PSA: ACT vs EXEDY street clutches

[Pneub]

I had the same issue. A lot of the problems were addressed in here. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62391

I'm switching out to Exedy as well on Friday

[kiichiro]

Lol. Look. Closely at install, setup and clutch adjustment. If you're not going into 1st you're not disengaging the clutch. Who installed it?


There in lies your issue

Happy 420

[wu_dot_com]

well i have the same experience with my ACT prototype.

back in mid 2012, they have use my car to develop the prolite flywheel, street disc, and HD pressure plate.

the clutch was dragging after 10K miles, ive upgraded from OE clutch line to SS clutch line and the issue is still there.

what ive experience is that when cold, the clutch have no problem engaging into any gear. however as soon as the eng temp reach operating temp, i cannot shift into any gear unless i rev match.

after about 20K miles, I ve decided to remove the clutch and examined the parts. what ive found was that the clutch fingers were non concentric visually, this in term gives the clutch disc uneven pressure. the clutch disc then leaves a noticeable witness mark on the pressure plate contact surface.

I then arranged to return the clutch assembly back to ACT for an evaluation. this was back in Nov 2013. they have not been returning any of my follow up inquiries since.

personally, i think there is a QC issue here. in order to get uniform spring back from a diaphragm spring, the metal thickness needs to be consistent. during the spring finger forming, if it was a heated process, than the heat flow must be uniform. if its mechanical cold press processes, than the alignment, the tool wear need to be uniform as well. from my visit of their facility, their equipment were quite old. i cant remember if i saw a temperature chamber for the spring forming or do they buy complete.

i think from the cost perspective, its cheap enough to replace a bad clutch kit from customer return v.s. update their tooling

either way, im probably making more assumption than warranted. but i think i have a similar experience as to what OP described
.
PS. at about 14K ive took the car back to ACT for them to measured the gap from that access window on the bell house. they have found the gap between clutch disk to flywheel to be adequate w/o removing the clutch. this ive found to be a flawed method since the non uniform pressure occurs on the contact surface of pressure plate and clutch disk. as a result, they've returned the car with NFF ruling. at 20K ive reinstalled the OEM clutch, the problem went away.

[mike the snake]

I have the ACT streetlite clutch and flywheel.

The OEM clutch never felt very good to me, and the ACT feels the same, just with some extra pedal force required.

One thing I thought about though was, IF, the ACT PP dimensions were off from OEM, then the actuating rod would need adjusting possibly. This is something that shops might not do. They probably simply install the clutch, it works, send it out (that's what my shop did).

My ACT clutch starts grabbing JUUUUST off the floor. I can also feel quite a bit of pedal travel before I can feel the clutch. I plan to lengthen the adjusting rod so the clutch grabs a little farther off the floor. This will result in the PP opening up a bit more, which might fix the issue of these clutches not totally disengaging.

[wu_dot_com]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

I have the ACT streetlite clutch and flywheel.

The OEM clutch never felt very good to me, and the ACT feels the same, just with some extra pedal force required.

One thing I thought about though was, IF, the ACT PP dimensions were off from OEM, then the actuating rod would need adjusting possibly. This is something that shops might not do. They probably simply install the clutch, it works, send it out (that's what my shop did).

My ACT clutch starts grabbing JUUUUST off the floor. I can also feel quite a bit of pedal travel before I can feel the clutch. I plan to lengthen the adjusting rod so the clutch grabs a little farther off the floor. This will result in the PP opening up a bit more, which might fix the issue of these clutches not totally disengaging.

Personally, I've done the clutch grab adjustment DIY and I don’t believe the actual clutch release point was change. the reason being, the clutch grab adjustment DIY adjust the takeup/ slack of the clutch pedal prior to hydraulically actuating the slave cylinder.

from what you've described I have two dumb questions.

1. have you bleed your clutch recently? it could be that you have air bubble within your lines of which the air is first being compress before the fluid begin to move the slave cylinder rod.

2. have you upgrade your clutch line to SS from OEM? it could be that your clutch line is ballooning up prior to movement due to higher back pressure from the pressure plate.

[mike the snake]

I don't think it's a clutch line thing, but maybe it could be.

What I feel as I push the clutch pedal in, is 2 inches of travel before I feel the throwout bearing push on the PP fingers.

The overall feel from the pedal is positive, just the deadband before the clutch actually starts to be actuated, and the clutch grabbing with the pedal juuust off the floor.

I think lengthening the actuator rod will lessen the initial pedal travel before anything happens, and also will cause the clutch to grab further from the floor.

[Vracer111]

wu_dot_com, so you are running the ACT Pro-Lite flywheel with the stock clutch and pressure plate...is that correct?

[Pneub]

So now that I've switched off the ACT to an Exedy Stage 2 all my issues are gone. That was the same when I replaced the ACT though for a first couple thousand miles. The clutch feels a whole lot nicer than ACT though.

[xxscaxx]

Originally Posted by Pneub

So now that I've switched off the ACT to an Exedy Stage 2 all my issues are gone. That was the same when I replaced the ACT though for a first couple thousand miles. The clutch feels a whole lot nicer than ACT though.

What is this "stage 2" you speak of? I thought It was stage 1 then the twin disc from exedy.

I'm asking because i'm in the market for one myself.

[xjohnx]

Originally Posted by xxscaxx

What is this "stage 2" you speak of? I thought It was stage 1 then the twin disc from exedy.

I'm asking because i'm in the market for one myself.

http://ft86speedfactory.com/exedy-st...h-kit-965.html

[xxscaxx]

Originally Posted by xjohnx

http://ft86speedfactory.com/exedy-st...h-kit-965.html

When the hell did that release?

[wu_dot_com]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

wu_dot_com, so you are running the ACT Pro-Lite flywheel with the stock clutch and pressure plate...is that correct?

no, i was running ACT prolite flywheel, ACT street clutch, and ACT HD pressure plate.

the entire clutch assembly was switch to ACT.

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by wu_dot_com

no, i was running ACT prolite flywheel, ACT street clutch, and ACT HD pressure plate.

the entire clutch assembly was switch to ACT.

I mean when you took off the "ACT clutch"... did you leave the Pro-lite flywheel on...I keep getting conflicting reports whether or not just ACT Pro-Lite flywheel will work properly with the stock clutch/pressure plate setup for FRS fitment...

I love the stock clutch/pressureplate setup...I just want to replace the factory flywheel with a lightweight one and the ACT Pro-Lite is the best design for minimal inertia (quick spin up/deceleration) and is steel not aluminum.

[FT-86 SpeedFactory]

We run ACT set-ups in our silver race car. All have been great and preformed as expected. We only replaced it due to some "pro" drifter attempting to drift our silver car and toast the set-up that was in it.

MFG issues due pop up from time to time for any brand where something may not work as intended. Exedy, ACT, HKS, etc all have these things happen, it's just unfortunate when it does but most of the time the MFG will take care of the issue or warranty the part which I think ACT is trying to get resolved here by looking over the original kit. Hopefully it works out in the end and you get a replacement kit from them to at least resell. Either way Exedy and ACT are both great options for replacement clutches.