Hello all,

I've searched about this and came up with a couple of solutions. First, the facts:

1. Clutch engages VERY low in the pedal's movement.
2. Pedal feels "squishy".
3. Clutch line has been bled and there are no obvious signs of leakage.
4. 107,000 miles on the car.
5. ACT clutch has about 25,000 miles on it.

The three possible culprits are:

1. clutch slave cylinder
2. clutch master cylinder
3. clutch

After searching it appears that #1 and #2 are the likely problems, but I was wondering if I can eliminate 1 or 2 of the items on the list. If I can avoid dropping the tranny that would be great. BTW, I've got to get this resolved before Hyperfest as I will be participating in the HPDE.

Thanks!!


Modified by Educator at 6:37 PM 7/17/2005

 

Would like to know also. I'm in the same predicament and when in reverse it has a high clutch engagement which is weird. To add on to that my slave cylinder makes sounds which will be checked tomorrow. MC was just changed less than 10k ago and still has warranty...

 

when did this start?
r u ever not able to get it into gear?
do u have to pump it a few times to get some feel or to be able to shift?

thats what happened to my other car. master was the culprit

 

Well it started awhile back about 20k miles ago. Had it checked and it was the mc leaking inside and out of my car and was changed out. Lubed the sc and the squeeking stopped when pressing and depressing the clutch and now its back when I just changed to a new clutch. New clutch has 550 miles on it so far and when I first got it back, pedal engagement was stiff and was low, and now its mushy and I can feel vibration/squeek in it. I also had someone press and depress the clutch and mc is not leaking but the sc has a noticable squeek and also vibration.

So going in tomorrow to get the sc changed out BUT would a bad slave cylinder cause issues on a brand new master cylinder. I'm asking since my mc has less than 16k miles on it.

 

Update:

I've changed BOTH the slave cylinder and the master cylinder and still have a low engagement. I've run about a quart of fluid through the system and installed a speed bleeder screw and it still engages ~2cm from the floor.

Any ideas?

 

How much mileage on the existing clutch?

 

About 20k on an ACT SS/HD set up.

 

Did you adjust the clevis engagement with the clutch pushrod? It's a simple process that will probably solve your problem if the master cylinder and line are properly bled.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quick6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did you adjust the clevis engagement with the clutch pushrod? It's a simple process that will probably solve your problem if the master cylinder and line are properly bled. </TD></TR></TABLE>

can you explain how ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by daddy ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">can you explain how ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just do a quick search on 'clevis' in post bodies on archived content. It's all in there.

Here you go -- I searched for you: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=254756

 

I have the same situation !!!!

Mine is the ACT clutch that is doing this done about 1000 miles ago

 

Thanks quick6. I was looking at the helms and was wondering if I needed to adjust this. I assume if I have a "low" engagement that I need to have "less" of the rod exposed? Therefore the clutch pedal will push more of the rod into the slave cylinder? Right?
BTW, getting the adjusting bolt on the 'clevis' is going to be biatch!
hehe

Thanks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Educator &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks quick6. I was looking at the helms and was wondering if I needed to adjust this. I assume if I have a "low" engagement that I need to have "less" of the rod exposed? Therefore the clutch pedal will push more of the rod into the slave cylinder? Right?
BTW, getting the adjusting bolt on the 'clevis' is going to be biatch!
</TD></TR></TABLE>

The lock nut or whatever ain't that hard to get to. You just have to kind of lay in the car with your head in the footwell... lol.

I believe your rationale is correct. My brain's not working too well after spec reviews all day.
-Chris

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quick6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The lock nut or whatever ain't that hard to get to. You just have to kind of lay in the car with your head in the footwell... lol.

I believe your rationale is correct. My brain's not working too well after spec reviews all day.
-Chris</TD></TR></TABLE>

Lol. My head has spent WAAY too much time in the footwell already. I'll give it a shot tomorrow when I have some light. Thanks for the help.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quick6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Just do a quick search on 'clevis' in post bodies on archived content. It's all in there.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

you where right ........ found this

http://www.honda.co.uk/owner/C...4.pdf

 

Thanks!

 

Well, I got to Summit Point on Friday night and got settled. On the way there the clutch continued to engage very low but no other problems other than that.

Saturday during the first session the operated well but I had to completely depress the clutch pedal to upshift/downshift. It made toe/heeling very difficult!

Fast foward to the last session-clutch engagement still very low and now the upshifts/downshifts became VERY notchy. The shifts never got to the point where it grinded, but 8300 rpm shifts did not yeild buttery-smooth engagements. The clutch/tranny was not happy with me flogging it.

Sunday morning: I decide to fiddle with the clevis rod (he he) some more without any result. I decided to bag the day and limp my car home back to Richmond. I did not want to get stuck at Summit with a broken clutch, wich is what I think the problem is. This week I plan on tearing down the clutch and inspect for wear/broken springs.

1 Question: Can a bad clutch master cylinder prematurely wear out a clutch because it doesn't completely disengage the clutch? I'm betting that over the past year this is what was happening.

Thanks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Educator &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1 Question: Can a bad clutch master cylinder prematurely wear out a clutch because it doesn't completely disengage the clutch? I'm betting that over the past year this is what was happening.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. I'd recommend you adjust the clevis some more. It has a pretty noticeable effect...

good luck man.

 

Does your pedal feels like this all the time !?

Mine does it only when I abuse it , I am susspecting that when I abuse it the pressure plate gets very hot and the spring load will be soft compared with the hard pedal that I have when eveything is cool at dialy driving I don`t know maybe I just said a dumb thing , but`s that`s what I was thinking the other day.

Please keep us updated !

Good Luck

 

Update #2:

After replacing the clutch master, slave cylinder and several adjustments, The pedal still had a low engagement. Crap. This past Monday I remove the tranny to inspect the pressure plate and clutch disc. This is what I found:



It's kinda hard to see in the picture but the pressure plate had several of the metal "tabs" that were not quite going back to their positions when the clutch is not depressed. This was causing the clutch to be "engaged" most of the travel of the pedal. This pressure plate(ACT HD) had only 20,000 miles on it and the clutch disc looked very good. I am very disappointed with the ACT unit.

I replaced the pressure plate and clutch disc with an OEM ITR unit. I installed both tonight and the car shifts like it is new.

Has anyone else had problems with pressure plates from ACT? I've seen clutch discs with springs hanging at funny angles before but not pressure plates.

Oh well.

Thanks for all of your input.

 

That's how my stock pressure plate looked after it was pulled out for my toda clutch...

 

did you break in the ACT when you first installed it, if not then thats probly why it died so fast

 

Yes. I was pretty easy on it for the first couple hundred miles. Even if I beat the crap out of it I don't think it would have mattered. The clutch disk looked almost brand new.

 

yep i broke mine in too, took it easy for about 600 miles and now i'm at about 5k since the install if that and i get this squishy crap

BTW my pedal is sticky also when disengaging and there's waaay too much play in the pedal...

 

ACT clutch here as well and the squishies are happening to me. i'm thinking the pressure plate is also the culprit