court76wi

I'm out of free travel but my clutch won't disengage either. Help! Details below.

I have '88 CRX Si that I recently had the flywheel, clutch, and pressure place replaced. Since I have a '88 transmission, I purchased a flywheel and new clutch kit for a 90-91 CRX Si (clutch size from 190 to 212 mm). I also acquired at 20 spline mainshaft from '90 transmission and had that interchanged so the clutch disc would work. I use my CRX for autocross, and starting this year hot lapping, which is why I want the larger clutch.

I have a 90-91 Fidanza aluminum flywheel, 90-91 ACT HD pressure plate, and 90-91 ACT spring loaded 6 button clutch. I've confirmed all the part numbers and they are all correct for a 90-91 CRX. I had a local garage install all the components on Friday. When I picked it up they mentioned that I barely have any free travel left on the clutch. I took it out for a drive today, and towards the end of my trip the car kept getting harder and harder to put into gear, until the point it was almost impossible. Long story short, my clutch wasn't fully disengaging. When I would get the car in gear at a dead stop, you could still feel the engine pulling the car forward.

I took a look under the hood, my first guess would be the opposite in that I would have too much free travel, even though the clutch pedal didn't feel like it. The clutch cable adjustment is at the very end of its limit (all visible threads are at the top). I also lifted up on the clutch cable itself to check for any slop and there wasn't any. I lifted up manually on the clutch housing lever itself, and after raising it roughly 1/8" I can hear the release bearing make contact.

So I have very little free travel, and I'm out of adjustment on the clutch cable to add more free travel. However my clutch isn't disengaging completely either. First two guesses would either be a stretched clutch cable or the clutch is somehow getting hung up on the mainshaft.

Any ideas? I'm going to call ACT and Fidanza to see if there's any incompatibility issues, but has anyone run into something like this before??

Thanks.

court76wi

Does anyone know the symptoms if a clutch disc was installed backwards??

97grnrs

its not really poss to put a honda disc in backwards. it wont fit. and i have the act 4 puck clutch kit in mine and its all the way adjusted and could maybe use a tad more but it is far as it gets. i was thinkin to slightly bend the bracket upward a bit

court76wi

If the free travel was the only issue, I was thinking about modifying the bracket to allow more adjustment to be dialed in.

The odd part is that I can't get the clutch to release. I haven't started my car up since, but it seems like it got worse as the clutch "heated up" so to say...

MoonScryer

For the adjuster to be at the "bottom" of its travel - the adjustment wheel is at the bottom of the threaded part, if I read right, - it would leave the TO bearing sitting at the very end of the input shaft pressed in to the pressure plate. The arm on the transmission would be pulled all the way up.

Have you tried moving the adjuster to the halfway point on the threaded part? If you have done such, have you tried pressing down on the arm itself to see if it will go down - this would cause the TO bearing to move back toward the transmission on the input shaft, away from the clutch.

If after moving the adjuster wheel to half way and the arm won't go down or get a couple inches of up/down play in it, either the TO bearing spring part isn't holding the TO bearing correctly, or the TO bearing is getting hung up in the pressure plate. Both require removal of the transmission to check.

court76wi

I can't move the adjuster to the halfway point. I can physically do it, and the clutch arm will drop, but then I can't get the clutch to disengage with a full pedal push. The clutch arm needs to be almost pushing the TO (release) bearing against the pressure plate fingers in order to completely disengage the clutch when you push down on the clutch pedal.

I'm getting some direction that either my clutch cable could be stretched or the firewall anchor point for the cable may be flexing. (at least to check first before dropping the transmission). The firewall seems to be fine, but unfortunately I can’t see where the clutch cable attaches to the top of the pedal, so I don’t know how far the clutch arm should move with a full pedal press.

Right now a full press on the clutch pedal only raises the clutch arm about 1”. To me that seems awfully short. Does anyone have any idea on how much travel I should see on the clutch arm???

