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

 

[dsmornothing]

Cables can cause alot of issues. But it is sounding like more of a clutch issue. is your flywheel stepped right? Is it a stock flywheel?

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeh its a lightened and stepped stocker stepped .610. i tried the extended slave rod witch offered me no help so i figure removing some of the metal from the slave mounts probably wont get me any where. but i am certainly gonna remove the restrictor in the slave. i had seen that before but wasn't sure if u would F something up by taking it out.

 

[TRBOBLU]

yeh its a lightened and stepped stocker stepped .610. i tried the extended slave rod witch offered me no help so i figure removing some of the metal from the slave mounts probably wont get me any where. but i am certainly gonna remove the restrictor in the slave. i had seen that before but wasn't sure if u would F something up by taking it out.

Did you verify the step height for yourself? If not, it is possible for it to be off. I have seen in numerous times even after the shops were told exactly what the step height should be.

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

I don't feel like reading the entire thread again. Have you tried a new master/slave cylinder yet?

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

if you mean have i replaced the original master and slave then yes, but i have yet to try another set since then. im hoping to avoid that because both the master and slave are brand new, and im not sure just how much an oem master and slave are but im betting they aren't too cheap :/ but if all eltse fails that is something i plan on doing.

i didnt check the step height myself but im putting an act flywheel in next week so hopefully that sucker is stepped properly

 

[rbwtrans]

have you checked to make sure that the clutch disc is not binding on the input shaft? If the disc does not move freely, then it will not disengage properly since it can't move away from the flywheel when the pressure plate releases.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

no i have not, whats an effective way to see if the disc is binding? look through the slave boot maby?

 

[Rogi]

This will probably doesn't make sense but I had the same problem a while back on a honda, my mechanic after loooking, trying lots of things put washers in between the pressure plate and the flywheel and it worked like a charm

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

i have heard of that fix before, but ive also heard its a biggggg no no , especially with my cars HP :/

 

[rbwtrans]

no i have not, whats an effective way to see if the disc is binding? look through the slave boot maby?

I got the impression that you were going to pull the transmission, so I would say that the best way is to remove the disc from between the pressure plate and the flywheel, then slide it on the input shaft. I'd also check to make sure that the disc is in properly, as well as evenly torquing the pressure plate bolts.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeah i plan on removing it as soon as i can get it to my grandfathers shop "he has a lift" i tried messing with it once again today and no luck i even tried another super long slave rod but it offerd no help, "im not bothering with those stupid things after i find out the real issue, i hear they cause more issue than they help" but its got to be something internal because the slave is moving a TON and the damn clutch is still not disengaging i tried to take it down the road but the clutch was smocking up so i dare not bother. last thing i need is to fry the disc. i have new 4 puck lying around im worndering if i should just opt for tossing that in any way "my worries was that its a sprung unit and i hear they can be an issue :/ "

 

[kchaazz]

^^ Definitely do what RBWTRANS has suggested. When you pull the tranny, take the pp off the flywheel, then slide the disc onto the input shaft of the tranny and make sure that the disc can slide freely up and down the splines. Id hit the splines lightly with a wire brush, and use a very small amount of grease on the splines to ensure no binding will occur. (very small amount; too much and the grease will sling around and find its way onto the friction surface of the disk) Also, I never stopped to think about the possibility of your pp bolts being the culprit. Are they oem bolts with the oem washers? They need to be, and torqued just right as well because the clutch is very sensitive to this. I had a friend who over torqued these and his clutch wouldnt even release at all...

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

sweet you guys left me with some hope . im dying to drive my damn car and this issue has been plaguing me for farrrrr to long. i picked up my factory throw out bearing from mitsu today. dont need the act one quitting out on me. im going to put the streetlight flywheel in this weekend and also contemplating on tossing in a sprung four puck i have, although i dont want to lose all road drive ability so idk :/

 

[this_tsi_8urV8]

Sprung puck makes it easier to drive and is easier on drivetrain.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeah so i hear, but i also hear that 4 pucks in general are a real pain to deal with on the road period , ive never had the experience in being in a vehicle that has one so im def nervous :/

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

so ive yanked the tranny out today, and ive checked a few things nothing looked too out of the ordinary so i decided to toss this pic on because im not sure if the teeth on my pressure plate are too flat, mind you this is fully torqued and what not so let me know what you think, and also about two or three of the teeth are ever so slightly bent inward from the rest, do you think thats cause for concern? its kind of noticable in the picture.

