Had my ACT Street Racing clutch put in with a new Fidanza flywheel, input shaft seal, and Throwout bearing, yesterday by a local shop, and now its hell to drive the car. I dunno what else i can do, but theres less than 1/4in from engaged to disengaged. That wouldnt be so bad if i didnt have to bottom out the carpet everytime, and even then sometimes the clutch still doesnt disengage. My dad and I tried to bleed the system, but its dark, and he wanted to finish for the day. Its a far cry better than earlier today, where i had to quickly learn to gear match in order to shift gears (that terrible). The petal is not as stiff as before, with the old clutch, so its still possible that there is still air in the line? Also, it feels as if my shift points have been shifted over (as if the gates have been moved) to the right, making all gears slightly harder to shift into. I've got a B&M Short Throw shifter, and before the new clutch, it worked great. Any ideas for fixing the car would be very very helpful. I'm so upset with the car, I've been home from Iraq 3 weeks now, and havent hardly driven the car due to upgrades, including the car sit a the shop for almost a week, and have nothing done to it. I personally dont want to go back to the shop, mainly cause it was the one that had it there so long, and i really dont trust the work.

Rebled the system today, still doesnt want to disengage all the way. So far, thats the main problem, its as if the clutch pedal is too short to disengage the clutch. Is it possible that the Master Cylinder can't take the new clutch? I'm completely open on ideas in order to drive my car again. When we bled it both times, the clutch worked great for about 2 minutes or so, and when you went to shift, it just wouldnt come out of gear, or go into the next.

hmm listening

14.82 @ 97 mph

I'd like to know how to fix it personaly. Since our master cylinder pushrods arent adjustable (so it appeared), i can't just adjust the pedal. I did see a post while searching, where someone pinned the clutch pedal down all night, and it worked for him. I tried the same for giggles, and will see how she does in the morning. Honestly, since the stream of fluid that came out didnt have any bubbles (went thru a bunch of fluid too), i dont think thats it sadly. I'm hoping the shop didnt screw something up, and damage anything, if so, they best fix it.

pump the @!#$ out of the pedal for 30min or so (seriously sit in the car with it shut off and just pump the @!#$ clutch pedal) if you dont want to do that then find a block of wood or something and prop the clutch all the way down to the floor over night.. sometimes you cannot get all the air out of hyd. clutches by bleeding, you have to work the air back up and out...




_______________________
** Flat Broke Racing Inc.**

Did that, we think the master cylinder went, my dad and i are gonna swap it out and see. I had some issues with the old clutch, that looking at now, could have been master cylinder related. Part should be in tomorrow, my dad ordered it at work (Autozone), so we'll see. I do hope its it, i wanna drive my car soon, and want that fixed before i put my new exhaust on.

Changed the Master Cylinder, wont disengage at all. I called ACT, they think it might have been installed incorrectly. This whole thing just pisses me off, because i think the place i took it to did something wrong, and im worried that my new clutch might be ruined because of their dip@!#$ technicians. ACT did however, tell me the flywheel step needed to be .787, does anyone know if thats the correct step for the Fidanza, and if it can be machined down if needed? I just want to drive my darn car again! Gonna tow it to a different place tomorrow, and see if the clutch was installed wrong. If so, im definitely gonna presue getting my money back from the first shop. Anyone else have any ideas what it could be?

My guess would be it is installed wrong. I just got a SPEC Stage II put in... and while my friend was putting it in he was explaining to me how many clutches he's had to fix because other shops that "knew" what they were doing didn't put them in right.

Good luck either way!!!

Called the shop this morning that i had it towed to yesterday, they think the new slave cylinder is bad. I didnt come with the ACT kit, but something i bought at Advanced Auto. Is there a beefy Slave out there, or should all OEM style ones work?

i got a throw out bearing with my ACT clutch.

i got 40k miles on the clutch and love it.

first got it installed and it sucked.it would engage right away when you let up on the clutch peddle.

the shop re bled it and it was good to go.

then the master cyclender broke 10k miles, so i got that replaced. since then all is great.


i bet they installed your clutch backwards. i heard of this done b4 and it causes problems like you stated.

good luck

They claim its the master cylinder, not the slave, they plan on replacing it (i replaced it before sending the car over there), and they said we bled it wrong and ruined the seals, supposedly GM changed how to bleed the clutch, and its different then the Haynes manual (bleeder at the slave)...

sadly, they changed the master cylinder (which had a new one in when they got it), and they got the same result my dad and i got, it bled, had some pressure, then lost all pedal. Hopefully they'll figure it out tomorrow after getting the trans out. I personally fear the worse, blown slave, clutch disc ruined.

I had the shop change the slave, and when they put the disc back on, the pressure plate was so tight that the disc wouldnt spin, thus keeping the clutch engaged. Im wondering if its the flywheel (Fidanza), instead of the clutch. Does anyone know the correct step for a factory flywheel? Also, I called ACT about a week or so ago, and they said the correct step was .787", is this the same as factory? Basicly, i want to tell the shop to either go ahead with an OEM replacement on the new Fidanza flywheel or the ACT Clutch on the old Stock flywheel. One other thing that bothered me was that they said that they dont resurface flywheels anymore, and its easier to replace or cross-pattern resurface. I thought our flywheels can be stepped, and according to Fidanza's website they can be resurfaced. Im wondering if the friction pad can be decreased to help if the stock step is higher than what ACT says it needs to be.

Looks like one of the combos worked (the guy i spoke to wasnt sure which combo the technician used, but he thought it was the OEM replacement with the Fidanza flywheel), which sorta disappointed me that the ACT couldnt be used. I'm hoping that ACT can give me my $ back on this, due to the fact i had the trans removed twice in the whole ordeal to finally get the car back together. They also put my catback on, so i'm definitly looking forward to that.