'89 to '90 clutch swap

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civiced

New Member
Got a '90-'91 Exedy clutch kit and flywheel for my '89
civic hb, ( ~12% more clutch surface area). Assembled,
and find to much distance between the release bearing
and pressure plate release levers. Bellcrank arm now
has to travel halfway up before engagement. I'm
thinking that the release levers are not at as much of an
angle as the stock ones. Thats about the only thing I
didn't check before installation. Exedy suggests this
swap in their catalouge, but are of no assistance,
relating only that their parts are perfect and flawless.
 
do you have the clutch cable properly adjusted?

91-12-4-2.jpg
 
bump '90 civic clutch swap

Yes. Maybe I'm not being clear enough. After the swap, the clutch release lever (the one on the transmission that the cable is attached to) now rotates thru about
half it's total travel before the freeplay is taken up. The stock '89 clutch assembly
needed only about 15-20% of the total travel before freeplay is taken up. This means the throwout bearing must travel 2 1/2 to 3 times further on the carrier
before contacting the pressure plate release levers. Not an assembly prob,
the part dimensions must be different. Possibly the "90-'91 transmission is.
My main concern is that the throwout bearing front slider surface may be
completely off the carrier when the clutch is completely disengaged, and
decide to have it's own kind of fun.
 
i think that what you are describing would be a normal condition - with a new clutch disc, which is obviously thicker than one that is worn down, when you tighten down the pressure plate housing, the thicker clutch disc forces the pressure plate out farther from the flywheel - this in turn causes the fingers on the pressure plate to move in toward the engine - as the clutch wears, the fingers start moving out more toward the transmission which results in less free play between the throwout bearing and the fingers - as the disc wears and the free play goes away, you need to adjust the clutch cable to pull the throwout bearing away from the fingers to regain free play - doing the clutch adjustment several times over the life of the disc will eventually result in the release arm, where the cable is attached, to be a lot farther down than when a new disc is installed
 
This is true of course, and my old setup was chewing clutch
rivits. Consider this though, when the freeplay is adjusted
correctly, the cable adjuster end is almost out of the holder
and you can't even install the dust boot. I know it wasn't like that when I bought it new. I'm wondering if there is some minor differences between the '89 and '90 trans.
When I mocked the assembly up before installation, I found
~ .5mm clearance between the pressure plate enclosure rivits
and the trans guide locking bolt. Scary. Production units
wouldn't be this close?
 
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