorry I can't be any real help.

 

[dsmornothing]

Ever considered your shift cables?

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

i was thinking the shift cables could be an issue but they wouldnt cause the clutch to drag during a start in gear or a high rev in gear... would they ? as for the clutch settling in. i would love to just try and wait and see but the clutch drags just enough that i would have to powershift in order to drive the car and the tranny is too new for me to chance it :/

 

[twayne9mm]

I had same problem with 90 Laser RS. With 180000 miles I didn't want to spend too much time or money so I removed some material from where the clutch slave mounts. It is probably a last resort but it has worked for me for over 10000 miles and a year and half. I added some threaded rod to the master cylinder adjustment a few years back and that gave more length to the rod. Also there is a restrictor in the slave cylinder that slows down the hydraulic action that can be removed. The cable adjustment is critical and I believe can effect shifting at different rpms.