I know they are priced very differently, but I want a clutch that'll hold up for a good while. I've seen LOTS of people recomend the ACT unit, but the only thing that turns me off is that they use the stock disk (which I burnt out at 1500 miles due to hard launching). From what I've heard you're able to slip the twin disk cusco and launch pretty well without burning b/c it uses carbon disks.... I really need help b/c my car is in the shop right now.

I will be drag racing and launching occasionally too (the car is stock now, but it will be modded to at least 350whp, maybe more)

 

Road Race offers an alternative disc to be used in conjunction with the ACT.

 

Ok, so say I got the upgraded disk, which clutch would be the best for my situation?

 

If I had the $$ now, I would get the cusco since it is made of carbon and lets you slip it easily..

how long should it last? it really depends on your driving..

 

the act is terrible as far as driveability, from what I've heard. I have the cusco and aside from a poor job done by the dealership, it holds incredibly (7k clutch drop, 4 wheels spin) and slips like stock, with minimum chatter. Best of luck

 

I am not able to shift very easily above 6500 RPM's with the ACT and two very reputable companies that work on Evo's have told me that this is a problem with the ACT clutch. One of the two companies does a lot of work on trannies for the Evo. I do not want to name drop because I do not want to start another war on this forum. I do not really know what is different between the ACT clutch to the stock one other then the increased clamping force and I have the upgraded disk, but it does NOT allow the tranny to shift well above 6500 RPM's when accelerating hard. What else could be that different? Weight? I might try the extended cylinder rod to try and make sure the pressure plate is disengaging, but otherwise I know of no solution. I actually contacted one of the two people who said not to use the ACT because I was going to have them go through my tranny to find out why it would not shift, it was when I said what clutch I am using that they said that it was the problem as they had similar experiences. Both companies actually recommended the Cusco, so it looks like another clutch install is in my immediate future. This really sucks because otherwise I have really liked the ACT clutch and was very happy with it.

 

Hi joeycoates, just curious, when you say that you are not able to shift easily, does it not want to go into gear or does it grind?

 

how bout this clutch? The UR clutch

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...threadid=68678

does anyone have this clutch?

 

Hey EVOwhat, I mean it just does not want to go into gear. It does not grind, its just like the clutch disk is heavy or the pressure plate is not disengaging all of the way so the syncro's are having a difficult time matching the output shaft speed to the layshaft speed, it does not grind though. When doing a 1-2, 2-3 or 3-4 shift it is just like you are hitting a wall as soon as the shifter gets in between gears. After about .5 to .75 seconds the engine revs have dropped enough so that it will fall into gear. What is odd though is that below 6500 RPM's it will shift when accelerating hard without a problem. I do not get it, I just do not understand what the problem is. The ACT pressure plate is just about identical to the stock piece, it just has a heavier clamping force from what I could see. Hell, the pressure plate itself would not make ANY difference with this problem unless it was not disengaging all of the way. I have the uprated semi-metalic material clutch and I did not notice a large weight difference, but I was not looking for it either. This is the only thing I can think of though. If the clutch is heavier then that heavy weight at the outer edge of a fairly large diameter clutch disk would have more rotational inertia which would be harder for the syncro's to slow in order to match the output shaft speed with the layshaft speed. I am no expert by any means of the imagination, so this is pure supposition on my part. I have no emperical evidence to base this assumption up, I just know that my car will not shift correctly now. I would like for ACTman to look at this thread as he has always been very helpful in the past, maybe he could give some insite as to what the problem is. I am not by any means trying to bash on ACT as like I said earlier, exept for the upper RPM shifting I really like the setup, I just want to fix whatever the problem is. If nothing else I was thinking about keeping the pressure plate and going to something like the UR ceramic clutch disk which looks to be a bit smaller and lighter. I would just hate to take everything back out again to put the different clutch disk in and have it still not work right.

 

Joey,
I meant to email you Tuesday about this. I am sure this we can figure out what is going on with your car and what the possible causes are.

