Finally got back to working on the Talon Sat.

After I put in the replacement trans, I developed a leak and parked the car again due to the weather. I thought it was the transfer case seal so I pulled it out. Transfer Case was full of oil, so that wasn't it.

The inside on the trans housing was all wet when I pulled the clutch fork boot off so apparently one of the trans seals is leaking. Looks like the output shaft for the transfer case may be the culprit. It seems to be seaping just sitting in the driveway. Thing is, why would it be wet up by the clutch fork?? The input shaft seal shouldn't be leaking that much because it's above the oil line in the trans, at least I think so. I hope it's not the input shaft seal, I'd have to disaasemble the trans to replace that.

I did remove the inoperable cruise control since I picked up a no-cruise cable over the winter. Need to finish hooking that stuff up.

Ordered another ACT 2600 pressure plate. Need to tear town the car again.

I guess I'll find that leak when I pull the trans again.

I got a couple lead on some manual belts, hopefully the pan out.

Got my new pressure plate and got the trans pulled. Inside of the bellhousing is wet everywhere. Trying to figure out if the input seal is leaking or the output shaft seal. Since the splines are wet on the clutch disk I'm guessing it's the input seal. Time to take the trans apart.

Little catch can I welded up to replace the bulky Summit one I had. This one is going to be mounted on the firewall where the cruise control used to live.

Anybody recommend something I can pour inside to keep it from rusting from the condensation water/oil mix that will be going in it?

Nice work man. Theres probably something that you can coat the inside with that will rust proof it, not sure what to use though.

you could probly just use some paint/primer and swish it around in there. wouldn't be the most uniform, but should work. other than that i'm sure there's some rubberized sealer of some sort available.

I intially thought fuel tank sealer...but figured it would be kind of expensive for a 6 oz "tank"

Paint is a good idea, maybe thin it down and swish it around.

I want to have one made out of aluminum, one I make sure this one works ok. I built some baffling in it to keep some oil blowing out like the old one did.

if you're going to make a new one before too long, then I wouldn't even worry about sealing it. Just take some regular oil and swish it around to protect it as well as possible. It shouldn't rust out in less than 6 months - a year.

You don't know me very well...
This will probably be on my car until I get rid of it!

A guy at work might have a little left over gas tank sealer, that should work great.

I ordered all my seals for the trans, transfer case and a new TOB from MItsu. Now I just have to get enough energy to get the trans apart.

Just got confirmation of a set of manual seat belts get sent to my house today too! Losing more weight!!! Got faster!

Took my flywheel into Kalina to get it resurfaced. They can't get the dowl pins out! Even with heat. WTF?

Owner apoligised...said they never had this happen.

Anybody got a good 6 bolt flywheel to sell?

Took the day off of work and worked on the Talon and some woodworking projects.

Fabricated up a mount for the new breather tank and mounted everything.
Welded up my broken prop rod mount.
Torn down the trans. The input shaft seal was the culprit. It was torn to hell.

Still hunting for another flywheel.

that's pretty crazy that they couldn't get the pins out. never heard of that either. course you probably can't heat the flywheel itself to get them loose, without warping it... sucks

I found a Fidanza 8lb AL flywheel for $85 unused.

Anybody running a lightened flywheel on their street rides? Any issues?

Mine is an oldschool Fidanza like the one that Darryl twisted into two pieces. I've had to replace the friction surface before, but otherwise no mechanical problems. The engine obviously picks-up and loses RPM quicker so I found the engine loses RPM so fast when the clutch is depressed and you are coasting or coming to a stop that it wants to die. That's really the only negative side effect I've had to deal with and we were able to improve it a lot with tuning.

Well, I guess I didn't notice any differance when I drove your car home from Cordova that night mine broke, so hopfully it won't make a big differnance on mine.

Yea i agree. Mine used to want to die but it got tuned not to.

NCgalant I assume!

Yes Sir

Got my Fidanza flywheel today! Looks pretty good after I cleaned up the little bit of surface rust. Going to go take it in and get the step height checked. I read somewhere some of the older ones have a bad step height sometimes.

Can I assume that the flywheel bolts are torqued to the standard amount?

Never going to Kalina again! I asked them to check the step height on the new flywheel. Long story but I leave pissed.

Head over to Mullvain's and they measure it and it's perfect....and free!

I go to install in and everything goes great until bolt the clutch on. One hole is buggered up. Take it all back out and put an ez-out. Check the other holes and the bolts don't go far enough in to get the clutch mounted flat! The threads are messed up halfway down the hole. So out come a tap and I tap all the holes.

So instead of putting in the trans today I spent 2 hours dicking with a flywheel and clutch that are still not on the car!

