Spec clutch sucks?

First I have sr20det In a s13, And yes I broke the clutch in properly and installed it properly for the first500 miles and I have over 800 miles on it now.
So my car shifts hard 1st and rev grind the first time after sitting then get better but over all not great shifting., I thought it was synchros or something then the other day it wanted to creep in gear and the clutch pedal wouldnt return back nice after sitting, so i decided to investigate.(BTW the clutch only works the last bit of the stroke) It seemed like if i kept pumping the clutch i could get it into gear better, So I was gonna bleed the clutch and noticed the slave cylinder was damp, so i called the local auto store and got a new one for a whole $12. Not bad, thinking that was my prob. Replaced it, flushed and bleed the clutch fluid, in the process after opening the bleeder every time I would have to pull the clutch pedal away from the floor. the slave cyl appears to going through the full motion but not completly disengaging the clutch. If I look in the dust boot hole you can see the fingers move but the pressure plat itself never lifts off the clutch. So then to try something I put a nut on the end of the slave rod to basically give it more throw and i tried it. car shifted AWESOME, better than it ever did. the only problem is the TOB (throw out bearing) is now always spining, which will wear it out. So I'm wondering if I need to shim the flywheel out to make up for the crap ass SpEc clutch i have along with me having the flywheel resurfaced, to get enough movement. My buddy who is a car mechanic said he tried 2 spec clutches in a saturn and after 2000 ish miles they started acting the way mine was and ended up putting in a differant brand and then it worked. also if you google "spec clutch hard shift" you get a crap load of people with same problem as me. I still have my ACT clutch Which worked before i swapped it out, Its been a while since i drove the car with that clutch in there but I think it had more movement in the pedal, but first did sometimes grind. Im not looking forward to pulling the trans in the car.Let me know your guys input. ( Also does anyone know the stock thickness of the flywheel)

Have you adjusted the rod on the master cylinder?

maybe you could put a washer or two behind the pivot point for the clutch arm.

Is your clutch fork bent at all?

zerepdivad wrote:

Have you adjusted the rod on the master cylinder?

No because the slave seemes to run its full motion, what is the proper way to adj. it?

93sapphirecoupe wrote:

maybe you could put a washer or two behind the pivot point for the clutch arm.

Im not sure exactly where you mean, Please explain.

240sxguy wrote:

Is your clutch fork bent at all?

I didnt look at it super carefully but I dont remember anything obvious, Is it supposed to be totally flat/straight or have any bend in it? can i put a straight edge on it?




Maybe i just need to burn the clutch, maybe i was too nice on it LOL

If it's slipping don't beat on it. You will be screwed then. The forks all have been flat that I have seen. There are also different sleeves that carry the throwout bearing that are different lengths and give you different release points. I had the opposite problem and had one that was too long, holding the clutch disengaged.

Adjust the clutch pedal at the master cylinder. Not a bad idea to replace it IMO since you already did the slave and they aren't terribly expensive.

the clutch pivot ball behind the clutch fork. normally that ball is removable, if you can remove it try putting some washers behind it to space it out more towards your clutch. or just try to adjust the master if thats possible.

mattchow88 wrote:

zerepdivad wrote:

Have you adjusted the rod on the master cylinder?

No because the slave seemes to run its full motion, what is the proper way to adj. it?

There's a cotterpin holding in a little thing going that holds the rod to the pedal. Remove both the pin and the little thing that goes through it(can't think of what it's called) and you can spin the rod. I don't recall which way does what but that is what i had to do on my car as well. Pretty sure there's some nuts you have to loosen as well. It's pretty simple once you look at it i'm sure you can figure it out.
I had similar issues like the pedal sometimes not wanting to come up and such until i adjusted the master cylinder.

240sxguy wrote:

If it's slipping don't beat on it. You will be screwed then. The forks all have been flat that I have seen. There are also different sleeves that carry the throwout bearing that are different lengths and give you different release points. I had the opposite problem and had one that was too long, holding the clutch disengaged.

Adjust the clutch pedal at the master cylinder. Not a bad idea to replace it IMO since you already did the slave and they aren't terribly expensive.

Its not slipping At all, where does one get these sleeves, are they the same for ka trans and sr trans? Im gonna replace the master too just to be certain, When i got the slave it was like 9:59 and they closed at 10 so i didnt think to ask about the master.

They are all nissan oem part numbers. I would have to do some hunting to find the information for you. I would do that last unless this has been an ongoing problem.

Sounds like hydraulics to me...

Anytime you replace a clutch you need to make sure you adjust the engagment down by the pedal. I had to do this when I replaced the clutch on my KA and then again when I installed my SR20. There is just a jam nut against the bracket at the back of the pedal you need to loosen it and then the rod should be able to turn by hand. I can't remember which direction is for more throw and less throw you will have to play with it a little. You may also have to adjust the switch at the top of the pedal bracket to make sure that you clutch pedal has enough freeplay to disengage. I recieved direction for this with my old Centerforce clutch. You may be able to look up better directions on there website.

I replaced the master and the slave, flushed and bleed the lines, no leaks, so unless there is a fluid gnome in there i dont see how it could be a prob.
I adj the rod the longest i could go and still had to move the clutch pedal stop in to touch it
right now the slave rod moves about 10mm if anyone could measure theres it would help me diagnose this better.
If your talking about the clutch saftey switch, my wires are cut so it doesnt matter

That switch acts as a stop though, if you look at it is threaded allowing you to adjust the how high or low the pedal is able to come up. Giving you more adjustability and the means to adjust freeplay if when the clutch is released and it doesn't quite feel like it is disengaging the throw out bearing.

well i pulled the trans and clutch today, didnt notice anythin wierd? will inspect further at alater date. will also put up some pics.

figured out how to make the trans shift easier
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is that grease?????

X1nom3D wrote:

is that grease?????

Yup!

So only one side of your clutch disc will wear?

EDIT: Wait, how does that fix the shifting problem?

X1nom3D wrote:

So only one side of your clutch disc will wear?

EDIT: Wait, how does that fix the shifting problem?

hahahah

X1nom3D wrote:

So only one side of your clutch disc will wear?

EDIT: Wait, how does that fix the shifting problem?

HAHAHA

That flywheel should have a step machined in it, without it you are giving up some clamping force FYI.

Of course, the grease isn't helpin'!

240sxguy wrote:

That flywheel should have a step machined in it, without it you are giving up some clamping force FYI.

Of course, the grease isn't helpin'!

From my research the stock flywheel for sr20det has NO step, its flat. Where did you hear that its stepped? and grease fixes everything lol

Oh right, SR. You may be correct, I take that back.

I accept your retraction. haha.

I got the old (ACT Exedy) clutch back in with my new Aluminum driveshaft(awesome) the clutch seems to work how my spec did when i had the slave pushrod lengthend. so my guess is there is something wrong with the spec clutch.