Holy merciless clutch, Batman!

[Absath]

Well, I just got my car home from the garage, with its wonderful new KLZE engine. The engine is incredible. It's like a whole new car. She's nice and quiet when idle, but when I put the gas pedal down, man she takes off. I love it.

However, what I no longer love is shifting =P While they were in there, I had them install a new ACT clutch set, because the stock clutch was about to go, and I figured the new engine better have a clutch with more torque handling capability. So the ACT clutch is in there, and it's a *****.

Now I've heard of other people with this problem, which is why I bring it here. The clutch grabs right off the floorboard. Scratch that- even with the clutch all the way down, it still seems like it's engaged. If I'm in first gear, with the clutch all the way in, and no brakes, the car is moving forward ever so slightly. And if the brake is on and she's in gear, the car is shaking a bit, like that shake you get when you're in danger of stalling out. When the car is in nuetral, it sits perfectly still.

This makes shifting near impossible. In order to shift into first, I have to slam the clutch in, then shift right away. Once moving, second gear protests the shift. Third, fourth and fifth gears have no problem with it, but downshifting is practically unheard of. I have to clutch in, put it in nuetral, release clutch then slam it in again to shift down.

Now my question is, to other people who have run into similar issues, is this normal? Keeping in mind I've only had the car back for an hour and about 15 miles. I'm going to drive it, maybe for about 3-400 miles, and see if it breaks in. Is that something that happens? I mean, will the clutch break in do you think? The mechanic said they bled the line, etc etc, and it wasn't helping.

For those of you that experienced this... what did you do?

-Tim

<small>[ September 20, 2004, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Absath ]</small>

[DJsMX-3]

Havent experiensed it but did read lots of posts about it,best remedy would be a SS clutchline,and then you could shim the slavecylinder if its still low

[Absath]

Alright, I'll go ahead and order a SS clutch line.

-Tim

[papa roached]

i just searched my butt off and found nothing about shiming it

[Mnemonic]

oh yea that ACT clutch is stiff as hell i drove Patrick from moca's klze with one and a SS clutch line and its still a pain in the *** , thats why i went wiht the clutchmaster it feels like stock but grips like a *****

[Absath]

Well I paid $300 for this clutch, so I've got to at least give it a chance. I ordered the SS clutch line from Corksport, and we'll see how that helps things.

[SimonPK]

I remember seeing a post over a year ago from David Coleman which said he changed the length of the pin which pushes on the clutch arm. This brought the bite point off the floor. The new pin needed to be about 1/4" longer (I think). Try searching for one of Coleman's old posts's

Good Luck

[hgallegos915]

hehe... i think your slave cylinder or clutch lines are leaking...make that slave cylinder stick a bit longet..use another one..that helped me when i installed that same clutch in a maxima i had.. hope this helps. after that i had no problems at all.

[ZEmadman]

i have the EXACT same problem, only im running w/the 1.8. it's in the shop right now, it's been there since monday morning. they told me this morning they thought the disc was defective and were going to have someone else come down and take a look at it.

i havent been able to drive my car since satuday because it started smelling like it was burning while i was sitting in the drive through. so i parked it and now i dont have my baby

[bmwm3guy]

maybe when you bled the clutch you didnt hold the pedal down while re-attatching the line? Just throwing out some ideas.

[ZEmadman]

no idea? i wasnt even there when it was installed.

[ZEmadman]

just got a call back from the "transmission experts" and they told me it's a bad clutch. i didnt believe them so i had em hang on while i called ACT, the ACT guy said it should be a simple adjustment blah blah blah, so i call the shop back and come to find out... the clutch put stress fractures on the flywheel. so the shop guys are going to call ACT and have them replace it, and try to get the to replace the flywheel FREE of charge...(may have to pay for clutch line, or small labor fee but that's it)

4 days w/o my mx makes me a dull boy

[Gro Harlem]

to shim the slave cylinder buy some 1/2" (or maybe its 3/8") rod-stock from lowes and cut it about 1/2" longer than the stock slave cylinder engagement rod.

If you don't know wtf i'm talking about, i suggest you unbolt the slave cylinder and look at it...you'll see a rubber accordian boot with a metal tip. Pull on the top and the boot will pop off and reveal the entire rod. That rod isn't long enough & needs to be lengthened.

You could also shove a nut or washers inside of the slave cylinder to "shim" it, but that didn't work as well for me.


Also adjust the pedal from inside the car...there is a nut that allows you to adjust the pedal travel. I used this to get my ACT from engaging RIGHT off the floor...to about 1/2 way from the floor & it feels really nice now

[mx3man83]

I had the same problem. To solve it, all I did was adjust the pedal like groharlem said, and I welded about 1/4 of an inch onto the slave rod, and bleed the clutch.