In my humble opinion, everybody needs to take a big deep breath. I think it would be worthwhile to call Actman b/c he already stated that he might be able to have a fix for you.

I can see why your very irritated with the clutch not being able to perform high rpm shifts, however I think your attidude in this situation needs readjustment.

Everyone who says ACT stinks, etc, need to grow up. Wait until the website on how these problems occur and what the possible fixes are until you make your final conclusions.

Personally I think that ACT clutch is not to blame, b/c it seems that the car is very finicky when it comes to clutch installs, and if not done 110% correctly you will have problems. Members on this forum have complained of all types of clutches not performing correctly, from cusco, exedy, stock,act, rps, clutchmasters, etc.

All the members of this forum who complain of lockout issues should first try to trouble-shoot using the website and if STILL if you are having problems contact Actman. He seems to be very helpful and his knowledge of clutches and installs is worth the time to contact him.

Good luck.

 

I agree, this is not an ACT only issue, this is a single disc clutch issue. Every company has the same problem, I had the RRE X clutch with the exact same problem, and since every company is using an Exedy pressure plate maybe they are the ones everyone should be *****ing at.

 

I hope the mods delete this thread

 

I have a friend with an Exedy twin and his car don't shift for ****. So i definitely agree with you here.

 

This is exactly why it took so long for me to respond in the first place. There is page after page of no new information, just speculation, blame, he said, she said stuff. I tried to hold off until I concluded more testing, but once people started calling me out I had to respond even though I don't feel we have a complete analysis yet and there are definitely different issues on different cars or different clutches. We have had these clutches out for almost two years but if you listen to some people all of a sudden "everyone" has or will have this "known problem".

While I know it is tempting to use terms like "everyone", "known problem", and other misleading terms to try and add credibility, our own experience suggest that there is no smoking gun, but rather several issues that people are experiencing to different degrees of severity. Because of how complex explaining each senario can be, we are going to do so in a seperate page. Stay tuned for a link. It will probably be on page 38 of this thread.

 

Why? This is incredibly valuable information for those who either have an ACT or are considering the purchase of one...

 

Wowza. This is turning into a huge Ordeal. First Off, I have a question. Why is this clutch adjustment pedal thing a Band-Aid fix? Does anyone know or is it the keyword of the day because we can't have it exactly the way we want it?

My personal pedal sat below the factory brake pedal for the entire Life of the car , it was like that when I purchased the car from the dealer. It has had play since day one IE being able to move the top of the pedal with my foot to it's correct position ( near the level of the brake pedal ) after use.

Now What I can tell you is that I expereinced lockout with my stock clutch. Yup, thats right street racing a S2k , locked out of second . As well as someother times vs. other cars. I altered my driving style and thought driver error. That same night My stocker gave out and I thought to myself what a retard I must be.

Now enters the ACT , Purchased and installed at RRE by Mike himself.

Lockout continues , grinding continues (mildly) but I am never in the upper band as I hardly ever street race or "stoplight race" never really concerned me. It's pedal hieght was same as stock while the pedal pressure was heavier. ripped on it a few times seemed great as I had altered my driving style to the stock clutch. Now when I did quick shift , I got lock out . same as stock for me. I figured driver error aswell.

Enter this thread.

I stay away and mostly read till I figure out its mostly complaints and less actions. If you want your clutch to be perfect you have to move away from the keyboard.
I talk to Mike about the situation and he tells me to bring it by on the way there I rip thru the gears o make sure I can give him a description on what is taking place . Sure enough problems still there. Before Mike touches the car I start to ramble about what I am experiencing. HE adjusts the pedal and states that the clutch pedal was not adjusted by RRE and that If I had not adjusted myself the stocker was misadjusted from the begining causes the problems of premature wear on the clutch and tranny as well as lockouts and grinding causes by the synchros having to perform more work . This all has o do with adjustment of the pedal.


He tells me to take her for a rip and says he knows I am cured. What do you know I come back after doing 1-2's and 1-2-3's WITHOUT ANY LOCKOUT. I ask him if this is a quick fix and he replies no, If it was adjusted right from the factory you would've never experienced this with either clutch. He went on to tell me that every clutch they install whether it be ACT Exedy , single disk , twin disc , etc. they adjust the pedal and he said the reason for this is beause Mitsu's quality control in this situation is Horrible and he has been in contact with Mitsu telling them what he is seeing. That is huge considering Mitsu flat out gave him a brand new Evo for testing and development , and he has just received a Brand new Eclipse for the same purposes. he has "distributor" plates on the damn thing still .


What I can say is that while all of my clutch related issues have gone away whats left is a higher pedal engagement. Now while this takes so gettting used to I was inccorect in my statement in saying that that could cause problems for some people like me with my size ( 6'3) well it hasn't I took it to the drag strip last night over on harbor and made myself some quick cash.

I really think you guys need to step away from the keyboard and live your lives. This is Dirk's baby, you are speaking about his own on this. coming at him like blood thirsty dogs is not away to treat this particular vendor maybe Dynoflash but not Dirk from ACT. My problem is solved and I know the reason why and so does Mike from RRE and SO does Dirk from ACT whether you choose to accept this or turn this into a huge thing in which the recrocusions of your actions hae no consequince on you but they hold huge ones for Dirk.

