srnfoto

After countless attempts at adjusting/bleeding/replacing everything, I gave in and had an act installed. I read a lot of threads on this, and just wanted to know if there was absolutely anything that I could have missed.

Long story short I could not get this clutch to disengage. I follwed every single step multiple times, and I could get it to work sometimes but then the problem would always come back and I could not get it into gear. Does flyin miata know about this? I bought that thinking that they were reputable. I am sure they are but I just can't believe that after I had the ACT put in with zero fuss with adjusting it just works fine.

Just curious if there has been a solution to this, or should I just never look back on this. I just feel defeated, and a little salty that I wasted 400 bucks on this clutch.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

Nope.

That mirrors my experience with both Happy Meals i've dealt with.

Signed,
-Happy ACT user

srnfoto

Man what a bummer. I just dont get how this can happen to some, and others not. I guess i'll just move on at this point. Just good to know i'm not going crazy.

zippysport

I have replaced the Flyin Miata Happy Meal Stage 2 clutch and pressure plate that came on my 1.6 w/turbo car with a Supermiata Sport clutch, with the organic disk. I love the new clutch. It's a 1.8 version, because I already had the 1.8 Happy Meal lightened flywheel. It has a softer pedal, and engages/disengages in the middle of travel. I can shift more quickly, with less effort, and it has a smoother engagement. Its good for up to 290hp.

The Happy Meal clutch had been grabby, has a pretty hard pedal, and has been a pain to set up a good release point. I replaced both the clutch master and slave, then bench bleed those to the last degree. It still resulted in a clutch disengagement point that was all the way to the floor, even after removing the rubber stopper for the clutch lever to give it more travel. I finally was able to get it to go into 1st gear and reverse without having put it there by using excess force. Every shift still required pushing the pedal all the way to the floor to complete. I was able to cheat a bit by rev matching, sort of bypassing the clutch's poor disengagement characteristics, but it was never really possible to nail a quick shift with it set up like that. I've read that other people have thought it was a pretty poorly designed product. It even came with special instructions that force you to take every adjustment to the very limits just to get it to work at all. It was also hard to modulate or get away from a stop gracefully. At first, I thought it was just me getting used to it, but in retrospect, I just don't think it is designed right.

srnfoto

I just don't understand all of the excuses/adjustments as to why it wasn't working. Looking back on it they even went as far as telling me to file down the blue bumper to get "maximum travel" I just don't get why it was such a hassel when there is other products out there that do just fine. I can't imagine I am the only one who wants to send them a snotty email that will get ignored and nothing will come of it. I won't but I sure do feel like it.
My final straw was me missig out on a track night at my local place. I went to get into the car and It wouldn't go into gear (again) it was a beautiful night, and i had to miss out on it simply because of an expensive clutch with less than 500 miles on it. I am glad to hear both of you had good luck with replacing the clutches to new and the problem went away.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

I had the same concerns. Each time i phoned tech support about the clutch, they suggested that i might need to modify the bumper/stopper on the car to allow adjustment further than Mazda intended. I'm not one to worry necessarily about "Well Mazda designed everything perfectly," but if no other clutch on the market requires this, that speaks volumes.

I suspect they're actually using a mix/match of parts to allow for higher torque handling with minimum pedal effort change and it's resulting in these issues.

srnfoto

I really do appreciate the replies. It has been drivine me crazy, and finally resulting in a different clutch fixxing the problem I guess is ok. (first world problems)

Jesse99James

Nope, that mirrors my experience with the Happy Meal that came installed in my MSM. I FINALLY got it to just barely release so that I can shift into 1st and reverse. FM recommended shaving or removing the rubber bumper pad as my next step. I extended the master cylinder pushrod almost to the point that the bleed hole gets covered once it's warmed up. The car was raced on a few tracks by both previous owners and the clutch mileage is unknown but it seems like it barely wants to fully clamp under boost. The FM2 Garret upgrade was installed in 2010 and the car only had 21.5k miles when I bought it...clutch does hold at 12 psi so some of that excessive slippage feeling could be the anti-shock valve on the MSM master cylinder that bleeds pressure down more slowly and doesn't allow the clutch to be dumped hard.

I plan on building the engine after I get the Hydra replaced with an MS3 and 3.63 gears installed late this Fall. I suspect I'll be replacing it with the engine build while everything's easily accessible. If it's easily glazed now I can imagine it won't like ~18 psi and 275-300 WHP. I wouldn't mind a more firm clutch pedal pressure, the FM Happy Meal does indeed retain OEM feel but IMO, it's almost too light.

deezums

iTrader: (3)

I had a used FM1 and now a FM2 and no issues. I am deeply in love with the clutch feel on the level 2, driving a stock miata around now with the feather pedal and I have no idea what it's doing half the time.

Mine is sticky for the first couple strokes, then it's fine.

