Clutch PLEASE HELP
 

ok so last night I put in a brand new RhinoPac clutch kit, part number 10008. my RX7 is a 1983 12A N/A car when we finished with the installation I can hear the clutch housing flex plate move but the clutch does not disengage, we bled the hydraulic line and got no air out of it and I can put my hand on the throw-out bearing fork and feel it has full movement... WHAT is the problem with this, why do I not have clutch release. It is not releasing to the point that I cant get it into 1st with out shutting the engine off and rev. grinds as I force it into gear... any help would be gratefully excepted.


My deadline to get my RX7 on the road is this Friday.

I don't know specifics on this application, but times I've heard of this happening to others the culprit turned out to be something with the spacing or install of the pressure plate, or the clutch disk or throwout bearing being mounted backwards.

I've seen problems with the throwout fork not engaging the pivot stud correctly, but that's usually obvious - the fork feel loose in those cases.

Good luck with your quest; hopefully others have more specific advice for you.

I haven't taken t apart yet but I am looking a the other engine I have here and the old clutch disc and its got an of set. So if it is flipped inside then cut me some slack we installed this clutch after a full days work and finished it up a 2 A.M. when we all had to work at 6 A.M. LoL The ore I think about it that's probably what happened.

We all have done late night repairs and then had feeling pretty dumb moments after. You're part of a very big club, perhaps the biggest club for shade tree mechanics. So don't beat yourself up.

Yeah, no slack required - it's known to happen because it HAS, heh.

Yeh but the bad part is that I am a mechanic. I work fulltime at an indipendant shop now and before that I worked at a ford dealership garage. LoL that's why I needed the slack.

So I got my clutch installed correctly tonight. Went out and tested it. Cops got my doing 80 in a 45. I ended up with a let's slow it down warning. LoL

Well I am looking at clutched again... what does everyone think about the 6 puck stage 2 clutch? I have been reading up and the bigest thing I see is rpm has to be a bit higher when taking off. I guess my bigest question is how is the slave and master cylinders going to handle pushing a harder stage clutch in and out. Is there an upgrade availible for such a thing?

with the puck style clutches the engagement is much more on and off than a normal disc, which sucks on the street.

basically unless you go turbo or racing, than a stock clutch is fine.

The problem is I destroy them with my car...

If you destroy them by "slipping" the clutch then a racing clutch would be torn up in no time.

First one came broken in the car. This one I just thrashed was only 4 months old. So I. Need to figure out what's going on. But it feels out of balance so I would think some of the disc has broken off. It happend when I was hitting it hard with the gas pedal.

i do know that some of the Ebay clutches are not worth buying, and i've never heard of rhinopac…

actually the copper puck clutches wear quickly on the street, in a street car you need to slip the clutch and the puck type don't like this

Ok XTD has one on ebay that I think might fit what I need. Its a stage 2 with a HD full disc made for street use. What do you think of that.

Attachment 515410

Works great.

XTD and Exedy are different. One is garbage and the other is very well made. RX7Club.com - Search Forums

Yes, and ebay is rife in suspect clutches.

Ok my friends. I have a problem. Glazed my clutch disc this morning and now I have a RX7 that will not move. I have a 1982 engine and transmission with a clutch master clutch in it but I have noticed the clutch diameter is different from 1982-1983 does anyone know if the flywheel and clutch will inner change with my 83 engine. My clutch master clutch only has 300 miles on it. Otherwise I am looking at ordering the XTD brand stage 3 clutch kit off eBay not be confused with the XTR brand on there. I am also going to call the local clutch master shop that's only 45 min from me to price some options also.

There is a search function on this forum, but I like clutches so I'll let it slip (pun intended? Hah!).

All 82 and older use 215mm. All 83 and up use 225mm. No you can't swap flywheels between 82 and 83 because the rotors are different in weight.

My advice: take off crap quality clutch. Use a scuffing pad/3M paint remover disc attachment for a drill to cut down the glaze on the flywheel. Purchase a quality clutch disc and pressure plate kit made by Exedy (Daikin). Don't buy crap quality or you'll be doing this again real soon.

XTD is probably the same as XTR.

I found a picture of the stripping tool.
http://www.denlorstools.com/shop/images/MMM3171_L.JPG

Thanks I will get on that tonight

If you have an off car brake lathe in your shop you can turn your flywheel.

Have you tryine swaping pressure plates?



I never had a 12A so I don't know much about the clutch in it, but I've never had issues with slippage or premature wear on my O.E.M. Mazda clutches on my S4 engine.