The good news, I went to picked up another axle and found out they have a lifetime guarentee and I got a free replacement.

Well spent 7 hours getting everything together...no joy, clutch won't fully disengage!
Had a hell of a time get the trans in. Stripped out one of the top trans bolt. Ended up putting ez-threads in both holes.
Bled the clutch system.
Made some extended clutch rods. The last rod is just long enough not to pre-load the clutch fingers witht the TOB.
It will only go into 1st and 2nd and barely disengages 1/4" off the floor.

The flywheel was checked and it's step height was .61" It's a brand new ACT 2600 clutch and disk and MITSU TOB. You would think that with all new componant and the same shimmed shift fork as before it would have plenty of fork movement.

I guess I can shim the fork ball some more...don't know what else to do.

Chris, I have not read the whole thread..
A couple of questions that come off the top of my head.

With the car off, can you shift the trans easily into all gears? YES/NO

If No, then the problem is probably in the trans

If yes.. Clutch related.

How old are the Slave cylinder and master cylinder for the clutch?
Have you bled both of them?

Ive ran all sorts of clutches in the fwd, and numerous awd's.. Ive never had to shim anything, not once.. with act, spec (star), exedy so on and so forth. The only thing Ive ever done is the slave rod swap, which only changed my engagement point for me, as I recall (pedal release location).

Good luck man, I know it can be frustrating..
Where are all these shims going?

Trans shifts fine without the car running.

I replaced the slave and master probably 3-4 years ago. I checked them, they are not leaking. I did bleed the system twice. I replaced the hose with a braided one I had because it had a small knick but it wasn't leaking. The slave moves the fork a little less than 1/2" which I read is about normal.

The shims go on the clutch fork ball. Adding a shim effectively moves the fork closer to the pressure plate. Mainly to make up for the material lost when machining the flywheel.

I'm thinking the Fidanza flywheel is a different height that the stock , because the clutch fork is further over in the window than the previous setup.

Got everything back together...damn thing still won't go in gear.

I can put it in gear, push in the clutch, start it and then as soon as I twitch my foot it engages.

But I can't get it into gear with the engine running and the clutch pushed in. I'm not sure if the flywheel is screwed, the ACT 2600 is screwed...maybe clutch pedal is worn, slave or master??? Everything worked before the new clutch and flywheel was added

I can't beleive it would be the trans after I took it apart, because it goes into gear fine out of the car, I checked.

It's something in your clutch system. Your clutch is just barely disengaging, which isn't enough when it's running, and not already in gear. it needs to completely disengage to shift. Sounds like you need more travel on the clutch arm in some way/shape/form. Can you lengthen your slave cylinder anymore (or shorten, whichever would take play out)?

Well I had Brent check the movement of the clutch fork in the Rocket. (thanks again!). His car has about 1/2" of movement measured in the clutch window. My car has 3/8"

So maybe the slave or master is going out. But neither are leaking though and they are about 3-4 yrs old. I guess with the old worn out clutch, that throw might have been enough. With the new parts it may need more throw.

Replaced the master and slave...Still only have 3/8" of movement.

Checked the pedal assembly, after pushing down the clutch and letting it return I can pull the pedal about an 1" up. So now it may be my pedal assembly is worn out.

I still need to bleed the clutch a little, my helper left before I was completly done. but it don't look good.

man, that's a strange problem.

Will it hurt those clutches to run a bit of preload? It's obviously not disengaging, so if you could preload it like 1/8" you'd probly get enough movement to disengage the clutch, while still getting a good lock when pedal is out.

naw...preload cause TOB failures.

I'll pull out the pedal assembly and weld it.

Sooner or later I'll make it to the track.

yeah kinda what i thought, tough luck

The wearing clutch pedal is actually a fairly common problem on DSM's. I had to fix mine a while back. I agree, it still strange though...

steering column is out, everything disconnected. Can get the brake master cylinder out of the way enough to get the pedal assembly out.

Got pissed so it's a good time to quit.

Got everything out yesterday. By looking at the joint and the wear pattern on the washer and clutch master cylinder arm, I think the nut loosened on the edge of the clutch assembly allowing the end to slot and tab joint to wear slightly. I reassembled and tightened the nut and there was no slop. I read on a old DSMTalk post that that joint is almost an interferance fit and should have no slop, can anybody confirm that?

I ordered all new parts and Shep brass bearings today. I'm going to rebuild it and hopefully never have to rebuild it again. I hope this really fixes the porblem otherwise I don't know what else to do.

it really sounds like you're on the right track. I'd also make sure and locktite the nuts/bolts in the linkage, so they won't come loose. since you've got it apart already...