Pretty sure FM will tell you they designed the clutch to steal as much unused travel from the stock hydraulics as possible, so they can make it clamp harder with less pedal effort. I've trimmed the stopper and adjusted the pushrod to get the most stroke out of the master and never had a problem, besides the masers and slaves sucking dick.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

This is an interesting post to juxtapose against your other rants about small annoyances surrounding other aftermarket parts.

deezums

iTrader: (3)

I guess I got lucky with the clutches I got, you know you'd have heard otherwise if not!

FM's new reroute still stupid dumb, though...

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

Having to trim a stopper to make hydraulics work on a 250hp car isn't really my definition of "lucky" but we all have our triggers i suppose.

deezums

iTrader: (3)

I think you misunderstand. The hydraulics always work. The stroke of the hydraulics aren't enough to fully release the modified pressure plate. You trim the stopper to make the pressure plate work.

I have a feeling something similar is at play whenever anyone gets a FM clutch that doesn't work...

srnfoto

I guess my biggest thing is I just couldn't ever get it to work without messing with it. I carried a 10mm and 12mm around in the glove box just knowing that it might need to be messed with. The hydraulics system in my car was changed twice and blead to the point of insanity. I am just wondering what allows some to work and others to not. Any part can have some good and some bad but this seems to be a very common thing from what I've read. So Im left wondering if it is will they do something to fix it in the future?

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

I don't misunderstand at all lol The clutch doesn't work within the parameters that the car it's supposed to go on is designed for.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

No. They don't view this as a problem. This has been going on for 10+ years.

zippysport

The bottom line is that at best, this FM setup can be made to work if you tweak the free play to the n'th degree, and you get lucky. I did every tweak possible, and barely made it work. It did work fine intermittently, but was consistently tended to be hard to get into reverse or 1st when cold. It would be good for a couple of months, then get fussy again. I liked the snappy engagement, but was countered by the fact that you had to push the pedal all the way down to the floor to get it to shift. That gives you a big time gap between gears while all that monkey motion is happening. Not an ideal attribute for a performance clutch.

deezums

iTrader: (3)

If I had to guess, I'd say they might have thrust clearance issues. If you are well out of spec you are gonna waste clutch throw on taking out the slack. Could be a snapped or bent fulcrum, because that happens too. Otherwise, it wasn't as well bled as you thought it was. Properly bleeding brakes and clutches is really hard for some people.

Or finally, a total lack of understanding on how the hydro cylinders work together, as Concealer still seems to be stuck on. I guess there's relevance between possibly having to trim a 32ndth off a rubber pad and totally ******* an open bypass coolant loop for no apparent reason, but only in wacky world.

Lastly, you think this is only an issue with FM clutches? I highly doubt it.

https://www.miataturbo.net/suspensio...0/#post1456439

https://www.miataturbo.net/suspensio...0/#post1463291

https://www.miataturbo.net/suspensio...0/#post1463295

Oh snap? You have to adjust the upper clutch switch? What ******* garbage, right Concealer?

srnfoto

I guess part of it is on my end. If I would have looked at the install instructions seeing all the adjustment you had to do in order to get it to work properly and didn't just assume it worked as every other clutch. Or most rather I would have went a different direction.

I don't see this as class action lawsuits material and I would never take it there obviously. But if this has been happening for over 10 years I cannot believe they haven't done something.

Jesse99James

It's not that it can't be made to work on most Miata, it's that it was designed to bump right up against the maximum pedal travel and pushrod stroke just before the bleed hole is covered once everything heats up. Might just be variances between cars are enough that some have more difficulty and some never quite get it working as designed. I'm overall happy with it but it took a ton of time and adjusting it to the point that I thought the bleed hole was covered. My upper switch is backed out as far as needed before the rubber pad hits the welded on nut...if my memory serves. Thankfully mine has been working solidly this year after spending so much time fixing it last year as it never seems to have been properly adjusted by the previous two owners.

I'm not sure when it was installed but the second owner didn't seem to do any real auto repair work himself. He paid a local shop to raise the FatCat (FatKat?) suspension so he could clear the oversize speed bumps in his apartment complex. He no longer scraped but of course the rake was backwards and heights not even from side to side. It's taken a lot of time to tweak everything but thankfully high quality parts were installed on this track modified MSM. I'm nut unhappy with my Happy Meal and 10# flywheel, just not 100% satisfied. My issues are it chatters too often (usually trying to slip it backing uphill into my garage), it almost couldn't be adjusted to release (cold into 1st/reverse was nearly impossible, rear wheels spun on jack stands in neutral), and the thing just doesn't seem like it clamps firmly at 11-12 psi (as mentioned some of that might be the delay valve on my MSM master cylinder. I need to remove it but that means bleeding it and I'm single living alone sans master cylinder pressure cap adaptor).

No matter, when I look into clutches for my target of 275-300 whp the Happy Meal will likely be at the bottom of the list. I don't mind an increase in pedal pressure. Mine shifts quickly despite the super long stroke but I'm pretty good at rev matching. I think there might be a little too much hype for some of these parts versus real world results.