Clutch slipping on my 89 crx si!! Please help

I bought this car about two weeks ago with a slipping clutch for $800. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the clutch should engage about half-way through the pedal throw. My clutch was engaging when I barely pressed the pedal. Also, if I stomped on the gas it would slip and rev up until I eased off the gas. When I took the clutch out of the car, I noticed that there was almost no wear on the clutch disk or the pressure plate. When I told a friend of mine (who builds engines) about the problem, and he said the clutch disk was probably installed backwards. I would like to know what everybody thinks about this. Thanks again for the help.

On some clutch diskss, there is a front and back, others dont care. If that one does have a certain way it needs to face, it will be marked normally somewhere in the center metal part. You need to check the disk to make sure you didn't glaze it (if it looks shiny, its garbage even if there's pleanty of friction material).

Other possible causes are mis-adjustment of the clutch cable (those are calbe, right?). Using a combination of aftermarket and oem parts, like a throwout bearing,or someone had the flywheel machined. Honda flywheels have a very exact tolerance, and shouldnt be machined. I know there are guys who are gonna say well I had mine done....but the point is, they SHOULDN'T have. Someone couldve gotten oil or grease on the disk, in which case replace it. I've even seen where a parts guy gave the wrong throw-out bearing, it fit, but was 2-thousandths of an inch off and was causing problems.

I bought this car about two weeks ago with a slipping clutch for $800. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the clutch should engage about half-way through the pedal throw. My clutch was engaging when I barely pressed the pedal. Also, if I stomped on the gas it would slip and rev up until I eased off the gas. When I took the clutch out of the car, I noticed that there was almost no wear on the clutch disk or the pressure plate. When I told a friend of mine (who builds engines) about the problem, and he said the clutch disk was probably installed backwards. I would like to know what everybody thinks about this. Thanks again for the help.

You can try and loosen the cable. This worked for me for about a year then slip slip slip. However mine would just slip a little.
The cable should be just loose. If you pull up on the cable from the shifting fork and loosen the adjuster bolt until the cable is just loose a little bit.

Good luck,
SH

I just thought of something else. If whoever put that in greased the throwout bearing too much, they throw grease all over the assembly, which obviously makes it not work.

I noticed that the flywheel is worn about 1/16th of an inch. I did not notice any glazing or fluid on the disk. I should have tryed to readjust the cable before breaking it all down. The guy I got it from did a lot of burnouts so we just assumed the disk would be shot.

Since the flywheel is worn and you recommend against resurfacing it, should I go with a lightweight flywheel? What are the advantages and disadvantages of them? And how much horsepower would I gain?

Ok, kinda complicated so let me explain. First, burnouts damage the springs in the clutch disk. Shake it, if it rattles, it's bad. As for the light flywheels, I haven't really priced them, but those SI flywheels are lighter than the others, and should be around 20lbs, at least the civic si of that generation's is.

If you do want to go with a light one, keep in mind that they arent as comfortable for daily driving, because of inertia. I would recommend looking at someone who offers a whole set, meaning clutch, pressureplate, disk and bearing, that way there shouldnt be any problems with tolerences and such.

If it were my car, and I was driving it on a daily basis, I would seriously check how much a honda one is compared to aftermarket. I know I paid around $700 for oem everything (disk, flywheel, pressure plate, bearing) for a 90 civic si. And make sure you replace the bearing before you put it back together and spray the new flywheel with brake cleaner.

I forgot to really tell you the advantages/disadvantages. The main advantage is that the engine will rev faster, and will free up a bit of power, not much in the grand scheme of things. The main disadvantage is that the rpm drops faster, meaning you tap on the clutch and the rpm shoots down, making for rougher shifts. Obviously the lighter the flywheel the bigger the difference. Another disadvantage is the heat capacity of the light flywheel, if you do alot of stop and go, like construction traffic kinda crap, depending on your driving habbits, you CAN warp the flywheel because those alloys cant take as much heat.

depends on what kind of driving u do....autocross?or drag, or everyday driver, light weight works out pretty good for autocross, lets u accel out of corners alot faster, and keeps ur rpms up higher, for dragracing, i recommend a weighted flywheel, helps u w/ your launch and 60' times, but a light weight will catch up towards the end, win-lose situatuion....as for everyday driving....its upon ur needs...