WELL... for the past 33 hrs straight i ALONE have been working on my eg hatch. Im under the gun here...
SO... i take out the tranny and everything infront of the rad support to fix my front end from a situation that occured 2 days before xmas (see signature for thread link). I changed the clutch, pressure plate, and throwout bearing (all OEM). i followed the Haynes manual and took the 3 distributor mounting bolts off-removing the distributor.

NOW.. i come to crank it and WOW.. runs like ****. first it sounds like its flooded trying to kick, then itll kick and run like a diseal motor before stalling. i tried **** loads of different paterns for the spark plug wires... the best was the one i just explained and the worst was something like this: powerful cranking...CLUNKK...powerful cranking continues....CLUNKK... and so on and so forth goes the pattern. sounded like it was misfiring and/or detnating and the piston was hitting the cylinder walls...

One of the patterns i tried ran... (shitty as hell but better than the rest) only think was.. i pushed the throttle cable (from underneith the hood) and as it climbs through the rpm band the tone was POPPING and not only that ... with every POP (as long as i was touching the throttle cable) i got jolted...
I pulled the distributor off again and spun the piece in the back that interlocks w/ the camshaft to try to maybe set the ignition sequence right?? went out and got a new set of wires (the plugs are only a month or so old.. no need for replacing)

I also took the battery terminals off to try and reset the ECU.. NADA!
btw: the CEL is NOT on (well atleast for the few seconds it runs)

^now thats that.. Now my clutch pedal is EXTREMELY soft.. not to mention no matter how hard its pressed in.. THE CLUTCH DOESNT DISENGAGE!!!
-pedal to the floor
-car running (still shitty)
-come to put it in gear... ::GRINDING SOUND::

btw, im hungry and exhausted so im taking a honda-tech break so i didnt yet bleed the clutch.. if that could be y.. THAT WOULD PUT A SMILE ON MY FACE ...but if not tranny comes off.. pressure plate bolts get loosend...

you expereinced ppl out there...please... take some time to give me a suggestion or advice.. this is my daily and im screwed w/o it...

thank you for reading thru my (long) cry for help
(i salute you)

 

First you need to bleed your clutch,thats why your pedal is to the floor.Second your timing is way off,you need to make sure that your firing order is right.Do a search on here,you should be able to find the correct firing order.

 

Bleed your clutch, that's probably the deal with the pedal.

Honda usually puts some kinda mark at the #1 terminal of the distributor cap. A or 1 or something? Then clockwise from there it's 1 - 3 - 4 - 2.

 

the "rapid crank ::CLUNK:: rapid crank ::CLUNK::"

thing has happened to me several times.
every time the timing belt is severely retarded (i guess it could also happen from being severly advanced)

 

i just got it running last night. everyone was giving me weird *** firing orders including the damn haynes manual. I set the dist. and the #1 piston at TDC then the CORRECT firing order and it started right up.

Now the problem with the clutch is aching me REAL bad... i could have it on the road by now.. but NOOO
I bled the clutch and added some 'exceedes DOT3 and DOT4' synthetic brake fluid.
NOTHING... its not that it was to the floor its that it just feels wierd..

I have it depressed ALL the way down yet you try to put it in ANY gear and it just grinds as if your not pressing the clutch. i looked at the slave cylinder while my brother presses the clutch and i can see the fork not pushing the throwout bearing all the way towards the pressure plate and clutch... what could be the problem?? i already tried adjusting the pedal...im gonna try bleeding it again..
but do any of you think i might have to take the tranny out and possibly loosen the pressure plate bolts? there not THAT tight.. but someone told me that could be it...

 

keep bleading it but really you shouldent have to blead it unless fluid leaked out like if the slave sylnder came apart

 

im gonna bleed it again right now.. another thing i should note is that there is HEAVY vibration in the pedal...?? y the hell would that be? i really think i might have tightened the pressure plate bolts a little too much... is there anyone who knows the symptoms of that? i really dont wanna take that whole damn tranny off again.. i gotta have my car running by tomorrow morning...

 

....up top people...

 

how badly was the flywheel damaged?

sounds like the flywheel is warped or messed up if your getting vibrations through the pedals.......

 

If you don't see the release fork actuating the throw-out bearing/pressure plate then there may be something wrong with your master or slave. If your able to bleed the system then I'm gonna say the master is probably fine and the slave may be either out of adjustment (if adjustable) or bad because it should be pushing on the fork. Do you see the piston on the slave trying to move out on the fork? Fix this and you may fix the vibration. If an adjustable slave is out of adjustment and slightly applied then you may have some clutch drag that could possibly cause some vibration.

