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New clutch/3rd gear grind

Posted: July 22nd, 2003, 8:56 pm
by ImpulseITR
I was really happy two weeks ago to drive home in a 2000 PY Integra type R. But as luck would have it, I managed to break within a few days when the clutch went out on me. I ended up dropping in an ACT 6-puck disc and heavy duty pressure plate. I know this is a little harsh but it's kind of a long story why I ended up with it. Anyways, now that I've put a few miles to break it in and seat the disc, when I shift into third gear from second at high RPM's the tranny grinds! It never did this before the new clutch. Do you guys think that adjusting the clutch will take care of this? Or is it possible that when the old clutch went, somehow it could have damaged a synchro, which seems rather odd to me. When the clutch went, I was shifting out of third gear and into fourth. When I went into fourth, the clutch pedal went soft to the floor and it wouldn't go into gear. When we took the factory disc out, the pads were broken apart. What do you guys think? It only grinds at high RPM's and it seems to do it every time. Thanks

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 12:24 am
by kabob
Dude, are you insane? My advice is that you get that 6-puck racing clutch out of your ITR as soon as it's feasible. Puck clutches clamp so hard that they can literally destroy the gears. They're tranny breakers, man :(

Re: New clutch/3rd gear grind

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 3:20 am
by ImpulseITR
Yes I'm insane. I was told by a few people that this was the way to go, combined with a great deal on the clutch with the fact that it was my only choice to get my car back on the road since it is my daily driver. It is way too rough though and I will be extracting it back out soon. I think I will keep the ACT pressure plate and use an OEM disc. But wight now I'm more concerned with the damn gear crunch!

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 7:49 am
by Trey
kabob wrote:Dude, are you insane? My advice is that you get that 6-puck racing clutch out of your ITR as soon as it's feasible. Puck clutches clamp so hard that they can literally destroy the gears. They're tranny breakers, man :(
Not sure why you all think a clutch disk is going to break a tranny. The only time a clutch differes from another is at initial launch which is more drivier than clutch on the tranny. And the pressure plate that applies pressure while the car is spinning to resist slippage. The extra pressure shoudl hardly be putting undue stress on gears. I can't honestly think of a clutch that is going to break gears. It will shake the car apart.

The high RPM 3rd gear grind is fairly normal. The 2 suggestions I have seen short of replacing the synchro is add a little more tranny fluid or replace the fluid with GM Synchromesh (Friction Modified) which is supposed to be some of the best tranny fluid available (GM might not be able to build a good tranny so they focused on good fluid)

Re: New clutch/3rd gear grind

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 8:50 am
by Erik B
This is a commen problem with ITR, the synchro is out. Mine went out in 5th gear for some reason :lol: .....warrenty covered it short shifter and all.

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 9:52 am
by Dave-ROR
synchro is most likely.

too much pressure plate force will cause crank walk on some cars, never heard of that on a bseries motors. older years of my boosted beater and older miatas (90, maybe 91s) expereince it.

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 10:05 am
by Trey
I think some DSM's have crank walk too.

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 12:29 pm
by ImpulseITR
What exactly is crank walk? I've never heard of that before.

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 12:42 pm
by opie
Trey wrote:I think some DSM's have crank walk too.
Trey, you are very correct. My buddies eclipse is in the shop more than on the street. However, I do disagree with your thought on clutches not blowing tranny's. I blew 2 tranny's in my VW before I realized that the clutch I was using would clamp so harsh over stock that is was causing the tranny mounts to crack, and eventually lead to it blowing. Granted, the clutch wasn't what actually blew the tranny, but is was the main contributing factors..

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 1:08 pm
by Trey
a VW and a DSM and a Honda (Most specifically Bseries) are very different monsters. a harsh clutch in a bseries tranny is not going to break or damage much of anything if you can control yourself. The setup is very resiliant and the clutch pressure won't break a mount on these cars.

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 1:28 pm
by TypeR 801
Apples to oranges comparisons here. VW transmissions are fairly weak to begin with, especially the O2A's and regardless of what type of clutch will fail much sooner than a B-series honda transmission. The differential pin in the spider gears is notorious for falling out and allowing the spider gears to shred inside and then get launched out as a projectile leaving a nice hole in the tranny casing. The rivets holding the ring gear in too often loosen over time and fall out, with the same effect.

I had mine take a crap after 2500 miles. A couple drag strip runs and it was toast. Simply unbelievable for an almost new transmission which had been babied for over the first 1K miles.

And as trey mentioned, 3rd gear grind on these gearboxes is a pretty common problem. Many racers have experienced it and it's also pretty common for the street driven R's too.

I don't have experience with the GM Synchromesh, but I did try the BG Synchroshift II and would NOT recommend it. It may have helped hot shifting marginally, but cold shifting got considerably worse and I'm inclined to believe is one major cause of my current input shaft bearing failure.

You really can't go wrong with OEM Honda MTL and are taking a risk IMO with anything else.
OPIE112 wrote:
Trey wrote:I think some DSM's have crank walk too.
Trey, you are very correct. My buddies eclipse is in the shop more than on the street. However, I do disagree with your thought on clutches not blowing tranny's. I blew 2 tranny's in my VW before I realized that the clutch I was using would clamp so harsh over stock that is was causing the tranny mounts to crack, and eventually lead to it blowing. Granted, the clutch wasn't what actually blew the tranny, but is was the main contributing factors..

