Hey guys, used to be a member way back in the day, been gone a while, I'm back!

Let's get too it,
Purchased a 97 hatch with a b16a2, gsr transmission.

Initial symptoms
Car will not go into gear while running.
Shut the car off, car will go into any gear fine. Put car in 1St gear, clutch in, start the car and it lurches forward like clutch is not disengaging.
Clutch pedal feels good. No leaks from master or slave. Clutch fluid full. Can watch the slave pushing fork.

I thought, maybe the pressure plate is bad? Let's pull it apart and see what's going on.

Tranny dropped, pressure plate and clutch removed
Okay, so noticeable noise from throw out bearing and input shaft bearings, but both still spin.

Not exactly sure on how throw out bearing is supposed to operate. You can push it out, but it doesnt return to place. Kinda thought it would have a stiff spring pushing back? I guess I'm about to watch some youtube videos on that.

ACT clutch, supposedly stage 2.
ACT pressure plate
Exedy flywheel

All look okay to me, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Was hoping it would be obviously broken.
Pressure plate is dirty as hell, with buildup of gummy oil around engagement surface, but surface is nice and smooth, no grooves.



Clutch disc looks okay, only thing I can wonder about, is 2 of the 4 springs are loose. 2 I can barely wiggle, and 2 I can rotate pretty easily with my fingers.
Is this disc worn out?
​​​There is a tiny chip on one of the edges, other then that, looks great.
Flywheel side
Pressure plate side
While uploading, looking at these pictures, sort of looks like it's been wearing uneven. Is it worn down so much that it would not engage?? Surely not.

Any help, ideas, input woukd be great.
Thanks!

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*Update to my own post

Looked over that pressure plate again, noticed on the inside some sort of tension rod that's broken. Would that broken rod result in pressure plate failure?

Broken rod
Wound normally

 

The wear looks a bit uneven on the flywheel too, looks like it has a couple hot spots. That being said I'm not really sure what the issue is, I've pulled clutches before that were still functional and looked worse than this.

 

I think you meant pressure plate

 

Clutch needs to be replaced. It's worn down to the rivets in both sides.





eH.

 

Yeah it is into the rivets. But would that cause a no gear situation?

 

Really doesn't matter. You've already confirmed it's the clutch/pressure plate assembly with your running no go, car off slips into gear.

Replace the clutch, pressure plate and have the flywheel resurfaced and your car should be operating properly again.

 

To your original post, the bearing has a passive return, the springs (fingers) on the pressure plate push it back. The broken piece you saw was just the end of the circlip, it's not a complete circle. The pressure plate basically canterlevers the disc away from the friction plate on the splines to create a gap allowing the input shaft to spin on the pilot bearing. If the input shaft is spinning for any reason so will the transmission.
In neutral no gears are engaged so it's less of an issue. So basically you have power going to your transmission with the clutch depressed, as a plate wears the gap becomes larger not allowing the pressure plate to fully close that gap making the clutch slip and usually you can engage the transmission with the pedal barely depressed.
You describe the opposite, either the throw out bearing is not pushing far enough, the plate is sticking to the flywheel (sometimes if the rivets are exposed they rust) or the pilot bearing has failed locking onto the end of the input shaft. If you put a new friction plate in I would suspect the problem to return without being able to release the new thicker plate fully, your pressure plate may just be worn but that's hard to tell without physical damage. Check the rest of the mechanism just as carefully

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Ended up resurfacing the flywheel, and installing a Exedy OEM clutch kit, so throwout bearing, pilot bearing, clutch disc and pressure plate a few weeks ago. All is well now.

Also did an oem Honda rear main seal while I was in there. Seemed to be leaking a bit.

Thanks!