Nisif

I just picked up a hf crx with a ls swap for a good price, mainly because the prior owner didn't want to put any effort into fixing the car.
Anyways...The issue: the car will move upon startup if its in gear with the shift lever in the upward position. I didn't play around with the clutch cable adjustments yet, but I can easily hold the shift lever on the tranmission's bell housing in the upward position without any effort (same as depressing the clutch pedal if it was hooked up). Btw, it's a cable transmission.

Just wanted some insight and other possible outcomes to look for when I pull the tranny off. My best guess is that the spring for the throw-out bearing assembly is not connected correctly or either the flywheel bolts have backed out causing a restriction for the clutch to engage.

TIA, I'll post the outcome once I have the time to figure it out, but if you've experienced a similar problem I'd like to know the reason why so I can look for it when the tranny comes off.





Modified by Nisif at 3:52 AM 11/1/2007

Syner-G-Racing LLC

you pretty much have it figured out. if you can move the release fork with your hand the spring retainer that connects it to the release bearing has popped loose allow it to move freely with putting pressure on the plate. see if it will vertically wiggle...if so then the spring has definately popped loose. if not...you dont have a pressure plate, lol. heres a pic for reference

Nisif

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syner-G-Racing LLC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you pretty much have it figured out. if you can move the release fork with your hand the spring retainer that connects it to the release bearing has popped loose allow it to move freely with putting pressure on the plate. see if it will vertically wiggle...if so then the spring has definately popped loose. if not...you dont have a pressure plate, lol. heres a pic for reference

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Fortunately the pressure plate is in there, just pulled the starter . When you said "vertically wiggles" I'm assuming you're referring to the clutch release fork, in which case it does, move up and down by hand without any effort. Thanks for the diagram, I should have the transmission pulled by tomorrow night after work.

Syner-G-Racing LLC

cool, sounds like you've figured out your problem

Nisif

Well, the throw out bearing was installed correctly. The spring was mounted and the bolt was tightened down. Actually everything appeared normal. However, I believe it has the wrong pressure plate and clutch on the motor. I'm going to compare to the right parts and see what I find out.

Quick question for reference...When the pressure plate is tightened down on the block should the pressure plate fingers be flush or flared out? This is what it looked like after I pulled the tranny:

Syner-G-Racing LLC

well the pressure plate is engaged when there is no pressure on the "fingers" when you push the clutch it levers the pressure off the clutch disc allowing the flywheel/engine spin freely. so if your clutch is to the floor and the clutch is still engaged that means that the throwout bearing isnt depressing the springs on the pressure plate.

this couldbe because its the wrong throwout bearing (maybe to thin) could be the wrong pressure plate, could be that the pressure plate is way to tight or not aligned properly. these are all things to look into. post up some pics of the comparison.

the pressure plate does look alittle weak, the springs look alittle to flat, they usually stick up alittle more. break the torque and see if they look any better.

Nisif

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syner-G-Racing LLC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well the pressure plate is engaged when there is no pressure on the "fingers" when you push the clutch it levers the pressure off the clutch disc allowing the flywheel/engine spin freely. so if your clutch is to the floor and the clutch is still engaged that means that the throwout bearing isnt depressing the springs on the pressure plate.

this couldbe because its the wrong throwout bearing (maybe to thin) could be the wrong pressure plate, could be that the pressure plate is way to tight or not aligned properly. these are all things to look into. post up some pics of the comparison.

the pressure plate does look alittle weak, the springs look alittle to flat, they usually stick up alittle more. break the torque and see if they look any better.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well here's the update, would of been sooner but I've been busy lately. I have not put the tranny back on yet but here were my findings thus far. The pressure plate bolts were torqued fairly close to spec (19 ft lbs), so that wasn't an issue. The clutch disc had the correct-size diameter hole for the spline and the right amount of teeth.

However, the clutch disc varied slightly from an Autozone disc that I bought and an ACT clutch disc that I have which were designed for the 90-91 (smaller diameter spline). I refuse to put the ACT combo on the car because I intend to sell the car and not with a $400 clutch kit on it. The only difference between the clutch disc that came with the car and the Autozone and ACT disc was the diameter of inside circle, pic for reference:


The SECO disc that came with the car measured 5 3/16", while the Autozone and ACT clutch disc measured roughly 4 3/4" in diameter. It looked like the SECO disc was rubbing on the pressure plate's "fingers", so hopefully thats the issue. Maybe the SECO disc wasn't designed for that pressure plate??? I plan on using the pressure plate that the car came with but installing the Autozone clutch disc, which has a smaller inside circle diameter. Hopefully this will resolve the issue. Here's a snapshot of the 3 clutch discs from left to right: Seco disc it came with, Autozone disc, ACT disc:






Modified by Nisif at 3:44 AM 11/15/2007

Syner-G-Racing LLC

so your saying that the sprung hub was being pressed by the pressure plate? that happens when people have trouble hooking up the the tranny...they'll let the input shaft rest in the disc while they try to push it in and it wedges a corner of the disc hub under the pressure plate contact surface. have you tried putting the clutch disc on the pressure plate now that its off to see if it hits? if not it was just not aligned properly then.

Hondaruss

My pressure plate is the same way. the fingers are flat. I am running a F1 racing 1900lb pressure plate with a ACT Disk. and i am using a LS cable trans as well. Haven't had a lick of trouble with engagement. if you cant get the clusch to engage properly check see if the cable on the arm is adjusted properly and check to see if the clutch pedal assembly did not come loose form the fire wall i had it happen to 4 out of my 7 crx's

Nisif

I should of updated this sooner, fyi for anyone experiencing the same problem...

Turns out the original pressure plate was shot, because somewhere along the way the prior owner didn't torque the flywheel bolts to spec and they backed out onto the pressure plate.

I replaced the original p/p and clutch combo with an ACT setup that I had lying around and re-torqued the flywheel bolts to spec w/ loctite for added reinsurrance. Haven't had any problems since...