Need help with S14 RB25 Trans/Clutch problem!!

[Nimso]

Ok guys, so I have an S14 with an RB25. It had a 6 puck sprung clutch and a 19lb (stock?) flywheel in it when I bought it. I didn't know what it had so I bought an ACT Extreme Clutch and a JUN Ultra Lightweight flywheel for it. (I plan on putting a bigger turbo in at some point) I swapped the clutch myself with a few friends and I replaced the throw out bearing when I did it. I put in a stock Nissan TOB. When I put the new stuff in, and put the tranny back in the car, the clutch seemed to act funny. I adjusted the adjuster thing thats right above the clutch pedal and got it working alright, except that the clutch pedal came out of the car farther to get the clutch to engage. (Sorry if this makes no sense) The old clutch had a short amount of travel with the clutch pedal, and the new one seemed to come out an inch before the clutch grabbed. I drove it like this a while and got sick of it so I went back to adjusting the pedal adjuster until it has less travel, which kept ending up making the car roll when the clutch pedal was fully to the floor. So I kept having to adjust back a little bit. I broke in the clutch according to the manual that came with it. I want to say ive put a good 1k to 1.5k miles on it already. I could hear the screaming noise or however you would say it sounds when I would start the car in 1st gear and let the clutch out fairly slowly (im guessing it was the throw out bearing going bad noise) It would NOT do this when I started out at a higher rpm, such as 3-4k. It would also NOT do it if I started the car out in 1st and gave it very little gas (so that the car seemed like it was an automatic and started out smooth). Anyways, I was driving the car the other day, and this old police car came beside me and kept flooring it and taking off like an idiot. He kept doing it for a good mile or so, so I decided to take off. I started in 1st, and started out slow, and then punched it and when I went to shift into 2nd the car seemed funny and it seemed like the car was stuck in 1st gear. I shifted into 2nd (it was hard to shift it into 2nd) so I just pulled over and went to see what happened. I tried to shift into 1st and it just grinded. I figured it was that adjuster thing so I kept playing with that and I had no luck. I can shift it into 1st if I slam it in, but it makes the clunking - metal on metal sound... Also I can shift into 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, but it shift in kind of hard (no clunking) and 5th gear seems harder than 2-3-4, and also does NOT clunk. Reverse seems the same as 2-3-4 and does NOT clunk. I have had the car sitting for about a week and I went back to play with the adjuster today to see if I could make any improvements.

So I went back today and I adjusted it so that the little rod was all the way into the master cylinder (all the way that I could screw in before the rod fell off and wasn't in the adjuster bracket.) The car still clunked into 1st, but 2nd - 5th worked fine (I tried starting the car in 2nd and it made a loud whirring sound (When the car was working fine with the new clutch, I would park the car backwards into a spot [that made the car roll forwards] and I wouldn't let the clutch out all of the way so that I could drive slowly into the spot, and it would make this nosie) (Also it would make the noise when I let the tire people at a tire store pull the car into the garage [where the car would have to drive uphill a little bit])

I adjusted the adjuster back out from the master cylinder a little bit and it seemed to shorten the pedal throw. Also the car has been making a squeeking noise while idling in neutral, like when I start up the car and let it sit for a minute. (it stops when I push the clutch pedal in just a little bit, or if I rest my foot on the clutch pedal.)

Sorry for the long explanation, but I'm just trying to figure out whats going on. If anyone needs me to try to explain anything differently, I will certainly try to. :)

Thanks guys.

[Prime]

I've never dealt with the RB, but on the KA I had a similar issue when my clutch slave hadn't been bled properly. All I can think of.

[Nimso]

Yea, I suppose I can try bleeding it again. I put a Master to Slave cable on there to replace the stock cable and we bled it. Does anyone know if a master cylinder or slave cylinder can go bad? Or do they just leak / not work when they go bad?

[Hxc_Nismo]

have you bled the clutch slave cylinder? it sounds like you have a little air in the hydraulic, or your slave cylinder is bad. i have an rb in my car and have had my tranny out number of times and i always had to bleed the slave every time because it still got air in it. and if you have the stock 240sx bleeder box, get rid of it and get a stainless clutch line and it will be 3x's easier to bleed.

[Hxc_Nismo]

if the clutch master is bad they usually leak on the inside of the firewall when they leak but the seal in it still can go bad and not put out the proper psi when pushed. they only cost about $30-$50 at your local part store.

