I have the FM happy meal setup on my car. I have a braided line going from the hardline off the master cylinder and ending at the loop-y-loop thing.

The problem is I am suffering from clutch drag making it hard to get into 1st and reverse. Also minor inching forward or backwards if in reverse or first. I can tell it is a very very light drag, but very very annoying.

What I have done so far in order.

After installing the clutch/clutch lines I bled the system until no bubbles came out the slave cylinder. Filling up the reservoir as needed.

Adjusted 17mm nut to allow more clutch pedal movement. Adjusted the little rod thing under the dash until I could not push the slave cylinder rod in anymore, then adjusted it back out until I could push the slave cylinder rod back in.

Checked to make sure the lines were still bled again after the adjustment, no bubbles.

After the above the clutch drag was not bad enough to move the car forward, but it was still hard to get into gear (not close enough to stock to not be annoying) it got worse after a 500-600 miles so per FM instructions I assumed the clutch had fully broken in and needed to be adjusted again.

So last night I did the whole process above again, bled clutch, adjusted push rod, pedal height etc.. and it got back to the point where the car would not move forward with it in gear, but still very hard to get into gear.

Anyone have any ideas on what could be happening here? This surely can't be normal for a performance clutch as I can't see how anyone could drive on a track like this. I know that performance clutches engage lower... but this seems extreme.


CLIFF NOTES:
Followed FM instructions for bleeding/adjusting clutch. Still getting clutch drag after break-in. What is going on??

 

do this, report back.

 

Check for leaks too, maybe the master is dying.

 

Try driving the car to see if it will "bed in"

 

if it's not free-play adjustment

and it's not air in the system

it could be a warped pressure plate or a bent disk. or a bent fork.

(those last three go together because you have to take it out and it sucks)

 

When you installed the flywheel did you make sure the bolt holes were absolutely clean? I put the FM 13.5lb flywheel on my car when I did my clutch last winter, and I had to spend an hour digging shavings out of the bolt holes left over from the machining process.

If you had any in there still, you may have incorrect torque values warping things.

 

I had some issues getting my new FM1 clutch adusted. Seemed to be too low to properly engage the clutch and be able to shift it into gear while running (engagement right at the floor) or adjusted so it was always slightly engaged (couldn't get slave to retract by hand). I ended up replacing my slave cylinder with a new one and I was able to get it adjusted much easier. Napa sells one (made by Perfection) that was $30 with my AAA discount. Took 25-30 minutes to replace including jacking up the FR corner. I didn't even remove the wheel. May be worth trying before you mess with pulling the trans back out.

 

^Agreed. A worn cylinder might explain this well. And replacing that is a good idea anyway. I just helped with a engine swap and clutch job and replacing the master and slave made a huge difference.

A warped disk would really suck. When you were installing the clutch did you have any major trouble when bolting the bellhousing to the engine? I have heard of but never seen cases where if the trans hangs on the input shaft but is not bolted to the block you can warp a disk pretty bad. Makes sense when you think about it. But frankly I hade my share of PITA clutch jobs and that has never happened to me.

 

Honestly I didn't take much notice if there were shavings. I remember that it all went back together fairly easy.

I haven't checked the above yet as I am in Minnesota visiting family. I'll do it Monday when I get back. Hopefully it is just the adjustment or the slave cylinder. I don't think it is a leak anywhere since the fluid never goes down, and if I put it in gear and keep the clutch in it doesn't drag more after a while.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.. I really hope I don't have to pull this thing down :/

 

The encouraging thing is that a worn cylinder will not neccesarily leak. In fact they usualy dont unless the fitting to the clutch line has been FUBARed. So you can have a worn cylinder and realy have no idea untill a symptom like this crops up.

 

Are you sure you didn't install the clutch disk backwards?

 

^ I thought about that, and honestly I can't say for sure as I don't specifically remember. If that in fact is the problem it will have to wait until I get my 6 speed and pull the transmission.

I had no luck with the adjustments. I am contemplating a new slave cylinder. I'm working on getting a pretty bad differential pinion seal replaced at the moment but the slave cylinder is next up after that.

 

there's no way you put your disc in backwards. a slave rebuild should take you 10-15 minutes.

 

Got the rebuild kit from autozone today, will knock that out later.

The stupid pinion seal is impossible to get, tried everywhere. So Mazda is ordering one, won't be here until Wednesday.. wtf??

 

+1 rebuild or replace the slave, and flush/bleed the crap out of the system with new brake fluid until the full system has clean fluid. Mightyvac FTW. Empty out the master reservoir from the top so you start with mostly clean fluid.

 

+2 for slave rebuild. I had the same problems, rebuilt the slave, problem solved!

 

I ended up with a new slave, almost the same price as the rebuild kit. Unfortunately it is doing the exact same thing still.

I'm going to recheck my adjustments since I haven't checked them after the new slave, not sure if that will change anything. It seems like sometimes it disengages just fine, and other times I can't get it into gear at all, it's almost random. Very confusing :/

 

What are the particulars of this clutch? 4 puck, 6 puck, organic, I ask because I am not familiar with FM clutches. I would stop throwing money at it and throw a little time at it. It takes less than 2 hours to drop a transmission out of one of these cars, that is if you don't know what you are doing. Once it is out take off the pressure plate then you will know for sure.

I don't want to disagree with you but......I am going to. I don't know if it is possible with a stock clutch, but I had a buddy with the exact same symptoms after he put in a 4 puck. After throwing money at the problem (slave cylinder...then master cylinder and several bleedings) with no luck, he broke down and pulled the tranny and pressure plate, guess what he found? Yep the disk was in backwards.

 

Check your firewall, too. After years of having an ACT clutch in my car, it finally started to tear/bend the firewall around the mounting bolts. (the firewall isn't designed to handle the increased pedal pressures). The tear/bending reduced the pedal travel and caused the same issues you're having.

I ended up welding/repairing the firewall and making a doubler plate setup for both sides of the firewall. This setup disperses the energy of pedal depression so that the firewall doesn't flex. Problem solved.

 

Then he used a BFH to install the PP. There's no way to bolt it up with the amount of space the springs hub pushes the PP away from the flywheel surface. I tried it once for ***** and giggles...it takes the biggest retard in the world to perform this mistake.