[Would definitely appreciate input from ACTMan]

I've had the HD w/ Street Disc setup for about a year now and I love it; it was a bit notchy during shifts when I first got it installed but adjusting the clutch to raise the engagement point took care of that.

Fast forward to today, when the weather's been hinting at winter (lows overnight in the 40s). When the clutch is cold (first 10 minutes or so of driving), shifts are very notchy; especially on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I've even managed to grind 2nd once or twice during low speed changes from 1st (sub 3000 RPM) with the clutch pedal pressed fully to the floor.

I adjusted the clutch again to further raise the engagement point and there are probably only 2 or 3 turns left on the rod. While this made a slight improvement, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th still suck pretty hard when the clutch is cold.

Questions:

1) Am I just dealing with a quirk associated with cold weather that should be accepted and ignored (i.e. no further adjustments) since it goes away after the clutch heats up?

If the answer to (1) is "NO," then there are followup questions:

2) After nearly a year of driving, shouldn't the disc have worn a bit and therefore require *less* travel to disengage?

3) Will I need to further raise the engagement point next year around wintertime?

4) What happens after I am out of travel on the rod to raise the engagement point?

 

to be honest i think ur good. maybe change your fluids, see what that does for you. my car does the same thing. the first few minutes of shifts are particularly rough no matter what I do about it. thought it was me at first, but it goes away after the car warms up. my advice, sit in the car for a couple minutes and let the thing warm up. while ur sitting, push the clutch in and go through all the gears a couple of times. that way you can get things moving a bit with shifts at the lowest rpms possible, decreasing the chance of screwing something up. hopefully by the time you actually start moving the thing is shifting like normal.

 

10 minutes is a long time to warm up, especially if it is only getting to 40* F! I park outside, and my car is warmed up in about 5 minutes... it was 23* last night, and has been much closer to zero in the past week. When was the last time you did transmission oil? Your OE underhood bushings could be worn, too.

 

Boostlover99 - Why didn't you just PM or email me?

The clutch parts themselves are not really temperature sensitive on how they operates. But usually what can be sensitive to weather or temperature changes are the oil and operating system.

Viscosity of the oil can be much higher in cold temps (depending on the oil) which slows things down and causes drag. I would say this is true only in very cold temperatures.

As far as the operating system goes, that happens is the grease gets washed away or thick and old on all the pivots points, release bearing guidetube, etc. If you combine that with the clutch dust, then the friction on all those points (especially the guidetube) will prevent the clutch from operating smoothly and release completely. You would also realize a very stiff pedal, which is much stiffer going down than when it comes up due to this additional friction.

Lack of proper lubrication can also be true with the splines of the disc. If the disc is not able to slide freely on the input shaft then the clutch is unable to release properly. It is common for this to change as the car warms up and the splines sort of free themselves a bit.

It is amazing semetimes just how much different a clutch will operate with the right lubrication. Those are my initial thoughts. Obviously there are many things you can check, but those are the items that come to mind that are more weather sensitive.

 

Sweet - thanks, Dirk! I'm sorry if I should have PM'd you or e-mailed you directly; I figured I'd post and get feedback from other people to see if they'd had similar experiences also (lots of people driving Evos in much colder areas).

I'll have the op sys checked out the next time I'm in.

Thanks to everyone for their input!

 

I was thinking it might be time to change the fluids, too. Thanks!

 

Last time the fluids were done was about 8K miles ago (@ 30K mile service). I'll have the bushings checked.

Thanks!

 

Sounds to me like your transmission fluid is cold. These tranny's don't work well in the cold from around 45F or colder. Once they warm up everything is fine. I've had the same experience before and after tranny rebuild and using several different fluids.

The only low temperature quirk I have noticed with the ACT HDSS (I've had 2) is they are typically very grabby for the first couple of shifts. 3 minutes down the road it's fine.

 

Good deal; I'm just glad to know everything's normal.

Thanks!

 

Yep, definitely your fluid not the clutch. Clutches don't really contain anything that can cause shifting changes in different temperatures.

 

Same experience as well, shifter is stiff, but clutch is less grabby after a couple of minutes. . ..usually after I have backed out of the driveway, it's not as grabby, maybe to the OP, a bad initial install?

 

That would also be fluid related but in the clutch cylinder. As the fluid degrades is more likely to expand and contrast in different temperatures. Replace the fluid in your clutch master/slave cylinder and there will be less variation in colder weather.

If the fluid isn't the same consistency then the point where your clutch will "grab" will also varry until the car is up to normal operating temp.

 

This actually turned out to be an adjustment issue (that I can't really explain).

After adjusting the engagement point higher to the point where there was no adjustment left and still getting crappy cold shifts, I figured that I might as well reset the engagement point to where I had it before. After all, if the shifts were going to grind when cold regardless of engagement point, I might as well lower the engagement point and get a more pleasant drive.

Since it's a bit of an imprecise science, I lowered the engagement a bit further than I had intended; lower than I had originally set when I started to have problems.

Lo & behold, butter-smooth shifts, even at low RPMs and when everything's icy cold from sitting outside all night.

I cannot explain this from a theoretical perspective but thought it worthwhile to pass on the knowledge for anyone who might be having a similar issue; it's counterintuitive that *lowering* the engagement point on the clutch would allow for smoother shifting.

Go figure. I love my ACT, though - 15K miles and still grabbing strong.

 

I'm getting some notchy shifts in second and third a lot with my act. Adjusted it out the whole way and no change. I'm gunna try some furthur adjustment and possibly switch to the ss line and remove the pill. This sounds like my problem exactly and I'll have to try adjusting it back down a bit after hearing this.

 

Yeah - very strange. Try the adjustment before doing anything heavy duty like replacing parts, etc.