DMM

I purchased the RXT clutch and steel flywheel through the group buy on this board a while ago, although it was not installed until the trans went out. I now have about 600 miles on this unit and feel pretty confident that I am able to give a fair and honest review, summarizing the last few months and 600 miles of use.

In short, this is the worst damn thing I have ever wasted money on...period. It chattered from day one, which only got worse when hot. The clutch has horrible pedal feel and works in a simple on/off fashion, which either nearly stalls the engine or breaks the tires loose at every take off. After pulling the trans three times to adjust the pressure plate torque and slave shim's, I gave up and "Just drove it" as advised since every thing was correct. The pedal came up a bit more, although still abnormally heavy and devoid of any real feel what so ever. It feels more like a leg press than a clutch pedal.

After removing the trans one last time, I was amazed at what I found. The brand new McLoed steel flywheel looks as if it has seen metal to metal contact, with both sides of the floater disk the exact same. The grooves are too deep to be machined, and match the friction material. Somehow, the pressure plate has no scars at all, and looks brand new.

At this point, I have wasted $1200 and countless hours pulling the trans to re-torque and re-shim (after waiting to get the shims) the pressure plate and slave to no avail. After finding this, there is no chance I will ever get rid of the chatter.

The McLeod has a good reputation, so here's proof they're garbage:

Flywheel:



Flywheel Friction Disk:



Pressure Plate Friction Disk:



Floater Disk:



Close Up of Floater:

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

This, my friends, is why you follow the break-in instructions. I've never seen that kind of wear in 600 miles on any clutch, period. You're seem angry and therefore unlikely to either listen to anyone that doesn't agree with you, but I'd ask myself the following things:

1. Am I the only person who's having this problem? If so, why?

2. Were all of the mating surfaces thoroughly cleaned with chlorinated brake cleaner as the clutch was being assembled on the car? Was the area clean and free of debris? Is there a chance that engine oil, clutch fluid, or transmission fluid might have splattered inside the clutch? I ask because the one thing common to most of your threads is an insane amount of grime.

3. Per the instructions, floater @ 25 ft-lbs, pressure plate torqued until the fingers were level with the rear surface of the pressure plate (29 ft-lbs on my unit), and 500 miles of easy city driving while the friction surfaces are being burnished. No riding the clutch pedal, minimize slipping the clutch in stop-and-go traffic, and definitely no clutch dumps.

4. I may be confusing you with someone else, but were you the one that was running that aftermarket T56 or TR6060 that didn't fit the bell-housing and as a result, had a big open air-gap (basically, a RAM-air/FOD scoop) between the bell housing and the adapter plate on the transmission?

For what it's worth, my McLeod RXT rarely chatters during engagement, and both the floater and the flywheel mating surfaces looked brand new (burnished by the friction material, like they're supposed to be) when I was playing with the shifter linkage a couple hundred miles ago. After about 2,000 miles of driving, I consider this clutch to be superior to the LS7 I previously had. The only downside (in my mind) is the floater rattle, which can be annoying unless you do a sound dampening layer to replace the terrible OEM heatshield/damper layer.

DMM

Thanks, Fuzzy. I was hoping to elicit a response from you. I don't get pissed when people don't agree with me. I may smart *** from time to time, however I would like to think that I am far from being obtuse.

Anyhow, the clutch was installed correctly. The first time it was torqued to 35 lbs, the second at 28 lbs (measuring when the fingers stopped pulling in), and then lastly at 32 lbs as advised by technical assistance. Rockland Gear (who built my T56 Magnum) says the min preload should be no less than .160", and I am currently at .163". The access in the front plate is of no consequence, and is there to use a standard style clutch fork. I already have a block off plate for this, and is actually pretty handy for inspection.

There has never been any grease/fluid contamination at all. You can clearly see the original stickers and felt marker writing on the friction disks, so they have obviously not been over heated.

I have looked into this, believe me. I am not alone here...there are quite a few judging from the posts I have seen (many have not started threads, just commented on their experience in other threads) that have encountered the same types of problems that I am having. IIRC, most of the threads have been on FBody forums.