JNZ Tuning let me down for the first time. Order didn't show up yet. Got the brass bushings from Shep Trans but not the pedal, linkage etc. from JNZ.

Dualdj1, I plan on tack welding the washer/nut onto the end of the shaft after it's reassembled.

Well I'm about at the end of my rope. I replaced the pedal assembly and the clutch still won't disengage.

So to recap.
After installing a new ACT 2600, pressure plate and Mitsu TOB with a Fidanza flywheel the clutch didn't disengage. I had Mulvains check the step height and it was .610.

Pulled the trans and reshimed the fork to put the clutch pedal to the drivers side of the trans window.

I replaced the clutch master and slave. Replace the old hose with braided hose. Tried extended slave cylinder rods.

I rebuilt the clutch pedal assembly with Shep brass bushings, new Mitsu clutch pedal and arm. I welded the washers and nut on the ned of the shaft.

I even welded a nut on the clutch clevis to get more adjustment with no effect.

Bled the clutch system several times.

I have a 1/2" of slave rod movement at the fork.

The only things left I can think of is?:
-defective pressure plate (too thick?)
-defective clutch plate
-2600 clutch bending aluminum flywheel

ANYTHING ELSE???

Well unless your flywheel is a lot different than mine I don't think it's bending since I have the same pressure plate.

Do you still have the old flywheel? Did you compare it side by side with the new one?
Sound to me like you have taken care of everything, leaving only the possibility of defective parts.
As discussed earlier, the only way to really offer any help is to lay my eyes on it or any other person with good experience.

Kicks,
Let me know if your game gets canceled today, or if you have time this weekend.

I still have the old flywheel. It looked the same to me. I have the friction plate thickness spec from ACT so if I take it apart I can verify the thickness.

I got the Talon running! I found this video last night "Proper CLutch Adjustment"

http://www.jackstransmissions.com/pages/tech-articles

I had welded an extra washer on the clutch master cylinder clevis and good thing cause I had the adjust the clutch rod pretty far out. Have 1" of free play and it disengages about an 1" off the floor. Doesn't seem to creep on the stutterbox either.

Now I just got to finish putting the car back together.

Congrats Chris! See you at the track June 6th!

Well maybe...

Pass side axle started leaking Sunday. Swapped in another new seal, old one seemed to have a small knick in it. However the new seal is leaking.

After some taling to Darryl...and some internet searching by him. We came up with a thread on DSMTalk where a guy got a bad axle that wouldn't stop leaking. He replaced the seal 3 time and it wouldn't stop leaking, swapped in another axle and it was fine. Off to Advance again and see if they'll give me another to try.

Anybody else had a similiar experience?/

haven't, but could easily see that happening. Take a Micrometer with you if you have one, and mic out both axles where the seal sits to see if there's a difference. Also can make sure it's perfectly round that way.

Looks like I solved the problem (finger crossed).

The axle that was in there had a sealing surface of 1.614" in dia. The axle I picked up today has a dia of 1.378"!! The bigger axle had pushed the seal into the case when I tapped it in to get the c-clip to seat. I should have known better.

So I got the round friggin axle from Advance! They said they would swap it no charge but what a pain in the a$$.

Drove my daughter to softball tonight and no leaks.

sweet, glad to hear it's finally coming together!

and she's down again.

something in the trans or clutch is rattling.

back on the jack stands it goes.

Got the gears sets rebuilted after eating a couple of gears. I can't get a bearing race out of the trans for the input shaft so I said screw it and assembled the old stock trans with upgraded shift forks I bought from Darryl.

Got the old trans installed and at least the cars running right now and maybe I can finish breaking in the new clutch and have some fun with the car.

Took it out today and seems to be running pretty good. Need to find my logger and see how the tune is.

My autometer shift light seems to have taken a dump. Goes off randomly between 3000 and where ever the shift pill is.

Took the Talon out to check the launch rpm on the stutter with the new clutch/flywheel combo. Left at 5800, spun all four tires and first gear exploded after about 15 feet. By the looks of the tires tracks, the front wheels started hopping and the shock load must have destroyed first. I've got my other trans to put together but it'll be tough to make the CSS Street car challange and defend my belt...8(

damn man, You just can't keep that thing together. too much power

tough luck though, hope you can get it fixed

Well here's a picture of the burnout and a couple of the resulting carnage.

I did manage to get it to the CSS Street Car Challange. Alternator bolt sheared of on the drive down. Luckily I carry an extra alternator when I got to the track. Didn't have the correct bolt, but a little redneck engineering got me running again.

Only ran a best of 12.79 but was fighting wheel hop all day and didn't want to blow another trans.