Legion

I installed a freshly rebuilt transmission along with a new clutch/flywheel only 5,000 miles ago. For the past 1,000 miles or so, It was becoming harder and harder to go into first gear; it almost felt like the clutch wasn't fully disengaging.

Yesterday I pulled the dust cover away from the shift fork and noticed that the fork was wobbling, like something was out of balance. So today I ripped everything apart, and I can't find any problems!

The pilot/throwout bearings look good. Clutch looks good. I pulled apart the trans and everything inside looks good. What gives! What would make it hard to go into 1st gear?

What are the signs of a faulty clutch? Maybe a bent mainshaft? Or out of balance clutch? I need to figure this out ASAP. I have to get this bitch up and running for work tomorrow

(p.s. - Tech/Misc doesn't have enough traffic/knowledge to help me)

gmacarize

pressure pate torqued down correctly, any of the fingers bent? are you putting it in first gear when u are at a STOP, thats a must for honda trans.

RCautoworks

What stage clutch, and is it a cable trans ? I have seen the cables stretch with some harsh clutches.

Legion

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gmacarize &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pressure pate torqued down correctly, any of the fingers bent? are you putting it in first gear when u are at a STOP, thats a must for honda trans. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Pressure plate was correctly torqued. The fingers look perfect. I couldn't put it in gear under any condition, unless the motor was off.

Legion

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RCautoworks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What stage clutch, and is it a cable trans ? I have seen the cables stretch with some harsh clutches. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Clutch Specialties 350 ft-lb D-series clutch. Hydro.

I just finished re-assembling my trans. Everything looked PERFECT. All I can think of is that I have a faulty clutch . Purchased here on H-T from a vendor.

RCautoworks

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Semtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Clutch Specialties 350 ft-lb D-series clutch. Hydro.

I just finished re-assembling my trans. Everything looked PERFECT. All I can think of is that I have a faulty clutch . Purchased here on H-T from a vendor.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you purchased it from lsd, they will take care of you if its faulty. Did you inspect the springs, sure the fork is not bent ?

Legion

Nothing looks bent. I thoroughly inspected the shift forks, clutch fork, and pressure plate. I'm just thinking it's the clutch (pressure plate) because I'm all out of ideas

I think I'm just going to throw everything back together and pray that I inadvertently solved the problem.

DaveF

maybe you are either .....

A. not pushing the pedal down far enough, which doesnt allow the trans to shift smooth.

B. pushing it down to far, which doesnt allow the trans to shift smooth.


i say, play with the pedal adjustment.

spoolingb20

The new flywheel that you went with was it all OEM specs with the same clearances as the previous one. Could be when you first installed it the clutch was engaging and now with a little wear it is past the point beacuse it was to close from the start. I have seen some resurfaced ones that had to much taken off and shims were needed to compensate. Just a thought.
With the car off can you manually grab the levers at the trans and shift it into any gear? If so it could deff indicate a linkage issue. If you cant this could indicate bent shift forks inside.
You should as well have someone view up through the inspection plate while you engage the cluch with it running and see what is going on there.

gmacarize

bleed the slave cylinder and make sure thats working properly too, because if it wasnt you would have the exact same problem you seem to be having and would only be able to shift it into gear while stoped and engine off...

GuNnErGoD

A faulty throwout bearing looks exactly the same as a brand new one: there's no way to tell by eye. Try replacing that before putting money into anymore serious endeavors.

Legion

Sweet Jesus, it just dawned on me - throwout bearings aren't symmetrical!

Every time I've ever installed a t.o. bearing, I've always just thrown it on. I think my ignorance finally caught up to me. Does anyone have a diagram that shows which way it goes on?

Legion

Which way is it supposed to go? My Helms doesn't even specify.

*(Note how the tabs don't match up with the bearing centerline)

RCautoworks

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">maybe you are either .....

A. not pushing the pedal down far enough, which doesnt allow the trans to shift smooth.

B. pushing it down to far, which doesnt allow the trans to shift smooth.


i say, play with the pedal adjustment. </TD></TR></TABLE>

How can you push it down to far ? And how do you adjust the pedal on a hydro car ?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sem-tech &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Which way is it supposed to go? My Helms doesn't even specify.

