91 GSX

[1cleangsx]

Will do

 

[CrackedDSM]

How’s spool up on that bastard 20G? Any surge issues?

 

[TCB91GSX]

How’s spool up on that bastard 20G? Any surge issues?

No surge issues, it spools just as quick as a 16G, but instead of eating shit at 5500 rpm it holds on all the way up top.

 

[CrackedDSM]

No surge issues, it spools just as quick as a 16G, but instead of eating shit at 5500 rpm it holds on all the way up top.

Freakin awesome to hear. Gonna get him to do me one too in that case.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Here’s a short clip just tooling around a little bit with the 20G.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Freakin awesome to hear. Gonna get him to do me one too in that case.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Wrapping up water temp gauge install.

Drained the coolant, pulled the blank plug on the back of the thermostat housing and then installed the temp sensor there. Used liquid thread sealer, I’m going to be pissed if this thing leaks. If I did it again I’d just pull the whole housing I think. Using a stubby to slowly tighten it was no fun, nonetheless it’s in.

Then fabricated the gauge bezel from some carbon fiber flat stock. Pretty easy to work with, except cutting the hole for the gauge as it’s tough material to cut through since it gets hot quickly. Took a few breaks and finally got through.

Wired it up to my handy fuse box and tucked my wiring.

Still need to start the car and bleed the coolant system but it’s too cold for that at the moment.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Yo Everyone!

Let’s talk about chaos.


So car was somewhat in storage while I picked up a 240sx, that project has been taking up my time but I finally had to go pick it up from a friends place.


While driving home my clutch started slipping, seemed odd to me but it had been there for 100k mi so I figured it was time.


I purchased the following:
ACT Streetlite flywheel
ACT 2600 w/street disc
Clutch fork
Pivot ball
OEM TOB
ExtremePSI stainless clutch line

Dropped the transmission and found that the previous owner had shimmed the pivot ball with a small washer, smaller than a ARP one.

I had zero clue on this whole process and a friend helping said to leave it… so you can imagine where this update is going.

I posted a thread about a seal intermittently leaking, I had purchased the seal so I replaced the input shaft seal while the transmission was out.

Put everything back together, which I’ll note that everything came apart and went back together almost perfectly.

Bleed/adjust the clutch, clutch engages basically at the floor. My master and slave had seen better days so we called it a night and I ordered a rebuild kit and a new slave.

Pulled the master cylinder, rebuilt it, put it back in with the new slave, bleed everything only to get slightly better results.

At this point I start to suspect either pivot ball needs less/more shimming or pedal assy.

I wanted to isolate the issue, luckily I have 5 or so master cylinders laying around so I pulled a rod from one and swapped it in, I got varying results.
I adjusted it all the way out to the point where the master cylinder bleeder was blocked then backed it off, when the pedal was in this position the engagement was good but the car would shutter.

I adjusted the clutch pedal counter-clockwise roughly one turn and I now have a manageable engagement point and the clutch was not shuttering, I drove the car maybe 5 or so miles and it felt like a new clutch.
I still need to do a clutch drag test.


And before you ask, no I didn’t check my flywheel step height, why ? Bcz I wasn’t as educated as I am now.


Questions for you reading this,
The way I understand the extended master rod being my fix is that it’s not permanent, trust me I want to make sure this car has longetivty so I do not want to do anything that will cause problems down the road.

The way I am thinking about this is that the extended master rod is eliminating my pedal slop, I intend to pull my assy and weld a nut in place w/brass bushing. Until then I want to know if I should be assuming that is my permanent fix or if I should drop the transmission and shim my life away.

Please comment so I don’t have to make another thread about clutch engagement.

Thanks.

 

[dwb]

With a new flywheel, new pivot ball, new TOB, and new fork, a pivot ball shim is not necessary. I use a shim only because my flywheel has been machined a few times. In the pics of your clutch fork, it looks a bit far to the right to me. It should be pretty much centered in the bell housing cutout. Hard to say if that's causing you any issues, but that's the result of the pivot ball shim and/or something else out of spec like the FW step.

I think you still have an air bubble in your line or more likely in the slave. Bleed it out a few more times and when you have the bleeder open, push the slave all the way in with your hand, hold it and close the bleeder. There's a spot in the slave cyl that will trap an air bubble that won't easily come out just by working the clutch pedal.

Edit: Just noticed you're in Denver. Always nice to see another DSMer in CO!

 

[habitatguy187]

If it’s in your pedal assembly, address the issue there rather than shimming the pivot ball more. When you shim the pivot, it puts more pressure on the throw out bearing….constantly. I feel that shimmed pivot balls lead to prematurely worn/failed tobs.

