My '02 has the 1st gear clunk as well.

 

Mine clunks and grinds and whirs and whines all the time. I've no idea if any or all is indicative of a problem but with only 3900 miles on the odo, I'm not worried. It may be my demise, but I have faith in Honda

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mwy23
so how do you adjust the clutch pedal to get more travel on the pressure plate?

 

I have it on MY01, never thought too much about it. Should I??

 

The only reason that I adjusted my clutch pedal stroke was to eliminate the ocassional 2nd gear grind. If yours isn't grinding, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Thanks BOILER, I think thats some money I won't be spending.

Does that mean I have money to spend on stereo upgrades. Nah!!!!

 

Be careful if you choose to do this adjustment because if you go too far you can reduce the clamping force of the pressure plate onto the clutch disc. This can cause accelerated clutch plate wear, especially if you drive the car hard.

 

My 700 miles '04 is hard to shift to 1st
at a stop sometimes, it also make a "clunk" sound too. It also has ocassional 2nd gear grind. I would like to try adjusting the clutch pedal to rid of 1st gear clunk and 2nd gear grind, but I do not have the helms manual, can boiler or someone shows the details of adjusting the clutch pedal to get more travel on the pressure plate ?

Thanks

 

There is a piece of shaft connecting the gearbox to the clutch. If you put the car in neutral after stopping and release the clutch, you will set the stage for the "clunk". The engine is now spinning that shaft piece. When you release the clutch, the shaft piece will slow down. If you quickly (within a second or two) put it in gear, the syncros will slow the shaft to geared drive shaft speed (which is zero when you're stopped). The noise of the shaft suddenly stopping is the "clunk".

This shaft piece weighs about 18lbs, so it's a fair bit of mass to stop.

If it annoys you to hear the "clunk", either keep the clutch in whenever you stop, or wait a few seconds after putting the clutch in before putting the car into 1st gear.

 

My car would make the "clunk" sound with the clutch depressed, which tells me that the clutch is dragging. Getting a bit more "room" for the clutch to disengage fixed mine. I can't say if this will fix everyone's car or not. Again, I don't think that this noise is anything to concern yourself with.

As Coral Doc mentioned, don't get carried away with this adjustment. You will want to make sure that you have no pressure on the clutch pedal linkage (it should have free play) or you will wear out the throughout bearing prematurely. This misadjustment could also cause the clutch to slip.

I would post the piece from the Helm's manual, but they are keeping a close eye on posting copyrighted material on this forum.