[rosscarlson]

All,

Over the last few days, with the help of Travis (Vulcan Gray - thanks man!) I swapped out my clutch to really replace a defective throw out bearing. Everything went seemingly smoothly but now that I have her all back together I'm having a few issues. They are:

- Very difficult going into reverse - I basically have to force it past a little "clunk!" as it pops into reverse.

- Stiff going into all other gears but not as bad as reverse.

- The clutch pedal is now like a hair trigger, barely move my foot and it engages. It was tight before but now it's just insane.

- Very difficult to down shift while moving, heel-toe has to be near perfect for it to slot into gear.

- When I try things with the rear up in the air all seems well (I did a quick test before dropping it and driving it)

I've been getting some assistance from Phil at BOE (thanks Phil!!!) and he is/was thinking I need to bleed the clutch slave as I might have gotten air in there. I've done that 3 times now and while it did get better after the first bleed the second 2 didn't really change it. If I just need to bleed it like crazy I'm happy to do that - I once got air in the brakes of my Audi RS4 and had to bleed like 4 bottles of fluid through it (same bottle 4 times).

Thoughts? Should I just keep bleeding it or did I get something wrong?

Thanks!

-Ross

UPDATE After bleeding the clutch 4 times finally a huge amount of air came out. After that I bleed it some more just to be safe and now all is well with the world once again. Amazing the negative impact air can have!!

 

[Nessal]

Is there a chance that the clutch is partially engaged even when the pedal is pressed down. That could explain why it has difficulty going into other gears and why the clutch grabs immediately.

 

[lotus90]

I would put some miles on clutch. A new clutch takes time to break in when I have done them.

 

[rosscarlson]

It was actually simple guys - just needed to bleed it over and over and on my 4th pass a huge amount of air came out. I kept bleeding it after that just to be safe and now all is well with the world again. And after my car being down for a month I finally get her back!! I'll suffer through taking her to work this week just to make sure all is well and to get some break-in miles on the clutch.

I'll post up a picture of the throw out bearing later, it looked very bad.

-Ross

 

[XHILR8N!]

Hoorah! Congrats for your persistence!

I visited my ride today. Getting close to being track ready again after some body work. Need to get the XPEL on and align and just go through her.

 

[rosscarlson]

I don't think I realized you were having work done, what happened, someone hit you or you just decide to mod? Clearly I haven't been around much lately.

Looking forward to more pictures as so far it looks fantastic with no headlights, if a bit odd. Did you do any performance work or just visual?

 

[XHILR8N!]

Big off at South Bend at VIR, tried carrying just too fast, off to right over 100 backwards.
Just body damage. I'll write it all up eventually.

Not sure what to do about the "blind cave fish" look. It's better in person, but today is first time I've seen her painted. We'll see.

 

[rosscarlson]

Ouch, that's a bummer to hear but glad just body damage as that can always be fixed. I assume you were uninjured as at the end of the day that's all that really matters. We can buy new toys not new lives...

I think it's gonna look great, some graphics up there might help too if it looks too open.

-Ross

 

[shay2nak]

what clutch is installed?

 

[turbophil]

He's got the new style ACT HDSS. ACT was cool enough to redesign the HD and XT SS for the lotus application after "we" broke a few of them. Very cool of ACT. They even took all our old inventory at no charge. It's a more expensive clutch than the old style, but can't knock their service. The old ones were good, but these new ones are hella stout with 3 bands in each pack rather than 2 like everyone else:up:

-Phil

 

[rosscarlson]

Phil, Mr. 2 birds one stone (I emailed to ask the same question).

It is definitely tighter than the previous edition one, either that or I just need to bleed it further. The drive to work in a little stop/go traffic was a workout for sure. I'm really going to have to be smooth and slow with my shifts on track as I've already missed a few just driving on the street. By miss I mean just get neutral, I've never been close to the 'money' shift.

And not only did Phil get me the clutch overnight (and fluid) he was available evenings and Saturday/Sunday when I had questions.

 

[turbophil]

Glad to help!

^^Ya, it sounds like you need to bleed a bit more...

#firsttimeclutchswapblues



-Phil