I do have a brake lathe I was not sure if that's how you resurface them. I have a few older flex plates that I can practice on first. And when I get these off tonight I will know more and I will make sure to post pics.

So I got the car up on stands and started out to get some things done but lost ambition when I pulled the starter and then this caught eye. The attached photo is of the housing the starter goes into and those hail like things sticking out are what's left of my clutch disc.

Seeing that would give me a ton of motivation because I could take another picture like this.
http://www.geocities.ws/cd23c/pics/clutch01s.jpg

Good tip on the scuff pad, Jeff! That's going into my log for the next time I need to do a clutch. That might be soon, actually, since the pedal action on my newish '81 is awfully high. Last time I checked, Atkins rotary had an Exedy clutch pack on for $125. That seems pretty damn cheap to me and the clutch swap is a fairly easy job, I might be tempted to do it this summer anyhow.

The temp. out was neg15 and my car sat outside almost all day. So everything was a bit cold even inside the garage tonight it should be warmer to work on. I only have one blast furnace to heat my garage and even with it being 80 deg in there last night, the underside of the car was a nice box.

So today I got everything warm in the garage and had time to tear into this beast... this is what I found and yes it was the surface of the flex plate / flywheel that did the clutch disc in. The side of the disc that was against the pressure plate looked new still. So here are some horror pictures cover your children's eyes it is a murder scene.

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What do you all think of the resurfacing job. I turned it on the brake lathe and then put the sanding disc in the drill press and ran it under that for a bit to get a nice smooth surface....

Wow this resurfacing job must have been horrible since no one even commented LoL.

if you resurface too much material, the pedal throw length gets bad and you will only engage at the very end of the pedal. Sounds like the original problem was that your input shaft was crooked inside the pilot. Or the clutch master was not adjusted properly.

Did you figure out why this issue happen in the first place?

No I assumed it was because the surface had not gotten refinished the first time I replaced the clutch. The clutch that was in this car flew apart inside the transmission housing but it was both sides. With a more expensive clutch getting installed I don't want any dumb mistakes happening so I am trying to make sure everything is correct before it goes together.

best luck I have had with clutch components is to use all new surfaces or parts. example, I replaced pressure plate and clutch disk with new parts, without resurfacing the flywheel, put it together and the whole set up slipped badly.

Well doesn't look like it was glazed:) I had a center force I liked it a lot. Smooth never slipped. I did tons of drag racing 5-7k drops, burnouts, power shifting.. All at an estimated 140 hp.. I take that back. Once I turboed the car I smoked it... But that was probably double the hp so over the rating if the clutch....

I took off the little inspection cover on top of bell housing.. had my dad engage and disengage clutch while in neutral running, I sprayed about a can of brake clean in there... Clutch worked good again... Until I power shifted into second at 8 k. Haha. Overall I like the clutch tho... Please don't waste your money on junk, not yo mention your time of doing the job yet again... I really like my current act as well

Try this... Lifetime warranty!!! Can't beat that!

Not sure if this will be any help, but I'm fairly certain this is sort of a build-your-own clutch site.

Clutch Kits | Clutch Discs | Pressure Plates | Flywheels by Clutchnet (626) 448-7432

Just got my XTD clutch in. And also talked to rep about break in period. Since my brake pads are lifetime I am going to run it on stands and do 350 light brake takeoffs and that will equal the 500 mile easy driving but I have to do it in 4 stages over 4 days. So that's better than driving nice for a few years LoL.

Enjoy your XTD! Let us know how long it lasts.

I just got an email back from Rhinopac they will warranty my old clutch LoL well I would have not bought another clutch kit if I had known this two week ago.

Took the car for a small drive this afternoon with the new clutch for the first time. Just across town to lunch and back. But that clutch makes a huge difference in launch. And I was trying to take off nicely once this thing is broke in I want to see what it's capable of... If I like it I think I will be stepping up next time to a rigid puck clutch and use this just for back street racing.

100 MILES done. 400 more until I get to really have fun. This nice stop and go break in stuff really tests my will power to not crush these high school kids and their whimsy Saturn and Honda cars LoL

I am starting to think it's all in the break in. If you break these clutches in right to work good if you abuse them they break on you. I have been driving this thing nice for 150 stop and go miles. Gotten on it once the other day and it grabbed like nothing I have had in the car before. I hope that is a good sign for later on. But for now I have to be nice for 350 more miles.