Hi all, bit of a weird question but trying to suss out the flywheel and clutch combination for my frankenstein 1.8T -> rx8 gearbox build. I currently have a longitudinal A4 1.8T starter, flywheel and pressure plate bolted up (with a ford pinto clutch disc, same as rx8 spline), original rx8 clutch fork, master cylinder, release bearing etc and unfortunately the clutch fork is hard against the pressure plate tongs leaving no free play in the pedal. Theres a few things i can think of to sort this - shorten the pivot point ball thing (above pic) - narrower release bearing - cut and reweld clutch fork - shallower flywheel I do have an audi 80 flywheel sitting here that my a4 1.8T starter will happily spin up, and the face where the clutch will bolt up too is alot shallower than the current flywheel thats on there so seems the ideal candidate for the job. Question is I have no idea what clutch will bolt up to the audi 80 flywheel (other than an audi 80 clutch of course, which wont be much use for 350hp 1.8T torque) Does anyone know which clutch pressure plates will bolt up to this flywheel? Gonna raid the shed tonight to see what i have lying about but just thought I'd ask on here anyway, apologies for the long winded post! Cheers and Happy Friday.
What about a concentric slave cylinder over the shaft internally in bellhousing @Mk2daz , looked at them when did my 5 speed type 9 conversion, think mondeo was the one most kits used, plus a sleeve to mount it, looked quite a simple affair really, and easy to shim to get correct length. Can you use a vr6 clutch plate, with a different cover, a4 b7 of higher spec lump? Or redrill to mount cover.
Rx8 is 235mm clutch, audi 80 is 228? Vr6 is 229? The audi S2 is 240mm and is an upgrade for the 80, but needs modification to fit, redrilling the flywheel for location pegs and presumably bolts
Sorry, phone went mad. Could use rx8 stuff and mod flywheel, here's a thing from another forum... https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threa...i-s2-clutch-conversion-the-beginnings.111001/
The Audi ring gear is a different dia to the VW ones, but can be changed for a VW one of course, plus the offset id different......but sounds like it works with your situation. I recently fitted a Sachs magnesium twin plate race clutch to an Audi 80 touring car flywheel fitted to a VW crank using an 02J box. I had to do all of the items in your list above lol. Machine the clutch pressure plate cover, the flywheel, machine the pivot bolt housing and the bolt, cut modify and re weld the a clutch arm plus make a 5mm spacer between the block and the gearbox housing....and it was still tight!!. But a combination of all of these made it work, then make spacer to get the slave cylinder to sit at the right point.
Thank you all for the replies, some very good info. I have pushed the Audi 80 flywheel to one side for now I think. Currently on the car I have an A4 1.8t flywheel, A4 1.8t starter, A4 1.8t pressure plate and ford 2.0 pinto clutch friction disc, Using rx8 fork, rx8 release bearing and rx8 slave cylinder all in OEM rx8 form. I have shortened the pivot bolt by cutting up a random bolt and grinding the head to a dome shape to test. The clutch is all bled and the car is now running so I have been able to test. The fork has no free play before the clutch is pressed however I don't believe the release bearing is pressing any force against the pressure plate, it is just touching against it. I have been able to start up the car and engage through the gears fine up on the lift, there is no crunching or struggling to get into gear or anything so I'm assuming the clutch is operating as expected. I guess what I am slightly in doubt about is should the release bearing be against the pressure plate forks with the clutch disengaged? and should I have free play in the fork with the clutch fully bled etc? Hopefully my explanations make sense!
I'd like a little bit of play, everything is going to expand as it heats up and you may end up with it dragging. could you slot the clutch slave holes out a bit to allow it to move away from the lever a bit?
I'd be with John, a little free play, but the thing is, as soon as it beds in everything is going to move a bit