*(Note how the tabs don't match up with the bearing centerline)

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

I don't think it matters.

Legion

You know what, I think the Nachi bearing I was using is just a piece of crap. I think it's SUPPOSED to be symmetical, it just isn't.

I'm going to install the old NSK bearing I was using before I installed the clutch. Just by visual comparison, the NSK blows the Nachi out of the water.

DaveF

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RCautoworks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

How can you push it down to far ? And how do you adjust the pedal on a hydro car ?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

if you take all the free play out of the pedal, you can easily over throw the clutch.

pedal adjustment screw.

IntegraTypeR

iTrader: (1)

before all of that did you try bleeding the slave cylinder? if you did was there any bubbles in the line? my guess is that there was bubbles in your clutch line that didnt give the fork enough pressure for it to get fully pushed in! 1st gear and Reverse are very sensitive!

does this make sense?

Legion

Here's what I tried in weeks past:

-Brand new master/slave cylinders
-Countless, countless hours spent bleeding the lines
-All forms of pedal adjustment, from proper pedal height to maximum throw


And after today:

-Everything inside the trans is perfect. The entire 1st gear sleeve set looks brand new.
-Pilot bearing is good
-Shift fork is good
-T.O. bearing is probably good, but I replaced it with an NSK bearing anyway
-Clutch disc/pp both look good
-Pressure plate properly torqued


It's 3am and I just washed up . All I have to do is throw the wheels back on and I'll fire her up tomorrow. Hopefully the problem magically fixed itself. If not, I'll have absolutely NO idea what to try next. I really never found out anything that could have caused the problem.

Legion

I was actually curious about one thing. Usually, when you unbolt the slave cyl. and the piston fully extends itself, all you have to do is push it back in when you bolt the slave cyl. back onto the block.

But today, I couldn't get the piston to push back. I had to open the bleeder valve as I pushed the piston and let fluid leak out before the piston would push back into the cylinder.

Is this because the slave is new and has tighter seals, or is it faulty?

Legion

Argh, I threw the car back together today and it drove like a DREAM on the way to work. Then on the way home, the old problem started coming back, and by the time I got home, I could barely get into 1st gear again

Could this be a fluid issue? I refilled with 2qts Honda MTF, as per Helms requirement. Maybe I should pour more in? I wonder if maybe my OBX LSD is holding some extra fluid and the gears are starving. I can't think of any other reason why the problem was gone this morning, and now it's back.

IntegraTypeR

iTrader: (1)

fill it to the top until the fill plug hole start to leak....leave it there for a while until the leak stops and then close it with the plug/bolt...check your shift linkage for any bends or damage! are you using a short shifter by any chance? is the dowel pin still there on the linkage? did you check your selector condition?

sorry trying to give you hints on where to look and possibly that might help to find the problem

mike93eh2

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

if you take all the free play out of the pedal, you can easily over throw the clutch.

pedal adjustment screw. </TD></TR></TABLE>

will that make you grind gears? how do you know where the pedal is good at?

Legion

**UPDATE**

For the record...

Trouble-shooting procedures:

1. Adjusted clutch pedal.
2. Replaced master/slave cylinders.
3. Bled lines for HOURS.
4. Replaced throwout/pilot bearings.
5. REBUILT THE FREAKIN TRANS.

After all that ****, I put it back together and it still had the same ******* problem. Just when I was ready to start murdering people, I decided to try one last ditch effort... So I drained the fluid and refilled with Syncromesh. Like magic, THE PROBLEM WAS FIXED! Shifting even continued to improve during the next few weeks of driving. So now I can get into first gear no problem and the gears shift so smooth it's unreal.

Moral of the story: BELIEVE the synchromesh hype. I used to believe that it was just a band-aid to mask a real problem, but it's not - it's God's miracle cure. I can't believe I pulled apart my trans for no reason

JDMCRX

iTrader: (2)

Anotther thing. Your shift linkage. Is the universal joint seized??. How was the 1st to 2nd syncro hub ??

b16a4

bump for good info, where can i order this fluid?