About 5-6 seconds after starting the car for the first time post clutch install we hear a horrible grinding noise coming from clutch area. I immediately kill the car. The sound was much like the noise you hear when grinding a gear.

We assembled clutch as Flywheel->spring plate(springs out)->pressure ring (ridge and beveled surfaces out)->clutch cover. Torquing cover per provided instructions. One thing we didn't due was cut down the flywheel bolts as some have documented. Our impression was that they weren't too long and it appears as if the flywheel is flush.

I have a call out OS Giken for guidance. But one thing we've noticed post diagnoses is that even when the car is off and in gear, we can manually turn the front wheels. FWIW we also did the mLSD install a few weeks ago.

My brother thinks that the input shaft isn't completely seated in the clutch, but not sure how that could occur and still get the transmission bolted back on. And if it is the input shaft, how the hell to you get is completely seated?

Open to ideas to further trouble shoot and theories to what's happening.

 

Which clutch did you get? Could it just be clutch chatter or louder than that?

Did you mic the two flywheels to see if you needed to cut down the bolts?

I think the front wheels will still turn when the car is off and in gear. If you turn the one front wheel the other wheel should rotate in the opposite direction. You should not be able to rotate both in the same direction at the same time.

I doubt the issue is the input shaft not being seated. You'd see a gap between the trans and the engine. There was a thread on here somewhere where a guy didn't have the input shaft properly seated in the clutch and when he torqued down the bolts it cracked the trans case. You should be able to get the trans completely seated up against the engine on the alignment dowels before putting bolts in.

As far as further troubleshooting... put the car in neutral, pull the spark plugs, and rotate the engine. Make any noise? If so my guess is the flywheel bolts. Put the car in gear and push the clutch in. Rotate the engine by hand. If the noise happens now then it's something in the clutch assembly.

Either way you get the crap job of taking that transmission back out.

 

It's the OS Giken STR model. It's supposed to be a fairly quite clutch. There is a little chatter at startup, but this noise was very loud and was a metal on metal noise. I'm familiar with aftermarket clutch chatter, and this ain't it.

The way we measured the bolts was to put them into both flywheels and check the amount that stuck out.

Currently when we turn one wheels both turn (not sure of the direction of other) and there is a noise of gears against gears. Or the sound of someone manually spinning a driveshaft bushing.

We will try the wheel turning tests you suggested.

 

Ok after reading more about the STR clutch...could I just be hearing the usual amount of noise? It's an impressive amount of rattling sound.

 

Hard to tell without being there. YouTube some videos of multiplate clutches. You can hear them rattling from a ways away. Does the sound go away when you press the clutch pedal? If its just clutch chatter it should go away when you have the clutch depressed.

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Note to self (and future clutch installers...), test fit clutch disk from kit onto input shaft before installing transmission and subframe multiple times...

Looks like at a minimum we have an r53 clutch plate. Not sure about rest of kit...the flywheel bolted right up. Never had an r53 so don't know if they have a similar flywheel pattern.

 

Huh, so just the cluch disk was wrong. OSG overnighting correct part.

 

Well that's pretty irritating. I would expect better from them. Especially considering the price of that clutch setup

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Be advised that when a LSD is installed, turning one of the front wheels by hand causes the other wheel to turn in the same direction. No LSD, the other wheel turns in the opposite direction.

Having just torn my engine / transmission apart, I too noticed the wheels turn easily with the transmission in gear. My OSG STR had no slippage before teardown, so I'm also interested in why this happens.

If you're re-using the OEM flywheel bolts, be advised again that they are stretch bolts (or TTY bolts), and should not be reused. OSG flywheel bolts are shorter and reusable, per the outfit that sold the setup to me.

 

I don't think that's actually true. Its always discussed on the miata forums because of the optional torsen diff that some of the miatas came with. The only way to truly verify the existence of the diff is to pull the axle stubs on the miata and likely on the mini you would have to pull the trans to check it. Or just power hard out of a corner ;-)

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Well with the right clutch disk we are back on the road.

As for the rotating the wheels item, here's what we noticed post clutch install:

Neutral - both wheels turn same direction
In Gear - nothing turns

Now this is with the newer MN024-HA LSD which is a 1-way LSD. The MN023-HA was a 1.5-way setup.

 

I am way late to this thread but, when I had mine installed it made the same noise. Upon further research that is what OS Giken's throw out bearing does. It just makes a lot of noise. All models of clutches and fits to cars do that. Don't be discouraged you did nothing wrong. Though I hope you replaced the throw out arm because that is a weak piece of medal.

 

I got a OS Giken Gt clutch and installed in February of 2013 in October the clutch wouldn't release properly. The car shakes violently when the clutch is grabbing 3 or 4 jolts.
Could it be a faulty install, as Os Giken suggest, or is there an issue w this clutch?
Has anyone heard of people that are upset w this clutch?

 

I have the OS clutch. I't was pretty straight forward the noise is a bit loud at idle but no real problems. I will say the engagment is tough and to this day it doesn't like being bewteen gears for more than a few seconds.