92ShoOff
SHO Member
So it all starts years ago when I first got the SHO. I was out racing some other guy in a fast Integra and was going through the gears too hard and too fast, which resulted in a broken pressure plate strap. I knew how I was going to drive this car so I needed an upgrade clutch. I bought the Fibertuff 6-puck and heavy duty pressure plate from Midwest SHO and had AAMCO resurface the flywheel and do the work for me.
Well compared to the stock clutch, this one made noise while sitting still without the clutch pedal pressed in, and chattered pretty hard when trying to smoothly accelerate from a stop. I can't remember why but I ended up having AAMCO put in a SPEC stage 2 shortly after that, hoping the SPEC wouldn't make noise nor chatter. Got the same thing from the SPEC stage 2 kit.
So I decided to do a 3.2 swap 2 nearly two years ago, and in the process I decided to do add the Fidanze flywheel because I was wanting to get the most out of the car while I was doing all of this. I then ordered a SPEC Stage 2+ disc because my Stage 2 disc was looking pretty thin. I reused the SPEC pressure plate that was used with the Stage 2 setup, but sanded down the plate with some 300 or so grit sandpaper to sand out some hot spots and rough up the surface like everyone recommends. I also roughed up both sides of the clutch disc, and the flywheel surface as well if I recall correctly. I had asked the machinist that was doing my motor work to take a look at the Fidanza to make sure the surface was true (heard others on the forum suggesting the surface (where the insert is) isn't usually truly flat, and would cause problems if this was the case. The machinist weeks later said it look fine but I don't think he ever really looked at it.
Anyhow, after tearing my tranny apart to send Bizzy the diff, and putting the tranny back together (thanks to Josh's video) I installed the clutch to the flywheel (using the clutch alignment tool) and attached the transmission to the engine with no problems. As I recall, after everything was in place in the engine bay when I first went to push down on the clutch pedal it wouldn't budge at all, or was very heavy.. I don't remember. I did something (don't remember what exactly either) with prying on the fork that the clutch cable feeds into, heard a nice, loud click, and the clutch pedal was fine after that. When I got the engine running and when to move the car forward for the very first time after all of this the clutch made some noise as I slowly moved forward. Never heard that sound before with any of the previous clutches. Hard to describe the sound, but it kinda sounded like the sound brakes sometimes make when the rotors aren't clean. A pretty heavy sound, like you were trying to move the car forward with the brakes on. I drove the car around and got the sound everytime I started driving from a stop as I left off the clutch pedal.
My biggest mistake was I didn't let the new clutch break in. I put a few miles on the car, changed the oil, and was out pounding away at the motor trying to give it a hard breaking. The clutch slipped SEVERAL times on this first outing, and I'm sure I probably toasted in on that first drive. I was too worried about beating the engine to break it in, and failed to go easy on the brand new clutch setup. But the noise never went away as I engage first gear, and you couldn't launch the car hard from a stop because the clutch just wouldn't grab. It would also slip when I shifted gears really fast and punched the throttle again.
So I probably know why the clutch slipped and all after the first drive in the car, but I don't know what that noise I always got was and I don't want to do the same thing, or ANYTHING wrong for that matter on this next install.
Now one problem is this: I'm almost positive that I didn't do the final torquing on the pressure plate. I remember doing the very first initial, light torquing per the book... but after I dropped the engine and tranny in my heart stopped for a second as I remembered that I didn't think I did the final torquing to the pressure plate. I had go too far as it was and wasn't gonna pull the engine back out... I jsut crossed my fingers. I DID loc-tite the bolts with red loc-tite though, and when I removed them last week they weren't at all loose... but I noticed how the pressure plate fingers flex inward as you torque it down, and maybe the fingers weren't push in as far as they should have been since it wasn't torqued down completely. Sound plausible?
I had installed a new quill sleeve the the special loc-tite for sleeves, and installed one of Josh's ceramic throw-out bearings, with the teflon release shaft bushings and everything was properly lubricated (the inside of the bushings, the shaft of the fork, etc.)