Thanks.

ludenoob99

ok get a buddy and do some quick tests. can you manualy get uner the hood and push the clutch fork to dissenguage the clutch? if you can then you know you have a problem with your cable adjustment/pedal adjustment. if not then you have an internal problem, which would most likely be some sort of mismatched part in your clutch system that you put in. your TOB need to be able to pres onto the fingers of the pressure plate enough to move them in to dissenguage the clutch. if the TOB is not reaching the pressure plate fingers then you have the wrong TOB or the wrong pressure plate, if it is pressing the fingers down but the clutch s still not releaseing, then you could possibly also have a inncorect clutch disc it may be too thick for your aplication which could drag because the pressure plate is designed for a thiner clutch.

Chiovnidca

Have you checked the pedal bracket? They tend to break and cause the release arm less movement. They can also flex a lot with heavy plates. I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one to run into this.


Modified by Chiovnidca at 8:58 AM 1/19/2008

court76wi

Thanks for the help guys. I think I found out what the problem is, and maybe this might be a good sticky. First, there isn't anything wrong with the clutch cable, brackets, or firewall. So nothing is stretching, flexing, or incorrectly installed. Flywheel is correct w/ step height, and clutch disc is correct. The disengagement problem I had was due to a free travel change after the clutch was worn some. The free travel was taken out again and now it shifts, but again not the best. I spoke to ACT for quite a while regarding the kit. The mechanic I go to used to be on a RealTime Acura team years ago so we think we have it nailed.

Ever since the new components were put on my car, he never did like the clutch adjustment, position of the clutch arm, or the pedal feel. He commented that the geometry of the pressure plate didn't seem correct. 90-91 Civics and CRXs have a cable clutch. 92-95 Civics have a hydraulic clutch. When you look for performance replacements (ACT and CenterForce were two I looked at) they show the same model pressure plates for the 90-95 years. Performance flywheels are also the same part number for 90 and beyond which allows identical pressure plates on the same years. So most likely they're using a pressure plate that was designed for the hydraulic clutches on the cable clutches. When you look at Honda OEM or OEM replacements they have a separation in part numbers between 91 and 92, so there is an actual difference in the pressure plates when the switch was made from cable to hydraulic. The ACT pressure plate still works, but the clutch disengages with minimum pedal left and almost no free travel dialed in.

My mechanic had the same problem on an older track car (91 Civic) when they were accidentally sent a clutch kit for a hydraulic transmission instead of the cable transmission they were running. Everything fit, but he outcome was basically the same. Full clutch pedal travel, minimal disengagement. They got the correct kit and the adjustments, free travel, and disengagement/engagement were back to normal - clutch disc wasn't different, but the pressure plate was different.

This isn't confirmed, but I'm going to get an OEM type pressure plate next week. Either Fuji Carbon or Daiken. If the clutch travel returns to normal, I'll update this thread with the results of what we find.

We're pretty sure that's the problem, it's a hydraulic pressure plate that "happens" to work on a cable clutch. Since it works though it's not technically defective. I found another forum post were someone installed a ACT kit on a '90 Civic, and they had to completely remove the free travel as well to make it work.

snm95ls

I hate to bump an old thread, but did the pressure plate change fix the disengagement issue?

I am having a similar problem. It has been like this every since the swap was in my old 92 GSR.

bruiserdee

I have a 92 integra with cable tranny. When the car is rolling in first gear and my foot is all the way down on the clutch. The rpms are dropping low, wanting to stall out. I have to take shifter out of first into neutral to keep car runnin. And sometimes I have to put car into reverse for it to shift into first but while shifting in reverse, its a really harsh shift. I sometime cant even cant find any gears. Early in the morning before going to work, it shifts right into first with no problems. Recently bought integra to tune but cant get pass this. Can someone pleas help, thanks.

bruiserdee

I have a 92 integra with cable tranny. When the car is rolling in first gear and my foot is all the way down on the clutch. The rpms are dropping low, wanting to stall out. I have to take shifter out of first and into neutral to keep car runnin. And sometimes I have to put car into reverse for it to shift into first. Was your problem similiar to mine? If so can you help me out?

court76wi

Sorry, I guess I'm over 2 years late with my reply. I no longer had this subscribed.

Yes the OEM type pressure plate fixed the issues. Disengagement, free travel, etc. The "perfromance" pressure plate was the problem, they supplied the hydro style plate to use with a cable transmission. The geometry was off in regards to the required pedal travel.