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 5:39 pm
by kabob
OPIE112 wrote:
Trey wrote:I think some DSM's have crank walk too.
Trey, you are very correct. My buddies eclipse is in the shop more than on the street. However, I do disagree with your thought on clutches not blowing tranny's. I blew 2 tranny's in my VW before I realized that the clutch I was using would clamp so harsh over stock that is was causing the tranny mounts to crack, and eventually lead to it blowing. Granted, the clutch wasn't what actually blew the tranny, but is was the main contributing factors..
That's what happened in a friend of mine's 1997 VR-4. He put in a 6-puck racing clutch and the transmission went bye bye rather quickly. I didn't realize Hondas were set up different :)

Posted: July 23rd, 2003, 5:47 pm
by Dave-ROR
Of everyone I know with a 6 puck, no one has had problems.

Are these people you guiys speak up driving nice and smooth, or like fucktards?

Posted: July 24th, 2003, 4:07 pm
by opie
No 6 pucks, just 4's and every one I know that has them runs on the street and hurts their cars. When my stock clutch starts to sag i'm thinking about an ACT street disk with a heavy duty pressure plate...

Posted: July 24th, 2003, 8:47 pm
by Type R 98
im grinding 3rd and 5th gear with honda mtl tranny fluid so is it more expensive for me to change the tranny or to open it up and fix 2 or 3 synchros?

Posted: July 24th, 2003, 11:30 pm
by type_r_556
alright first off some people on this site are just freaking dumb pricks that are too cocky and think they know everything, so that's just extremely annoying, but besides that i had the same problem i put a clutch master stage three in my itr, and now the third gear grinds only at high rpm's, i was told that it is because my old clutch was too weak to make it grab hard, i bought the car with a crappy stock clutch, but besides that syncros in honda tranny's straight suck, they're always going out, i work at honda, and man you won't believe how many tranny installs we do a week, i'm talking about 4 a week because of syncros, it's worse at acura, that's the price we pay for the car we choose, as for other people who are just too damn judgemental and don't know how to keep their mouth shut, GET A FREAKING CLUE AND SHUT UP!!!

Posted: July 24th, 2003, 11:50 pm
by Dave-ROR
type_r_556: who are you even talking about? If you're going to directly insult people at least let those who you are insulting know.

An example: "I think you are a fucktard type_r_556, like all other honda dealership mechanics." See, that was specific. And to clarify, I was making an example in the above post. Since I don't know what you know or don't know it was not a statement of fact or opinion, just an example of how to be more direct.

And yes, the syncros in honda trannies pretty much suck ass. Still, a smooth driver is FAR less likely to fuck up syncros with any clutch compared to a rough driver with the same clutch.

Posted: July 24th, 2003, 11:50 pm
by Dave-ROR
Type R 98 wrote:im grinding 3rd and 5th gear with honda mtl tranny fluid so is it more expensive for me to change the tranny or to open it up and fix 2 or 3 synchros?
Far cheaper to fix the syncros.

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 9:26 am
by Trey
dawhiteboy wrote: And yes, the syncros in honda trannies pretty much suck ass. Still, a smooth driver is FAR less likely to fuck up syncros with any clutch compared to a rough driver with the same clutch.
And a Honda tranny is IMO FAR better than a Subaru tranny. I will take a small Synchro grind.

So who are you talking to exactly, type_r_556? And do you knwo the people well enough to know they truly don't knwo what they are talking about? (I assume you are referring to myself or dawhiteboy . . .am I wrong?)

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 10:30 am
by Dave-ROR
Trey wrote:(I assume you are referring to myself or dawhiteboy . . .am I wrong?)
that was my guess too. I noticed he said his dealership always has trannies in there being taken apart.. I wonder how many HE has taken apart. :roll:

I mean, sure I've never even seen the inside of one... but still.. :lol: :shock: :roll:

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 10:31 am
by Trey
you've read a lot about taking them apart on the internet though, right dave?

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 10:34 am
by Dave-ROR
Trey wrote:you've read a lot about taking them apart on the internet though, right dave?
yep, superhondaonline provides lots of solid tech info!

can you believe some fools did internal tranny work at NOPI in atlanta? FOOLS I TELL YOU! :shock: I heard they installed strobes and chrome plated the countershaft and mainshaft. wtf?!?! :roll:

:lol:

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 10:38 am
by Trey
I have seen that car before somewhere. Heard it runs 11's all motor due to the special vented strobes!

Crazy fools!!

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 8:50 pm
by type_r_556
dude dawhiteboy, ya fuckin moron, i wasn't even talking to you, you dumb fuck prick so why don't you mind your own fucking business, is that specific enough for ya? i wasn't even trying to point one person out, but the majority of people who do that in all post, so for you and your fag ass attitude of pointing people out and doggin' them, you can suck my dick, hahahaha peace

Posted: July 25th, 2003, 9:31 pm
by Dave-ROR
You're right. I can't read minds therefore I had no idea who you were talking to. I posted that. Then Trey and I started joking around. Now you come back with this. Hopefully I'll remember to reactivate your account next week.