Sorry for the Long post but I needed to let you all know your overreacting and playing Mr. Mechanic instead of the real mechanics like Mike tell you whats going on. If there is one reason RRE has the reputation they do it's becuase they are the BEST. No one on this board has EVER questioned RRE's talent to diagnose problems and fix'em EVER. Hell MMNA sends cars over to RRE and MIKE for inspection. The Tech's at MMNA know Mike personally and call for his opinion. I trust him and I think you all should too.

 

Dirk,

I am sorry that these Knuckleheads are running your product thru the mud, I would've laughed if this was Dynoflash . But not Dirk from ACT .

This is upsetting to me and to anyone that has already had it explained to them. Everyone sitting around this damn forum needs to shut down and go outside and play for awhile.

 

Kilterman, see, this is the problem. We all know the clutch works after adjusting pedal to the very end of the adjustment rod. This is nothing new, and everyone has ALREADY DONE THIS. What you don't understand is that my clutch pedal was ADJUSTED WHEN IT WAS INSTALLED. My clutch pedal was sitting several inches ABOVE my brake pedal after the install, and the engagement was way off the floor, but closer to the middle than it is now. I had _0_ lockout problems with the stocker and none with the ACT (at first). After 2 months, it appeared. So, now I've adjusted the pedal even further out, almost as far as you can go, and now it works again like it did when it was first installed. I can only assume it will do the same thing that it didi before...in a few months, it will lockout again, and then I'll have no room to adjust the pedal further.

Plenty of people have said in this thread that they have adjusted their pedal, removed the clutch restrictor, installed a SS clutch line, changed fluids, etc etc etc, and they still get the lockout issue. I can only hope that you never experience this lockout problem again (same with me), but we haven't had anyone come into this thread yet and say that. If we had as many (or more) who had adjusted the pedal and never had another lockout problem after 6 months, a year, or longer, then it wouldn't be as much of an issue. Unfortunately, we have no one who has said this...

 

All i've got to say is that i got a new clutch and my problem is over.
no pedal adjustment needed.

anyways i'm out of this thread since my car is working just fine now. I'll be at the drag strip this weekend hopefully without any problems.

to all the other guys..hope u get it sorted out.

 

So what was the verdict with Wartalon and Dirk????

 

He was busy earlier, which is expected for the CEO of a successful company, but he will be calling me as soon as he's free this afternoon...expecting it to be around 4pm EST or so.

 

Keep us informed please. Like I said I'm not bashing ACT's product I swear by them for my DSM's, my question was why no response at all earlier from ACT was all. I we are working it is a lot better then no response that was my only complaint.

 

I understand your worries. Maybe I don't have them because Dirk is in Lancaster and Mike and RRE are in Santa Fe Springs . (Both are somewhat local ) And I Have no worries as I know that if something like that arises Dirk and RRE will take care of me, I know this.

What I do ask of you is to give Dirk some time and Benefit of the doubt. He is working on this . So is Mike from RRE. If theres anyone in this community you should trust it's these two guys. If they say give them some time and they will have it figured out . They will get it figured out.

The feedback you are giving is valuble yet descructive at the same time. 1 simple phone call to dirk describing problems would have been suffiencient (sp?) what is going on now seems from the outside looking in as an attempt to cause as much problems as you can in hopes of getting a "silencer" AKA something free.

I hope this isn't the case. I will be contacting Dirk to give him an extra perspective on my situation so that he has more knowledge to throw at this thing. IE stoker was mis adjusted, stocker locked out . ACT misadjusted, ACT locked out. ACT adjusted ACT problems seem alleviated (sp?) . food for thought . atleast in my case.

 

I had a great conversation with Warrtalon this afternoon. I can't say that I resolved anything but I really didn't expect to. I am at a disadvantage by not seeing the parts or the car. I went on and on (probably bored the tears out of him) about different senarios, different causes and different theories, as well as some basics about clutch design. I know he didn't catch everything because it is difficult to describe certain things without having a visual but at least we both have a better understanding. The main understanding we have is that his car is different than others in the fact that the symptoms seems to have worsened before he adjusted the clutch to an extreme high point (in his estimation). This suggests to me that something else has changed, either in the clutch parts, the linkage, the flywheel, or the engine that would require more travel to release the clutch than before. Lockout can usually be prevented by adjusting the clutch to a higher release point. But from that point on the shifting shouldn't change, unless the transmission is getting worn. If the transmission is getting worn (primarilly syncros), no amount of adjustment will help so there too the symptoms are consistent. In Warrtalon's case adjustment did help but apparently changed later which suggests something else is changing. I don't know what could be changing without seeing his parts, etc, but it could be as simple as a loose pressure plate bolt to warped or damaged/defective parts. Speculation will not answer it though.

I will continue to put some information together for this page I was speaking of and obviously if anyone wants to get in touch, feel free to email me at dstarksen@advancedclutch.com. Unfortunately I don't get work emails at home so don't expect a response until Monday if you are emailing me this weekend.