Story time kiddies....
I've got a 1990 1.6L Miata(no ****) with a fidanza flywheel and ACT HD clutch kit (6 puck sprung) I used the supplied TO bearing and right away I had a little tapping noise that I know is not normal but usual of some aftermarket clutch kits. My slave cyl. blew out on me about 2000 miles later so I replaced it with one from Moss Motors. Not knowing that there was a VIN split for this part mid 90's (as their website only shows a slave for a 1990 or 1991 car) I bought and installed the one meant for a 1990. A short time after that I was getting an intermittent spongy pedal and the shifter was a lil hard to get into gear. I was able to pump up the pedal and it would be fine for a while then one night the pedal dropped and I had to force the shifter into 2nd just to get the thing home! I figured the master must have been leaking internally soooo I changed that too. Now I got a new master and slave but can't get a good pedal, and when I do I lose it as soon as I start the car. Somehow I found that I had the wrong slave cyl. (the throw is a little longer on the slaves after the VIN split) I changed it AGAIN! still i get the same thing, no pedal! I can hear a weird clicking noise in the tranny when my buddy let off the pedal, so i figure theres something wrong inside. I pulled the engine and tranny last sunday and separated them today and this is what I found!!


the effing TO bearing was in four pieces!!! The one part was still clipped on the fork and the rest were just laying in the bell housing... Now my question is has anyone had or heard of this happening? and what do you thing the possible causes are, other than maybe the TO bearing was just no good?
Im going to order a Mazda one tomorrow, but if there is a real reason for this I would definitely like to fix it

Thanks Much!

 

Impressive.

 

That's pretty bad-***. It looks like the pieces are still moving very fast even though they're standing still.

(Clever use of a scanner, actually. I'd never thought of scanning a three-dimensional object before.)

Yes. Once.

 

Your failure sounds similar to the first batch of Flyin' Miata Stg II kits. They were dying quickly from too much TO bearing to pressure plate clearance. 5mm larger TO bearing fixed it.

I'd contact Flyin' Miata and ask if their beefier Stg II TO bearing would clear your ACT pressure plate, my FMII has held up for about 5K now. The ACT & FM kits look very similar.

 

Yup that's happened to me. Caused me to pull the entire enough though, as the shrapnel shredded the rear main seal, and I have no idea how anyone replaces one of those properly without flipping the engine over and removing the oil pan. I think that's when I drilled and tapped my pan for an oil drain actually...

I did two things wrong on that clutch change. I used an ebay throw out bearing, and I didn't have the flywheel resurfaced. I used an old SPEC throwout bearing and resurfaced the flywheel with my most recent ebay clutch swap, and it's been going great for over 2000 miles now.

 

With a very stout dental pick and a set of drift pins.

It's a pain in the ***, but it's doable.

 

Happened on a friends car where the TO bearing was not fully released, spun constantly under pressure, overheated and exploded. Slave was not releasing completely. Freed up slave and put in OEM TO bearing.

 

thanks much guys! i'll contact Flyin Miata and see what they say. I guess between having the wrong slave cylinder and the excessive clearance could have done it. What about the beating the hell out of it factor, could many 7k clutch dumps, and powershifting do this? And yes thats my scanner, i'm still in the dark ages without a digital camera... I took all the pics of my car with disposable cameras from cvs or target! thanks much, i'll let you know how it goes.

 

yup this just happened to me, just the way you described it

 

Happened to me way back when on my 1.6.

 

allright guys, i've talked to a local shop that specializes in clutches, he told me that between my hydraulic issues and excessive clearance (which i should've adjusted at the pedal) and shitty chinese brand quailty is what killed it. The guy also didn't like my clutch disc-pressure plate combo. he said that typically for a clutch this size he wouldn't use a 6 puck b/c it requires a higher clamping load thus more stress on the TO bearing. he suggested i get a 4 puck sprung disc Mazda TO bearing, and he might be able to re-work my PP so it will require less force to operate it. I will let you all know how it goes..

 

Wait, what?

 

Yeah sure, just angle grind out a few of the teeth. Easy peasy. Safe to boot too.

 

yeah i don't know wtf he would do to it but he apparently modifies and rebuilds clutches and pressure plates. He told me that he typically sells Exedy clutch kits but has done a lot of work with ACT setups. so im bringing him my stuff to check out this week and i'll let you know... also when i took the PP off the flywheel i found both the flywheel and PP surfaces are worn in pretty nicely (only have about 5000-6000 miles on the whole setup....

 

and i just droped 1k cash for labor on a stock clutch out here lol when i do all the other damn work myself....oh well...being lazy

 

Holy ****. I knew things were expensive there but I'm pretty sure you got hosed. A typical shop around me would do it for $600 with OEM replacement clutch kit. All mazda provides is an exedy kit as their oem replacement.

 

i even brought my own clutch kit i had for 300 bucks

 

This thread reminds me to get TO Bearing from work.




Damn! You coulda had a twin disc.

 

Holy ****, dude. Did the shop at least kiss you while they were doing the job?

It's 4 book hours, we charge $300 labor.

 

wow