 

[Mech Addict]

I dealt with both issues in the course of replacing nearly everything in my transmission system. I believe they are two different issues.
The longer mc rod compensates for wear in the pedal shaft to clutch lever joint. Welding in the correct position is one fix, and a longer rod is another. Is welding more “permanent “? I have read posts about the weld failing, so maybe not. The longer rod makes up for the fact that you physically can’t push the pedal through the firewall. Once the mc is adjusted for max stroke, that’s all you get. Sounds like you had that dialed.
The pivot shim moves the TO closer to the clutch fingers, so that slave travel is not wasted, or that the fork lever doesn’t hit the edge of the bellhousing window. If the TO is already close enough to the fingers, and the lever doesn’t hit the edge, then the shim might increase bearing wear. When the total distance of the crank flange to the fingers is leas than OEM spec, the shim restores proper geometry.
I used a new oem mc, and then had to buy a 2g mc for the rod to get the pedal travel to spec. I installed a freshly rebuilt trans with new slave, full oem (exedy) kit w / TO, freshly machined oem flywheel that had step height checked, and had to pull the trans right away to add a shim. Used one grade 8 washer.
My setup is as stock as it can be, save the 2g rod and washer. A world better than it was before all that.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Max stroke for me made the clutch feel like it was shuttering. That master rod isn’t a 2g one, just one I had laying around.
What felt good was backing off about 1 or so turn from max.

Super appreciate everyone’s responses thus far!

 

[Vegas Smith]

As previously mentioned, all you need for the clutch system to work correctly is a solid slave, master, pedal assembly, flywheel step height and a fluid bleed. Anything like shims or extended rods are unnecessary. Get speed bleeder valves for slave cylinder and also bleed the slave by hand for the cherry on top. Pull the pedal and install bronze bushing. Not as bad as it's made out to be. Would suck if it's the flywheel...

 

[TCB91GSX]

Is this video the definition of pedal slop? Clutch adjusted all the way in.

Clutch drags at 7K. Go figure.
2g master rod pulled out.

Back to the basics. Waiting on a bushing and some other components to rebuild the pedal assy.

 

[DSMPT]

I think that single disc clutch starts to drag at around 7000 RPM is normal. If you don't want the dragging at 7000+ RPM, maybe it's time to go with a multi plate clutch. Anyways extended rod on cylinders may cause a bad ending.
When I had single disc clutch (from eBay clutch to ACT2900), I was battling with clutch drag. Tried everything I could, including extended rod on cylinders, shimming etc, and the best I could make was somewhere around 7000~7200 RPM. Whatever I did, it started dragging at around that RPM range with a single disc, so I believe that it's the limit with a single disc. After I got a multi plate clutch, I have never been bothered by the clutch drag. It doesn't drag even 8000 RPM.

 

[TCB91GSX]

New used clutch assembly arrived so I began pulling the old one.

It took me 3 hours to get it out, tore so much shit out trying to get it to come free.


Anyways, I don’t think it’s the problem or I am not understanding something. The bushing was intact yet there was some evidence of wear on the shaft. So I rebuilt my used clutch assembly I got with new plastic/brass bushings, re-greased it, and put it back together.

Unfortunately the lever RTM sent me was assembled incorrectly from Mitsubishi ? Very odd, the part where the spring goes in has a bushing that was pressed in on the wrong side.
While putting the lever on I just used the best one between the two that had the least amount of slop. I have someone locally that could weld it but I’m concerned about that wrong position, however it seems like it can only be in one position either all the way up or all the way down.

If someone could offer some insight on the welding that would be awesome. Otherwise I think I’m just going to throw it back in bolted together.


Lastly, I’d rather pull a motor than pull that assembly out again mainly cause now I have to bleed my brakes

 

[1cleangsx]

I’m still fighting clutch drag at 7000 rpm on a South Bend SSX/b series. Freshly re built pedal assembly with immediate travel of the MC rod once the pedal is pressed. I’m contemplating swapping out to a lighter plate, but the car barely moves at 7 grand but it still bothers me. I haven’t tried a fast 2-3 shift yet because I’m concerned for my synchros

 

[TCB91GSX]

If it drags at 7k but at 6800 it’s fine, would it be ok to just set your rev limiter at 6800 and just call it day ?
That’s what I’m curious about.


I got the pedal welded today.

We’ll see what happens.

 

[We're on Boost]

I got the pedal welded today.

You are taking some good photos that show detail really well. Are you a photog enthusiast, or is this just happening by accident?

 

[Mech Addict]

That weld looks permanent. Slop in the arm is no longer relevant. I assume you got a bronze bushing for that end of the shaft?
You asked about the correct alignment to weld it. Obviously this answer is too late for you, but for posterity I’d suggest that twisting it as much CCW when viewed from the pass.-side end is best. Slop in the normal mating surface causes it to skew clockwise under load.

 

[TCB91GSX]

Yea I read some other threads to figure out the position. To be honest there wasn’t a ton of slop in the lever I ended up using. But yea I tried to put as close to the firewall as possible. It’s kind of hard to really determine since it’s loaded with the spring. Yup I threw the bronze bushing in there.

 

[TCB91GSX]

You are taking some good photos that show detail really well. Are you a photog enthusiast, or is this just happening by accident?

Haha, I try to take useful photos, not only for my own reference but also for others. It does help my friend laid down a very pretty weld.

 

[1cleangsx]

All my slop was in the lever, I didn’t bother welding the nut but replace the plastic with the bronze.

 

[1cleangsx]

And again, this fixed my pedal slop and delayed MC rod engagement, but this clutch still drags at 7000

 

[dwb]

And again, this fixed my pedal slop and delayed MC rod engagement, but this clutch still drags at 7000

Maybe I missed it but where does your clutch engage now that you have your clutch pedal rebuilt? Still almost on the floor?