I am hoping that someone can help me figure something out regarding the clutch engagement point. Unfortunately, this has to be a rather general question as I have installed an aftermarket pressure plate and clutch (from RB) and I really don’t remember the stock feel.

Simply put, the engagement point feels awful close to the top of the clutch pedal throw. I have done a number of adjustments according to the service manual and also to my taste. Currently the adjustment bolt is screwed as short as it can get, i.e., all the threads of the bolt attached to the clutch pedal are on the pedal side of the adjustment bolt. The result of this is that there is a maximum of "play" at the top of the pedal throw. So I can push on the pedal a good 25.4 mm before the clutch begins to be actually disengaged. The issue is that the clutch feels like it immediately disengages after this play distance, which is still quite high.

I am not saying that this is a problem. The disc does not slip as far as I can tell. (no slip under hard acceleration when I shift.) I have this obsession that it FEELS like it will slip, ‘cause the engagement is so high. But it doesn’t slip.

Like a few posts in here, I also get the feeling that the engagement point “floats.” For instance, I adjusted the clutch to engage closer to the floor. It worked…for a while. Eventually it felt like it moved back to the top. I am asking this long a$$ question cause while the engagement point was low, I felt that nice clean shifts were easier and more mindless.

This clutch this is a self-adjusting system to take up slack as the disc wears, but should I expect this?

 

Don't know if this will help, but thought I'd share (ie. open invitation to get flamed, yes?).

I had a situation (not an RX8) where the clutch disengagement point started moving lower and lower (requiring more pedal travel to disengage) over a few months when I finally discovered that my master cylinder for the clutch was empty (and had no more pedal travel!) and I had air in the line. The clutch returned to normal after a couple of trips.

Not saying you might have the same issue, just that having air in your line might make the engagement wander. I could see this happening if when the clutch was changed, the line wasn't completely bled.

My 2 cents,
G-man

 

Yeah, I considered air in the line and the "loose pressure plate syndrome", but the fact that the disengagment point is at the TOP of the pedal throw is inconsistant with either of these hypotheses. I think.

Certainly air in the line will cause the pedal to have to travel farther (further?) to disengage the clutch. Eventually, if there was no fluid, you would have to press the pedal to the radiator to get the clutch to disengage.

I appretiate the idea, tho.

 

Anybody?

 

Is this a racing clutch? Not from experience, but from what I've read, beefier clutches reduce some of the streetability of the car. Sounds sort of like what you described: Less slip.

Have you contacted Racing Beat?

 

I couldn't remember what the clutch was called (some combo name, manufatured by clutchnet) so I checked the RB website. Interestingly, the pressure plate and the clutch is not there anymore. Hmmm. {suspiciously rubs chin}

Gonna give them a call.

 

did you change the flywheel or resurface them???
or the pressure plate is too strong and you bend the fork.
all the rx7 from before had that kind of problem, most of them use act extreme.

 

RB flywheel. No resurfacing except for a light buff during installation. The pressure plate is only 38% stiffer than stock.

Sorry, i dont understand. What kind of problem do the 7s have? High engagement point or bent fork? Thanks for the info!

 

Does anyone know if our 8's have self-adjusting clutches (on the 6spMT of course)? I heard that just about every new manual trans vehicle now comes equipped with it standard, and some cars still advertise it as a feature, and it works with a constantly active throw out bearing system that prevents wear.. in other words, it's good for about a million clutch depressments before wearing out.

 

So my clutch engagement point problem (being to high) has since turned to a slipping clutch problem. I pulled the pressure plate and clutch with the intent to replace them with the stock unit. I unfortunately was suprised with the condition of the flywheel and clutch.

(Having trouble with the pics, hold on)

 

So this is the pp. You can see major pitting, I think. My major concern is that the wear pattern on the pp is not centered on the plate! There is a portion of the plate that is nearly completely smooth!

 

Here is where it starts getting scary. The pp has cracks in it on the off center portion where the clutch disc was making contact (top of the first pick). This is why I was having a burning clutch smell all the time! Whats the deal!

 

Now, this is the scariest. I dont know what to do with my flywheel. You can see it is not in the best of shape and in the second pic there are little cracks like in the pp. I cant imagine that it would be a good idea to put the stock pp and clutch disk back in without at least resurfacing or replacing the contact ring.

The last pic is my thoughts on what was happening. The disk doesnt seem to have been rotating centered on the pp. This is probibly the ultimate cause of my vibration at 3500 rpm. Also the disc was only makeing contact on one side of the pp and fw. this caused the hot spot with cracking on the edge.

So what do I do? can I risk just putting the stock pp back in? will the irregular surface on the flywheel wear back to normal (minus the cracks) Or should I remove the contact surface and replace it with a new one or have it resurfaced? PLEASE dont suggest I remove the flywheel. For one, it is a queen pita, and two, I just wont anyway.

 

Bump.