Clutch won't disengage!
 

Installed a new Clutchnet solid disk w/ 3X pressure plate, and after installing it won't disengage. The clutch pedal feels like ass, and with it adjusted all the way to one extreme it is completely slack, and to the other extreme it feels like a brake pedal without the vacuume booster hooked up.

I thought the slave cylinder might be the problem so I replaced that an properly bled the system, but that did not help. At that point I took the transmission back out, and everything looked to be installed correctly, but I noticed the new friction disk looks a little different than the OEM one. When both disks are placed on the ground flywheel side down the clutchnet friction material is closer to the ground by about 1/8th of an inch.

I am thinking maybe the hub of the friction disk may be contacting the fingers (springs) on the pressure plate when I push on the clutch.

I just want some insight/suggestions before I replace/remove/replace/remove... my transmission again. Also is anyone using this setup already?

But when you press the clutch pedal the slave is disengaging right? Kinda trivial question, but you have had someone look or looked yourself.

Yeah when I push the clutch in the slave cylinder goes through full travel, and the master cylinder is good, as there is no fluid on the firewall or in the footwell.

Also when I adjust the clutch pedal so the rod is only threaded on by a few threads, when I push the pedal all the way in, when I release it I get a click in the transmission. I know it is in the trans because I can feel it in the shift knob, and I think it is the throwout bearing falling off the smooth section of the input shaft onto the splines, then slipping back onto the smooth section.

Also I know the friction plate is being installed correctly as you can't really put it in backwards.

*shrugs* dont look at me mate, I never changed a clutch.

I know though that no matter what you do to the clutch, the clutch pedal should only have like a quarter inch of free play before it pushes the plunger. So it cant be the clutch pedal adjustment.

Anyone else?

I need to get my car back on the road as it is my DD.

I was going to say bleed it but you already did you must of installed something wrong.

Well, I do not believe it is an installation issue, as I have had the transmission in and out a total of three times now, with the transmission out a fourth time now, which is when I discovered that the friction disks are slightly different.

Are you sure the TO bearing contact ring seats to the pp springs properly? I got burned by that once - springs were too far apart. :doh:

I think so. I dont think they could not seat properly.

Except that I had a Miata pp that wasn't made right. So the Miata TO bearing went right past the spring ends - no contact. From then on my mech-mantra: Check all parts prior to installing.

yeah, they look to make contact. I have everything apart to look at I am going to call clutchnet today to see whats up.

i think m2cup might be onto something. i would think that would be the problem if you looked at the clutch and everything else, it would have to be somewhere oh the hydraulics side, which includes the pivoting fork. If the clutch was checked and proved to be fine, and the hydraulic system was checked and seems to be fine (as you replaced it) then it gotta be that TO bearing.

but if you say it makes contact, then i would be stumped too ><

im actually in the process of changing my clutch too, i spent all night tryign to force the damn thing in to find out the alignment tool was crap and didnt align the clutch disk exactly. pulled it off, and i gotta align the damn thing by eye now.

^ Quit your bitching ;). In Soviet Russia we didn't have alignment tools, we had to cut the input shaft off an old transmission.

lol funny, that would work too if i had a tranny blown up lying around :P

here's what I did: loosely tighten the PP...then wiggle the tranny in place....pull it straight off and torque the PP back down.

sounds like a plan. thanks for the tip

So you say when you press the pedel you cant get the PP to release? or the pedal wont come back? You do know that when you get a stronger PP the stiffer it will feel because you dont have a booster to help you with the pressure like brakes do. And are you running a SS clutch line? you could have blistered it and that is taking some of the give and not transfering the pressure. And also check to make your throw out fork isn't geting stop by something.

So I called clutchnet, and they said with the 3X pressure plate having a double diaphram you have to shim the pressure plate from the flywheel. Not a big deal, I just wish I could have known earlier.

:doh: Yeah, you'd think they'd give you fair warning BEFORE assembly. Oddly enough I ran a 1.6 dubl diaphragm pp with a stock disk in my ITA Miata and didn't shim it at all. I will say that pp makes the clutch like an on/off switch. The car could chirp the tires in third with that pp running about 110rwhp. It definitely removes the weak link from the driveline the clutch assembly...