[Nimso]

Yea, I put in the stainless clutch line (i couldnt think of the name when i posted before) Is that what you mean get rid of the stock bleeder box? We did bleed the clutch when we did that line, and I remember the stock clutch line coming out of the car, but I dont remember if a bleeder box came out or not. Ill have to check and try bleeding the clutch again.

[Hxc_Nismo]

it wouldnt hurt to replace the clutch master if its old.

[Nimso]

Im not sure how old it is... I think the car came stock with an automatic (because it has an automatic brake booster in it, also the RB25 had the automatic transmission controller box, whoever did the swap left that attached to the wiring harness in the car.) So the car had to have been swapped to a manual, and im assuming that they did this when they did the RB swap... I'm wondering if I should just replace the slave cylinder with the nismo one (the clutch I put in is a 6 puck unsprung (its the one that handles 630ft/lbs of torque...)

[Hxc_Nismo]

buy the slave from http://mckinneymotorsports.com/ for like $50 and its equevilant to the nismo one.

[Nimso]

i was just doing a little research on the slave cylinders and someone said the one they bought from mckinney was the same brand as one you could get from an auto parts store for 16 bucks, except they drilled out the holes to mount it. (they emailed the company that made it and showed them pictures) and they recommended to go to the parts store. I would almost have the Nismo one or an oem one because I would think that it would last longer. I would rather spend a little more and have something that I know will last, rather than spend less and have to replace it later :)

[Hxc_Nismo]

i have the napa part# for the slave if you want it.

[Prime]

For bleeding, there's this tool (http://www.harborfreight.com/brake-fluid-bleeder-92924.html) you can buy from Harbor freight that pulls vacuum on brake/clutch lines. Best. Tool. Ever.
Just put the nozzle over the bung on your slave, pull the trigger, open the bung and watch the fun. No pedal pumping, no bullshit.

edit: Also, the stock bleeder box would be in between your stainless line and the slave cylinder. Slave is mounted on the tranny, bleeder box is mounted on the frame. If there is any connection from the slave other than your stainless line, my bet would be the bleeder box is still installed. Just bypass it, it's pretty much worthless.

[Nimso]

sweet, thanks for the info guys, ill try bleeding it and see what happens... ill be posting again if it doesnt work to see if you guys have any other ideas :)

[Nimso]

ok, so i dont mean to bump an old thread, but heres whats going on... my car is just sitting in the garage, still having the same problem... I put in a nismo slave cylinder, didnt help, ive bled the clutch 10 times, and it hasnt helped. I drove the car to a friends friend, and he told me that it sounds like my flywheel has been worn down too far, and I will need to replace it. Also, he informed me that I did not have an S14 clutch pedal in the car...

I ordered a new clutch pedal and bracket from courtesy parts, and I took the bracket to a welding shop to weld it where it has spot welds to prevent the notorious cracking of the bracket. I am going to swap out the clutch pedal bracket and pedal tomorrow night and see if it makes anything better. If that doesnt work, then I will have to either have a shop drop the tranny for me and check it out, or find somewhere that I can do it myself. I am leaning more towards the shop, because I dont have all of the tools / lift or anything like that. When I replaced the clutch before, I took the car onto a military base to do the work. I have since moved, and am out of the military, so yea... :-/

Anyways, just wanted to keep you guys informed, and again, thanks for all of the help!

Oh yea, I held onto the old clutch/flywheel, so if I have to, I will just throw that back in, and if I have to have the tranny taken out, I'm just going to put a nismo pivot ball in there too. :)

[Nimso]

alright guys, i know im bumping an old thread again, but i thought i would post the results of what my initial problem was...

after having the car sit for months, trying to figure out what went wrong...

i took my car to pitstop performance in phoenix, and they did an amazing job, and got it done very quickly... anyways... what happened was... the pressure plate broke...

i guess the jun flywheel is fine, and it was just the pressure plate on my act clutch, i had them put in a different brand, as well as a new pivot ball. Im going to try to contact act to see if they will replace the broken clutch pieces or the whole thing... im not sure why this happened, but i didnt expect it to happen with the act brand... maybe i just got a bad pressure plate?? (im always unlucky) it really sucks because i bought the best act clutch i could find...

oh well, i guess i made the car that much more reliable with all of the other stuff that i did.

thanks for the help guys, i really appreciated it!! :)

[Godfoot]

Im going with spec. My assumption is i dont need to get the same flywheel, I will be using oem rb25 and have my mechanic just shave it down... $150 to shave , wtf. anyways, im trying to stay around 450rwhp with spec stage 3+ and oem shaved flywheel, what did you end up doing with the flywheel?