I have had reports of grinding with the stock clutches but have only heard of improved shifting with ours, up to this point. I don't know how that compares with the Cusco, Exedy, etc. but there are many other factors that contribute to sluggish shifting. The only differences we have over the stock clutch is that our pressure plate has a stronger spring and the disc has better linings that are steel backed along with less marcel (cushioning between the linings). The disc is slightly heavier but it shouldn't cause a significant difference in shifting. We modify the pressure plate to improve release, which has been reported to help reduce grinding (first test was Ultimate Racing's car).

I don't want to too deep into other causes here, because it gets pretty deep and I don't want to make tech on the EVO forum a full time job, but I will try and call or email you tomorrow ro Wednesday to discuss it. I have visitors coming (my parents) to the shop tomorrow so I will be tied up half the day.

 

Thanks for the quick responce Dirk. I have also sent you an e-mail with some aditional information that may help as far as resolving whatever the problem may be. Just e-mail or call at your convinience, if your parents are in town then don't worry about it, family comes first. And like I said, there is no noticable grinding, I just cannot get it to shift until the revs drop. I have tried Redline MT-90, Lightweight Shockproof and GM Syncromesh. The overall shifting is better with the GM Syncromesh, but still no high rpm shifting under a load. I also checked all linkages for correct operation and put in the solid bushings in both the shifter itself and in the linkages where the cables connect to the tranny. I will just talk to you later about it.

 

if you can keep this thread alive with anything you guys find out, I would greatly appreciate it.

thanks joeycoates and Dirk!...

 

I have intermittently experienced this problem with the stock clutch. Hell it just happened the other day at the track, I was comming out of a third gear corner getting reading to pass this M3 bimmer, so I was really pushing over 7K and probably trying to shift faster than usual (battle mode), and it just wouldn't go into gear. When I tried to force it I experienced some gear grinding, when I finally got into gear I lost so much speed I had to wait for the next straight to pass (DE rules). I figure it's probably just me being in such a hurry to shift that I don't fully disengage the clutch, under most conditions you can get away with it but...
Perhaps with the heavier clutch pedal this operator error can become exagerated? When ever I made a conscious effort to make sure the clutch pedal was fully to the floor before shifting I have never had this problem, of course that slows your shifting down a bit also.
I have over 24K and still on the original stock clutch with over 300WHP, I was/still am planning to switch to the ACT clutch when this one goes, so I will be following this thread closely.

Joey, have you tried bleeding the clutch recently?

Let me know if I can help with any testing/comparisons, since we have similiar mods but stock and aftermarket clutches.

 

No, I was actually planning on bleeding it tonight, but I do not think that this is the problem. The reason I say that is when I bought the car I put the stainless clutch line on it after I had it all of four days due to you finding on the clutch line. When I installed it I did not bleed the line all of the way, I noticed it not being correcy by the end of my alley. So, I then went on a massive bleeding campain, I mean I bled the s--t out of it until there were positivly no more bubbles. When I changed the clutch I simply unbolted the slave cylinder without even draining or opening the sytem up, I figured if it is good now then it should be good when I bolt it up to the tranny housing once the new clutch is in. Maybe it does need to be bled, but what you say about it just not wanting to go into gear is exactly what I am talking about, exept it just started happening when I put the ACT in. I just have to wonder if the synco spring are not stiff enough to allow them spin up the stock disk above a certain RPM, or the ACT disk at a little bit lower RPM since it is just slightly heavier. This inability for the syncros to cope would of course be exagerated over time as any spring will begin a slow loss of tension strength from the day it is compressed. As it gets older it just can't do what it used to. Of course I personally don't think that there is any excuse at all in a car that is less then a year old for the syncro springs to not work properly even if the tranny is heavily cycled. I know that John Shepard put new syncro springs in Rollaways's car when he went through the tranny, I wonder if they were stronger springs? Anyway, Dirk is on it so I would think that with a little detective work we may be able to find an equitable solution.

 

i had the same problem when i put in a act extreme pressure plate in my rx7, i adjusted the master cylinder on the the clutch pedal and that made things much better, although getting into reverse was a *****, i had to go 5th then reverse other wise it would gring, although that had more to do with it being old.