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Picture

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

Looks fine. What are your pressure plate bolts torqued to? Should be 22-24ft/lbs.

 

[joshcarp81]

ill put money on your pp fingers being too flat and not allowing enough travel to disengage properly
I just bought a 91 tsi awd a month ago with this issue and tried the easy stuff first ended up pulling the tranny and putting on a new fork and pivot ball (btw it was a act 2600) replaced the tranny....still same problem so i yanked it again and replaced with an oem unit and voila the fingers werent so flat and no shims under pivot ball either.
i did have an extended slave rod on it but pulled it because it grabbed to close to floor.
after all this it now works great
couldnt be happier
just seems to me these act clutches are too hit and miss as far as quality
the clutch that was in my car was less than 6 months old and less than 6000 miles on it....
just my .02

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

so i buttoned up the transmission this morning, shimmed and measured the fulcrum, lubed the input shaft so the clutch disk wouldn't bind. torqued and locktited everything. and the damn thing still wont work... i had gotten so aggravated with the clutch that i started pumping the clutch pedal like crazy "out of anger " and all of a sudden the thing got nice and sold as an act 2900 should, so i was friggen happy as hell, i took a good hour adjusting the master rod to just perfect "the clutch was actually overthrowing after its new found pressure" so i started the car up and bam went into gear with out a problem. i then proceeded to back the car up. i then pushed the pedal back down to go in first gear, and it started grinding, i pushed the pedal in again and it went from being super firm to absolutely limp..... ughh idk wth is going on but im getting so frustrated its killing me, ive put a solid 30+ hours into working on the damn car this weekend alone....

 

[Bouche Dag]

Sounds like you still have air trapped in the lines...

I think you need to scrap the after market master and slave cylinders.

Throw mitsu master and slave cylinders on there, bleed the crap out of it, then bleed it some more, and then even more. These hydraulic clutch systems love to have scant amounts of air trapped in them after copious bleeding.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

i guess so, know any good places to get the oem set? other than the craptastic dealer :/

Is the exedy slave/master kits on ebay any good? the oem kits is over 200$ :/ heres a link to the exedy

NEW CLUTCH MASTER& SLAVE CYLINDER 90-93 ECLIPSE GSX AWD | eBay

i also picked this up, hopefully the combination will bring my clutch to life ughhh

EXTREME PSI : Your #1 Source for In Stock Performance Parts

 

[Colip]

At this point, don't chance it. I'd go OE all the way with the slave/master. Don't spend the money three times. Definitely sounds like a hydraulic issue, and I imagine after the next round of repairs that you'll be trouble free. Hey, at least you aren't dropping the trans again!

- Jon

 

[kchaazz]

Bleed the slave independently of the master: Get under the car and attach your hose to the bleeder and submerge into your little "can" of brake fluid. Crack the bleeder and either go push the clutch pedal to the floor or have a friend do it. Now just leave the pedal down and get back under the car. Close the bleeder and push the fork to the drivers side to push the slave rod in and then crack the bleeder and watch for air. Do this a few times and then try your clutch again. Just make sure you dont empty the reservoir at the master...

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeah jon your super right, i figure ill toss in the stainless line and try one more bleed via kchaazz's idea, and if that dosent work then ill break down and buy the oem pair, effin shame how much they go for ughhh but after the amount ive spent on this damn thing i just want to drive it, i took it for a spin yesterday while the clutch was semi working, first time since the new turbo, all i can say is balls to the wall!!!

 

[badbluething]

i also installed a an act 2900 clutch. took it through three garages before they could get the clutch to disengage. turns out it was a combination of the throw out bearing and damaged clutch pedal assembly. sucks it turned out to be the simple mechanics when i went threw all the hassle of buying all new masters and slaves. i am greatly against the slave cyclinder extension rod tho..