P.S. I think that the Act theory is half B.S. Spend some money and time and get some solid motor mounds and I bet you'll shift as smooth and butter. The harder you bang gears, the harder your engine rocks. get some motor mounts. In fact talk to David Buschur as he is running some type of stock modification. I bet if the Evo Engine was an inline design like Audi does it would shift alot better too.

 

First, to EvlEvo8 - call Precision Dyno in Moorestown, NJ 856-866-1919
IIRC their install price is probably 1/3 what you are paying and I am sure he can get you a good price on the clutch too.

Warrtalon,
I would definitely try a pedal adjust and some of the other suggestions.
But I would also look at your shifter bushings at the transmission, possibly go with a solid bushing like Buschur's.
It's also worth looking at the linkage at the trans to make sure none of it had bent.
The other thing to consider is the engine movement. We know the evo has a lot of front to rear movement in it. It may be the natural degredation of the roll-stop mounts from all the launches and just general hard driving causing more shifting dificulty.

I am by no means letting ACT off the hook becuase IMO the problem is the pressure plate.
But that is just my opinion. Someone needs to take one of these problematic clutches out and send it back to ACT so they can identify the problem if one exists. May be ACT should provide someone with a new setup in exchange just so they can put the issue to bed.

 

WOW thanks. BTW how is their Dynoflashing? I am having **** luck and I need a new tuner, my car has 272's and runs slower then cars without cams

 

that could be the problem and we dont know yet for sure but someone else had the same problem and switched to the Exedy twin and the problem went away. So its hard to say that its motor mounts, i guess we need to find out once someone does the mod

 

The act has a VERY heavy pressure plate in terms of clamping force. SImple yet effective. These multi plate clutches use a ligher pressure plate BUT increase the surface area for friction, so you get the force you need. The carbons also take heat WAY better. They are certainly better then the ACT, butthese multi plate clucthes are just too much gawd damn money.

 

i just had my trans rebuilt (9800k on the car ) and had a act kit put in. only 1800 miles later and im griding 3rd big time and getting massive grind at 6500k and above shifts. Time for another rebuild. mine is a 5sp, but im sure the syncros are no better or worse. just my act and evo tranny exsperience.

 

The points of engagement/disengagement are going to change as the clutch wears and breaks in. You need to extend the master cylinder rod and give it more travel so that the clutch releases more.

 

if you saw what i wrote you'd see that the clutch was working fine all the time.
then after a while, 'lock out'..it's as simple as that
i only use redline in my car...clutch was installed by a guy who deals with lots of evolutions (so he knows what he's doing).
went through and destroyed many clutches on my E7 and not one of them gave me this problem

 

After slight clutch engagments of the clutch, my act works flawless (shifting @ 7k rpm) and this is after a year of use. I love the engagement at lower rpms while the clutch at stop&go traffic can be annoying.

This clutch is great for cars that see the occasional track/strip. If I were putting my livelyhood in the car and using it to make money, then a twin disk maybe a better setup....by purchasing an act, I can put the extra ~$500 into other uses as compared to the cost of a twin disk....my opinion

 

Oh boy how do I do that? I am also worried about reducing it's clamping force. Probably on of the reasons teh stock one is a POS is because it doens't fully clamp and is always slipping in some way.

 

Somebody should start a thread on who has/has not had problems with their ACT clutches, as far as locking out at high rpm, to see if ACT will recall or TSB their clutches. I'm thinking much more than half the people that have these clutches are having the same problems. We can't all be wrong, can we?

BTW, my ACT does lock out at higher RPM. I'm sure it's the clutch. Tried to do everything else. It just doesn't wanna go into gear. Shifter just stops.

 

^ i agree.....
i got whooped by an STi at the track because of this shifting issue....cuz everytime i had to shift i had to drop the rpm...boost would drop..shift...turbo would have to spool up to full boost again....sigh
I dont think an subaru ever beat me before....lol

 

Yes, exactly. The only way I was able to get a full pass was by doing much slower shifts. The end result was a mere 12.67 at 107 after only 83mph in the 1/8th. In comparison, I ran 12.15 at 110.7 at 1pm on a 95 degree day just 2 weeks ago. I lost half a second and 3-4mph just from the delayed shifting. That's not acceptable. I ran 12.64 at 106 back when I just had a cat-back and was on pump gas...

 

Ill guess ill think twice before i buy an ACT clutch

 

Ok, I'm not going to even bother to read this entire thread. This is just rediculous. The problem is not the cltuch at all. I would get locked out of gears constantly when I had my Clutchmaster Stage 3 in the car. It is not the clutch, it is the matter of setting up the engagement point properly or a matter, for which in my case, was a bad tranny. I have had my tranny rebuilt at TRE and it has performed without a hitch 8000 miles later. I have yet to miss a shift or grind a gear.
The clutch should be adjusted so that when the car is up off the ground you should be able to let the clutch out a full 3" from the floor before the wheels barely turn. An ill-adjusted clutch will cause the disc to drag on the flywheel causing the mis-shift problem I hear so much about.
Another focus should be on maintainance. If you regularly track or drive your car hard you should change out all your drivetrain fluids more frequently. Degraded fluid will aslo cause you to have horrible shifting.
I guess alot of people don't think about these things before blaming someone else for there problems. Do you think ACT would still be in business today if they didn't have a proplerly working product?
One last point. If you tend to drive hard regularly again this goes back to maintenance, you will have to ensure that your clutch remains adjusted properly. In other words if you attend a track night you might want to check to make sure your clutch still engages 3 inches off of the floor. Over time as the clutch wears this engagement point will change.