What's up world, alright this has been eating away at me for months now (since i got the car back in April). I am using an ACT 6-puck clutch with no springs. Grabs good and all, but sometimes when in 1st gear, starting off. The clutch gets REAL sticky and comes up slow making the most annoying scraping noise on the earth. Any help, anybody else with this problem chime in, anything! Thanks, Peace...it does it like 40 percent of the time

I can't see how the T.O. Bearing would ever touch the PP, so that doesn't make sense. Maybe I'll be able to figure something out when I do my clutch, but you'll likely/hopefully have your answer before then. It's got to be something with the disc engaging with the PP or the bearing sliding on the shaft. If the T.O. bearing is spinning but doesn't have enough grease it could grind on the shaft as it slides back. You also could have broken a puck and so when the disc engages, the other pucks are digging in because the pressure isn't spread evenly over 6 pucks anymore. This would really be hell with a 4 puck disc. However I'd think that you'd notice much worse effects if that were the case.

Au contraire Toolapcfan. The throwout bearing touches the pressure plate when disengaging the clutch. When you step on the pedal the release lever push the TO bearing towards the pressure plate and the TO bearing pushes the Diaphragm springs (fingers on the PP) which pushes the PP back and then the disc can come back and disengage from the flywheel. So, yes, the TO bearing could be "grinding against the PP. I agree with you though about the TO bearing is not greased up enough or its too old which could cause the grinding sound.

Thanks for the correction. The T.O. bearing touches the springs (which he doesn't have in his case) which pushes the PP back to release the clutch. Then how does a clutch even release if it doesn't have springs? The PP wouldn't move back like it's supposed to. The bearing would hit the disc wouldn't it?

I think when SE-Rious B14 said he had the one with "no springs" I think he was talking about the disc and not the pressure plate. All PP must have the fingers in the center in order to work properly. If you go to the ACT website and look at their 6 puck discs they don't have any springs. Glad to be of service.

Ok, that would certainly make sense. I've learned more about clutches in this thread than anywhere else! So what role do the springs in the disc play? Is it like the disc and the threaded shaft ring are seperate, and are only connected by the springs, which absorb some torque when the disc makes contact with the PP? So a disc without springs would allow you to have a quicker engaging clutch by recovering that torque loss that the springs absorb during that initial contact? Anyways, if he hasn't busted a puck, it would certainly make sense that something is wrong with his T.O. bearing then. I can't see a puck breaking off unless the disc was defective though.

Sorry double posted, thought the first one didn't take because it took a month to show up.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/clutch.htm

Thats correct Toolapcfan. The springs absorb the torque from when the disc is engaged. If you were strong enough (you'd have to be really strong), you could turn each side of the disc and see the springs compressing.