Is your vibration constant or only when you release the pedal? A damaged pressure plate (i.e. diaphragm spring fingers bent/weak) would cause a vibration when you let off the pedal to engage the clutch. A constant vibration would lead me to take a look at something in the drive train that is constantly in motion. Is the vibration in gear or in neutral?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by non-VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how badly was the flywheel damaged?

sounds like the flywheel is warped or messed up if your getting vibrations through the pedals.......</TD></TR></TABLE>
flywheel was perfectly fine.. the disc was no where near worn enough to carve it..
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by h22avid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you don't see the release fork actuating the throw-out bearing/pressure plate then there may be something wrong with your master or slave. If your able to bleed the system then I'm gonna say the master is probably fine and the slave may be either out of adjustment (if adjustable) or bad because it should be pushing on the fork. Do you see the piston on the slave trying to move out on the fork? Fix this and you may fix the vibration. If an adjustable slave is out of adjustment and slightly applied then you may have some clutch drag that could possibly cause some vibration.

Is your vibration constant or only when you release the pedal? A damaged pressure plate (i.e. diaphragm spring fingers bent/weak) would cause a vibration when you let off the pedal to engage the clutch. A constant vibration would lead me to take a look at something in the drive train that is constantly in motion. Is the vibration in gear or in neutral?</TD></TR></TABLE>
i do see the piston on the slave trying to move out the fork.. but its only goin so far.
The vibration is gone if i let go of the pedal.. you add the SLIGHTEST pressure to it and you start to feel it all the way threw the stroke until where you come to the point where its 'suppose' to disengage and yea its in neutral.. the whole problem is i cant get it in gear because the clutch wont disengage...

im goin to take the tranny off RIGHT NOW and loosen the pressure plate bolts and then torque them down RIGHT.. thats what alot of ppl are saying is the problem.. i dont know how that creates vibration in the pedal though.. ill let you know in a couple hours when im done..

 

From what you are describing it sounds like a pressure plate problem since you only feel it when you press the pedal in and release it.

 

Post if you find something... I'm wondering about the T-O bearing not positioned correctly or maybe the way the fork clips into the bearing? What about the fork positioned incorrectly against it's pivot?

I don't know about overtightening the PP bolts, but maybe if the PP isn't centered properly on the flywheel? But there's locating pins for that, right?

 

i'm thinking it could be the trowout bearing.. or the slave cylinder.... I know how you feel man... the moments in the garage when you almost cry cos you dont know what the hell to do!!! and you don't wanna stop cos you know you cant sleep.... goodluck!!

 

the last time i posted.. i DID do what i said, i took it off that night and i finished it by morning.. i wouldve been done by 10 (when i had to be at work) if it wasnt for daylight savings...lol so i didnt sleep
but heres what happened:
im getting the pictures up soon of the pressure plate.
And BTW, yes i know how to bleed the clutch right i did it plenty of times w/ no results.
i took the plate off and noticed it WAS WARPED as one of you said. (whoever it was couldnt post for some reason so they went and sent me an e-mail.. if your reading this THANK YOU ) thats what was causing the vibration in the pedal.. it was like a unbalanced wheel spinning. And NO, the vibration wasnt there in the first place, it was from having the car running for a couple mins with the PP (pressure plate) torqued wrong. Which was also y the clutch didnt disengage, it was too tight. I ended up having to use my old PP (which was still in good shape), the new Throwout bearing and disc i used too. (for some reason i couldnt get the pilot bearing out of the flywheel.. so i didnt change that, and the old one is real fucked up from me trying to pry it out..and being up that late i really didnt feel like taking the flywheel off to do it.
i put them on (^those components i just listed) and torqued them to exactly 19ft lbs after putting them on in a criss-cross pattern tightening each bolt a quarter at a time.

After struggling for about 45mins by myself trying to use a POS scissor jack and my superhero strength to align the tranny back up with the motor, i put all the bolts back in (and actually torqued them ) ..i then open the garage to let the fumes out before starting the car and BAM.. i see light.. im like WTF, it didnt seem that long at all... still on jack stands, i start it... pressed the clutch pedal.. put it in gear and YES! LORD BE HOLD it went in... i let off the clutch.. then got out and saw the axles spinning the hubs.. i smiled . i then left the car running to warm up as i put the wheels back on and lowerd it down off the stands. i took it for a test drive and ... it drags when i shift??? yet i could do a burn out..?? whenever id shift it would drag the rpms, made the sound of a slipping clutch yet it wasnt if i could do a burn out... and i do remember cleaning the flywheel surface..
'keep in mind i still didnt bleed the clutch again after the new install, i was by myself and against the clock to be at work at 10am so maybe thats what will make it grip better'
after a few times of driving it, it seemed to do it less and less so i guess it was just breaking in.. it needs to break in quicker because i want to be able to chirp 2nd and 3rd again... . im gonna bleed the clutch today when i get out of school and hopefully thats what does it.
btw, thanks everyone for the help! and ecspecially you who e-mailed me