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

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

hahaha too funny man, ive been thinking about it believe me, anywho ive done pretty much every darn thing mentioned to this thing bro, my flywheel is a new one from ACT, my clutch is the 2900 i torqued the bolts to 18-20lbs if i remember correctly. new fork fulcrum and oem TOB. fork faces drivers side when installed. raised the safety switch up to the highest it will go so the pedal has full throw. i tried a mitsu master witch actually gave me less throw than the generic one i have now oddly. the slave is brand new "gone through 3 of them" im losing my mindddd im tempted to try this XTD stage 4 i have laying around just so i can drive the damn thing properly. i know it can handle my HP but i just want to drive it and then sell it

 

[kchaazz]

Do you want to try calling Jacks Transmissions? Theyre very knowledgeable and will speak with you on the phone about your issue and maybe after youve told them about everything youve done in attempt to fix the dragging issue, theyll be able to come up with something weve all missed. I fought the ACT release issue for years so I understand what youre going through.

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

yeh i suppose its worth trying to give him a shout, knowledgeable dude indeed. im at a complete loss as to what else it could be :/

 

[TheRealMRDyno]

If:
a) your master and slave are good
b) your master is adjusted to just the point where fluid can be pushed back into the reservoir when the pedal is up
c) there is no slop in your pedal assembly
d) you have a stiff stainless piece replacing any old rubber lines
then you have all the travel you are going to get.

A shim on the ball, or a longer rod on the slave, can move the range of motion of the throwout fork, but unless your flywheel has been machined to death, or your fork is bent, I think the built in range-of-adjustment would accomodate any range-of-motion changes.

So - is it possible that you bent the friction disk during the install of the clutch? If that disk is bent, then it will require more than the normal amount of throw to release, maybe a lot more. If you have driven with it this way, you might be able to tell by burned areas on the friction disk on opposite sides, 180 degrees out of phase with each other.

Straight from ACT via email:
-----------
On the DSM, the stock parts require about .175-.190” of bearing travel to release the disc. Our current HD PPL with our street disc requires about .155-175” and our Xtreme with our street disc requires about .185-.195”. With a puck disc, less travel is required.
-----------
From a video they made for me, the fingers hit the friction disk at about 0.300" with sprung hubs, sounds like it can not happen with unsprung hubs.

I am going to measure the fork ratio, so we can tell from the exposed fork movement if a) the thing is moving correctly, and should be releasing, indicating a bent friction disk, or b) if it is not moving enough, indicating a problem somewhere between the pedal and the bearing.

Good luck!

 

[JdawgDSM1G]

excellent info MRdyno, ill have to check asap. im tempted to shave a slight amount more off the flywheel to give the disk a little more space to float.

 

[madmstr]

How did re-stepping the flywheel work out? I'm having a problem with my clutch disengaging. I am also using an XTD flywheel that I am now suspecting.

 

[craracer05]

I am having the same exact issue:

Brand New

1.)master cylinder
2.)slave cylinder
3.)S.S. line
4.)Clutch fork
5.)Pivot ball
6.)Fidanza flywheel
7.)act 2600 pp
8.)street disc
9.)act TOB


I have also bleed the old school way and with a power bleeder.
Pulled the pedal assembly and welded it.
Adjusted to Jacks video as well, TOB is compressing the PP fingers and I can see the Plate lifting and pressure coming off the disc but still no disengagement.
I have tons of pedal pressure and the dang thing still wont disengage!!!

Once I fixed the pedal assembly I started getting grinding as soon as the TOB contacts the PP now.

 

[griffin81]

I I had similar problem. I had to rebleed system. Then I checked how my clutch pedal assembly replaced it a rebuilt cluth pedal from sheps racing. Then re adjusted clutch rod to get clutch to disengage clutch.

 

[TX D22A]

I dealt with a very similar problem recently. The clutch was bad on the car when I bought it because the transmission was held on by only the top two bolts. I ended up replacing the flywheel/pressure plate/disc with OEM replacements. I replaced or rebuilt every component in the hydraulic system and still couldn't get the clutch to disengage.

The third time I took the transmission out and pulled off the clutch, this fell out of the pressure plate:

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I assume it was from the packaging the clutch kit came in, and it had wedged itself inside the pressure plate where I couldn't see it.

This was the most frustrating problem I've ever had with any vehicle, and the hardest to diagnose.

 

[suprasalas]

ever found out what was it?

 

[craracer05]

I learned the hard way why people don't use act throw out bearings. Here's my thread.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/drivetrain-tech/470884-1g-awd-clutch-disengagemnet-isssue-noise.html

 

[Blaze4G63]

I have had the same problems for about a year, I installed a ACT2600 and my pedal is almost right off the floor which I hate, Im going to try to replace with a oem tob and see what happens. I also had a really loose trans mount so Idk if that was the problem but I know that was a facter. Also my trans bolts were an issue. so I orderd all now bolts and pray it works.

 

[craracer05]

Long time update, I tore my transmission down early last year and the center differential shims went and destroyed the center diff and the the main gear on the intermediate shaft. So needless to say I replaced the transmission and now everything shifts as it should. I bought the transmission off a forum member a long time ago and just trusted it was good, I should have opened it up and checked it out in the first place.