Clutch/tranny issue diagnostic help
 

My car has an ACT street clutch with the HD pressure plate and their streetlite flywheel. Had to pay a local shop that does work for the 86 to install as i don't have the means or experience to do it myself. My car drives perfectly fine when its cold, no grinds at all even the dreaded second gear grind isn't felt. Once its fully warmed up and start to hit traffic for more for over 30 mins or so i begin to get some strange vibration when taking off in first(doesn't happen all the time). I get no grinding, clutch fluid level is good. The tranny's fluid has been replaced twice, the latest with the clutch install.

Just recently, after about 3k on the clutch(i did the proper break in) when its really hot out and i've been in city traffic for some time, it gets really hard to push into first, at random moments, not always. Never grinds, the clutch engagement is as most manuals say it should. I made sure its fully disengaging and not over traveling either. I would like to know if anyone has any hypothesis as to why this occurs. I did a slight bleeding of the clutch fluid as i found some black matter or what looked like dirt at the bottom of the reservoir, the pedal felt much better but still get the random vibration taking off, slipping the clutch lightly and the hard first gear. Thanks for your input.

I'm shooting in the dark here but, could it be an issue with the clutch, transmission, master or slave cylinder, or just normal behavior for this car. The car has about 15k miles on it about 5k on boost. Thanks once more for any contributions.

I also have the same exact clutch but I don't have any issues. I personally installed my clutch and made sure not to get to much grease on the spine and not to let any of it touch the anything! You may have grease on the disc that can warm up and cause it to slip. If the clutch doesn't fully disengage it doesn't want to go into gear.

I also made sure the small circle on the flywheel lined up on the engines crank notch to make sure I didn't get any vibrations. As factory flywheels and cranks have the same marks.

Just first? Tried any other gear from a standstill when it's acting up?

Yep, I have tried when the first gear gets hard to see if it improves and they go right in. Mainly second, I haven't tried any others as second then back to first makes it better. I would try first once more and it goes in better. It's odd. When trying second get its better but I wouldn't say night and day difference, but goes in without having to push.

This doesn't happen all the time, I'd say once out of five take offs or so. Once fully warmed up or after driving for some time in traffic.

Thanks.

Could have something to do the grease you mentioned. Wouldn't not fully disengaging and me trying to push the gear in make a grind. This sucks,
I've read about the grease and I can't really say anything about the install as I didn't do it. All I could do is pay and have someone re do it as I don't have anyone that could help locally.

Don't panic. When first is giving you fits, try gently raking through all the gears. If it was the clutch you would be fighting every gear.

Try engaging and disengaging the clutch while in neutral. Then while the input shaft is still spinning down, nudge it gently into first. Does it help?

Appreciate your help. I'll try that see if all the gears give me the struggle and report back.
I'll also try and adjust the clutch pedal a little higher up as at times, not always, I feel when I shifting out of first gear as if I were shifting out without disengaging the clutch, even though I'm physically pressing the pedal. Not sure if I explain myself, I get the feeling I'm yanking it out without disengaging, this only happens when driven for a while in traffic and not always.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's a nasty pop. That tells me the clutch is dragging. At a standstill, you should be able to engage any gear with no more force than if the engine was not running.

I have my clutch set super low but I have long legs and always push it to the floor.

I have it set somewhat low as well. I have my seat forward enough to be able to push all the way down effortlessly. That pop is about right, the odd thing is that it doesn't happen often but I do drive this car every day and in heavy traffic so I feel it often. I'll see if the rest of the gears give me trouble at a standstill. Thanks a bunch man. Let's see what we could determine with further diagnosis.

Where abouts are you? The trans drop clutch install was easy, I did it without jack under it and all. We can drop it and clean it all and reinstall it.

I'm down in Miami. I think it's far from or location. That'll be great if I could do it with someone. I've done several installs on the car including my turbo but clutch/tranny work is something I've never tackled. I'm sure it can't be any harder that other stuff but I'm just afraid of doing something wrong, like adding too much grease to something and making a costly mistake.

I've gone over a diy here but it seems to remove the driveshaft...specially the part on removing the shifter, sort of makes me squeal lol.

Little update, i tried to replicate the hard first gear and move around the rest with the clutch pedal still pushed down and they aren't as hard but still some what harder than usual. Also the vibration while taking off in first is more like a shaking, i could see the shifter shaking severely. The severity of the shaking also depends, but the more i try to slip the more it vibrates. Just odd, i really don't think any of this should be normal, specially not with the mildest of clutches at least from ACT. Thanks for the input guys, my biggest concern is that this could damage my transmission or worse. I'll take a little video and replicate the shaking of the shifter.

I've got the same clutch with the same problem. The flywheel is hot spotted, causing the clutch to skip as it engages.

Only way to fix it is to resurface or replace the flywheel.

Sent from my XT1095

lol sucks, don't really know how to avoid this as I made sure to really really take it easy and follow the break in procedure for 500 miles even though to suggested less. Let's see what pops up. From what I could tell adjusting the clutch pedal higher up helped with the thud sound when pulling out first gear.