Well I got everything together and found out the transmission is not engaged to the engine when in gear. Or at least when I spin the passenger wheel it is not engaged. The driver side axle is not installed yet and I'm wondering if maybe I am engaged, but can't see it because I don't have that other axle on. This axle idea was given to me by a friend at work, so I have not had a chance to verify that yet. But before I go home to tear this clutch apart I thought I'd ask some questions.
I am curious about the friction plate. When I installed it, the outside lip was not flat against the flywheel. It was about 3/8" away and I had to torque it down to get it to go flat against the flywheel. After torquing it down I also noticed that all the fingers that are normally pointed slightly out (maybe 20 degrees or so), where all completely flat and pointing directly at each other (0 degress). Is this normal or could this be part of my problem.

I had the flywheel machined, had no problem installing it. I used the alignment tool to keep the clutch in place while I installed the friction plate. The dowls lined up with the holes on the friction plate and I know that the clutch is not in backwards. It seemed to go together so good. But I'm just not sure about having those fingers bent in now.

Any suggestions?

PS: I have not installed the other axle because I'm doing the timing belt next.

 

Here is your problem. The friction disk is the disk that contacts your flywheel, and the pressure is what bolts down on top of it. It is completely normal to have to torque the pressure plate down. If it was flat with no effort, the clutch would not be able to engage. This is how it is with the clutch pedal out. If you're certain it's in the right way, then there's no problem. You can see if it's engaged by putting it in gear an turning the engine over with the crank pully bolt. The axle will spin. Spinning a wheel won't work because of how the differential in the tranny works. See http://www.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm Hope this helps.

 

Just did the clutch on my 92 integra, and the little fingers were flat on my new one and curved on the old one, why you might ask??? Well, when your clutch starts wearing they have to push in farther and they come back out farther when it wears the disk down a little bit, thats why you have to adjust the clutch every once in a while or it takes more and more pedal to get it to work. And no the clutch working wont be evident until the other axle is in, because its an open differntial, it sends power to the point of least resistance, that being the other gear in your differential that has no axle going in to it.