So does anyone have a fairly solid idea of what caused this noise????? I will probably be doing a new pressure plate, clutch disk, and Fidanza insert to be safe with the next job, and I will be SURE not to beat on it like I did. It was just a case of neglegeance and ignorance of the new materials needing to break-in. Well thanks in advance!!!!!!!
-Andrew
Quill sleeve, TOB
Well compared to the stock clutch, this one made noise while sitting still without the clutch pedal pressed in, and chattered pretty hard when trying to smoothly accelerate from a stop. I can't remember why but I ended up having AAMCO put in a SPEC stage 2 shortly after that, hoping the SPEC wouldn't make noise nor chatter. Got the same thing from the SPEC stage 2 kit.
So I decided to do a 3.2 swap 2 nearly two years ago, and in the process I decided to do add the Fidanze flywheel because I was wanting to get the most out of the car while I was doing all of this. I then ordered a SPEC Stage 2+ disc because my Stage 2 disc was looking pretty thin. I reused the SPEC pressure plate that was used with the Stage 2 setup, but sanded down the plate with some 300 or so grit sandpaper to sand out some hot spots and rough up the surface like everyone recommends. I also roughed up both sides of the clutch disc, and the flywheel surface as well if I recall correctly. I had asked the machinist that was doing my motor work to take a look at the Fidanza to make sure the surface was true (heard others on the forum suggesting the surface (where the insert is) isn't usually truly flat, and would cause problems if this was the case. The machinist weeks later said it look fine but I don't think he ever really looked at it.
Anyhow, after tearing my tranny apart to send Bizzy the diff, and putting the tranny back together (thanks to Josh's video) I installed the clutch to the flywheel (using the clutch alignment tool) and attached the transmission to the engine with no problems. As I recall, after everything was in place in the engine bay when I first went to push down on the clutch pedal it wouldn't budge at all, or was very heavy.. I don't remember. I did something (don't remember what exactly either) with prying on the fork that the clutch cable feeds into, heard a nice, loud click, and the clutch pedal was fine after that. When I got the engine running and when to move the car forward for the very first time after all of this the clutch made some noise as I slowly moved forward. Never heard that sound before with any of the previous clutches. Hard to describe the sound, but it kinda sounded like the sound brakes sometimes make when the rotors aren't clean. A pretty heavy sound, like you were trying to move the car forward with the brakes on. I drove the car around and got the sound everytime I started driving from a stop as I left off the clutch pedal.
My biggest mistake was I didn't let the new clutch break in. I put a few miles on the car, changed the oil, and was out pounding away at the motor trying to give it a hard breaking. The clutch slipped SEVERAL times on this first outing, and I'm sure I probably toasted in on that first drive. I was too worried about beating the engine to break it in, and failed to go easy on the brand new clutch setup. But the noise never went away as I engage first gear, and you couldn't launch the car hard from a stop because the clutch just wouldn't grab. It would also slip when I shifted gears really fast and punched the throttle again.
So I probably know why the clutch slipped and all after the first drive in the car, but I don't know what that noise I always got was and I don't want to do the same thing, or ANYTHING wrong for that matter on this next install.
Now one problem is this: I'm almost positive that I didn't do the final torquing on the pressure plate. I remember doing the very first initial, light torquing per the book... but after I dropped the engine and tranny in my heart stopped for a second as I remembered that I didn't think I did the final torquing to the pressure plate. I had go too far as it was and wasn't gonna pull the engine back out... I jsut crossed my fingers. I DID loc-tite the bolts with red loc-tite though, and when I removed them last week they weren't at all loose... but I noticed how the pressure plate fingers flex inward as you torque it down, and maybe the fingers weren't push in as far as they should have been since it wasn't torqued down completely. Sound plausible?
I had installed a new quill sleeve the the special loc-tite for sleeves, and installed one of Josh's ceramic throw-out bearings, with the teflon release shaft bushings and everything was properly lubricated (the inside of the bushings, the shaft of the fork, etc.)
So does anyone have a fairly solid idea of what caused this noise????? I will probably be doing a new pressure plate, clutch disk, and Fidanza insert to be safe with the next job, and I will be SURE not to beat on it like I did. It was just a case of neglegeance and ignorance of the new materials needing to break-in. Well thanks in advance!!!!!!!
-Andrew
Quill sleeve, TOB
