Need Subaru Clutch Help (no love from nasioc)

Details of car:

-1994 WRX wagon -recent ej20g pull and replace (old motor done blowed up) -kept old transmission, had flywheel resurfaced, install new TOB, pilot bearing, pressure plate, and clutch disc (exedy KSB03, meant for a 2003 WRX, should be correct for EJ20G as well)

Details of issue:

• start car in neutral, everything fine
• push clutch in, try to put car in gear, will not go into gear

• push harder on gear shift, slight grinding noise

• start car in gear with clutch pushed in

• slight "buzzing noise", vibration through clutch pedal, wheels slowly spin (car is on jackstands)
• if brakes are held, buzzing continues, wheels don't spin

Troubleshooting already done:

• clutch fully engages
• throwout bearing "appears" to be locked in place. Shift fork flops around a bit when you are off the clutch pedal, but the slave fully extends and retracts and it does relieve "some" pressure off the disk

So in essence, the clutch grabs GREAT! But it doesn't fully disengage. I've already had the transmission out once as I couldn't get the TOB to lock properly.

Did I damage the pressure plate or the ring that inserts in the pressure plate when I installed the motor (transmission was still in car when doing this, I may have bumped the input shaft off the pressure plate and hurt it?)

Running out of time and patience, I've been working on this way too long :-[

Dont know much about these cars, but if its a hydraulic system maybe you need to bleed it more.

It could also be a disc thats too thick. I've that several times, it sucks.

How carefully did you inspect the disc? I've seen one come out of the box with waprpage/loose rivets, not something I'd expect from Exedy, but something to look at.

Sounds like it has too much free play. I ave no idea how to fix that as I have only had American cars with cable clutches. Maybe adjust the pivot ( if it has one).

It sounds like something is wrong with the TOB and fork.

Of course I am ASSUMING that you used the alignment tool AND nothing was put in backwards AND splines aren't buggered AND the case isn't cracked at the input shaft. Not that I have screwed up all of those thing at least twice...

Are you sure the disc is correct? I had a very similar problem when I was shipped a WRX disc and put it on my RS trans.

Did you re-adjust the clutch? There's a little tie rod under the dash. Don't get confused and accidentally the brake pedal like I did.

Don't take it the wrong way, but any chance the disc got put in backwards?

Last time I had a clutch problem like that, my TOB was cracked on the inner race- you couldn't see it without looking very closely, but with enough force it could expand and do all sorts of silly E36 M3.

And even if all that is good, i had a mis-sized fork pivot cause me a good deal of head-scratching once...

Ojala wrote: Of course I am ASSUMING that you used the alignment tool AND nothing was put in backwards AND splines aren't buggered AND the case isn't cracked at the input shaft. Not that I have screwed up all of those thing at least twice...

Used alignment tool - check!
Backwards - only thing that could be backwards is the clutch disc... and the noises and metal shavings it would create would be epic :o So I don't think that is the problem
splines - they LOOKED good when I had the engine out, maybe they aren't?
case - transmission was fine when everything came out, the transmission wasn't replaced so I am under the impression the tranny should be fine (cross fingers!)

camaroz1985 wrote: Are you sure the disc is correct? I had a very similar problem when I was shipped a WRX disc and put it on my RS trans.

No, I am not. I mean, it fit the splines and everything appeared good, the kit is the proper one that hundreds of people have used in the jdm wrxs, but there is the possibility exedy screwed up.

Leafy wrote: Did you re-adjust the clutch? There's a little tie rod under the dash. Don't get confused and accidentally the brake pedal like I did.

I did a bit. I also had my father jam a wrench in between the slave and the fork, so it should be getting enough travel.

WonkoTheSane wrote: And even if all that is good, i had a mis-sized fork pivot cause me a good deal of head-scratching once...

The pivot fork is the original one, and it is a much superior (stronger) design compared the the stamped metal ones used in the newer cars. I don't think cast iron can really bend (I hope!). Again, everything worked fine coming out. All that has changed is the TOB, pressure plate, clutch disk, and resurfaced flywheel.

I'll keep everyone updated as my father has been kind enough to pull the transmission again. Its not a big job (I can do it in a hour now!), just a hassle :(

HiTempguy wrote: All that has changed is the TOB, pressure plate, clutch disk, and resurfaced flywheel.

How much was taken off the flywheel? Is it possible that too much was taken off the flywheel and the pressure plate is not able to exert enough force on the clutch disk to disengage it?

errr, is that how pull type clutches work? This old skool wrx should have a pull clutch iirc. And those make no sense to me at all.

Hal wrote:

HiTempguy wrote: All that has changed is the TOB, pressure plate, clutch disk, and resurfaced flywheel.

How much was taken off the flywheel? Is it possible that too much was taken off the flywheel and the pressure plate is not able to exert enough force on the clutch disk to disengage it?

I was under the impression that with a pull-type clutch, it would have the opposite affect (as noted below). If too much material was taken off, the clutch would have less clamping pressure (I think?)

Leafy wrote: errr, is that how pull type clutches work? This old skool wrx should have a pull clutch iirc. And those make no sense to me at all.

Wasn't aware it was a pull type and have never worked on one of those.

At first I figured this was a clutch fork (seen them crack before, not just bend) but if you're using one of the tougher versions it probably isn't the cause.

If you converted from cable clutch to hydraulic clutch, did you use the correct pivot point for the clutch fork pivot? It is not the same between the hydraulic and cable implementations - the ball unscrews and should be swapped to the other hole inside the bellhousing, at least on push type. I don't even know if JDMs have cable clutch though, and from the sounds of it it was already working as hydraulic (from the previous owner's swap?)