However, I have not yet found anyone that has encountered the same type of wear that I have after only 600 miles. The wear is a direct result of the friction material, if I could get a better pic you'd be able to see that.

Many people have spoken highly of the RXT, mainly citing its light pedal and OE like feel. This has never been the case with me at all. From day one, it chattered like hell and only got worse from there. After I first installed it, I could actually feel the two disks engaging separately. That went away after the first time I took it out and re-torqued the pressure plate, however the remaining issues continued.

I am most angered that I simply cannot enjoy driving my car. It's now just a chore. I really don't know what to do at the moment, I'm sure McLeod would take it back and look at it under warranty....however if they tell me I'm on the hook for another $300 flywheel (and shipping) I'll lose my **** completely.


Oh...I laughed at the post about my car being grimy...that was the 4L80E that has been on my shop floor for three years (I bought a 2001 Silverado 2500 for $500 for another project) and decided to throw that trans on the jack since I had the car in the air and the trans out. I only did this to show everyone how the 4L80E fit since it has been theorized many times without concrete evidence. Sorry man, I was not about to spend an hour degreasing a junk trans core for a photo op that was specifically for everyone's benefit. I thought I was doing everyone a favor.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

What elicited the response from me was, "the McLeod has a good reputation, so here's proof they're garbage," as though your installation should automatically negate all of the positive feedback McLeod has garnered. I'm not the McLeod defense force.

DMM

Pictures are worth a thousand words my friend. I have not done any hard driving at all since the install, mainly since I had to re-tune my car to get through emissions. This means steady state cruising to populate the newly reinstalled MAF and Lambda error cells. The tech I spoke with on the phone said the break in doesn't apply to the RXT though, he said drive it a little and "let her eat". The tech said the RXT is meant to be driven hard from the get. Regardless, this would not cause the specific wear on the flywheel and both sides of the floater, while the pressure plate looks brand new. I can't think of anything that anyone could have done to create this wear pattern short of grinding off all the friction material.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

What tech, and why did they tell you something that contradicted the break-in procedure printed in the manual?

DMM

McLeod technical assistance, never got his name though. The guy said the RST and RXT are two different animals.

IdriveaV

iTrader: (5)

I'm interested to see where this goes, I was looking at picking one up in a month or so for my build.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

It's probably going in the recycling bin, or to someone that wants a new pressure plate.

TeamSorad

iTrader: (2)

I really don't have much to add, but I will say not everything is perfect and your clutch could have simply been bad or something. (ie random)meaning the 1 out of 100 that is bad. I read nothing but good things about the ls7 clutch, but you can see my clutch install thread and the horror I went through. Mostly due to my installing etc

Not saying you installed it wrong but sometimes things are just messed up. I will also say that I for my ls7 I noticed a big difference at 2k miles and it seems to be getting better.

What is up with the shims? You just use the stock slave, nothing like change out to the ls7


edit I know this isn't an ls7 kit, was just trying to compare

MN_V

iTrader: (5)

Fuzzy why did you go from the LS7 setup to the McLeod clutch?

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Higher torque rating and less rotating inertia.

shadyLS6

Thanks for posting this up DMM.

punishmentcycle

iTrader: (6)

Are you sure you had the discs and floater in the right direction? I'm sure that was the first thing you checked but had to ask. It would make sense if you maybe put the first disc in backwards and the second in right. Would explain why the fly and disc are shot but the PP is fine.

DMM

I'm not saying it can't happen, however everything is clearly labeled. Each disk is well labeled including which way it should be facing. You'd have to really try to screw it up.

serik21

Maybe disc were mislabled from the factory

itsslow98

iTrader: (18)

It looks to me like either the discs were flipped or the clutch was slightly engaged the enitre 600 miles. My RXT has taken 6k miles of 700+rwtq and never flinched and when I just pulled it apart the discs looked brand new. I only had slight chatter after the clutch got hot but otherwise you can slip it all you want.

Id see what Mcleod has to say when you send them the pictures they are usually pretty good to deal with.

MichaelSuch

Appears to me the slave was shimmed to far and was always engaged. I'd bet if the car was in 1st with the clutch pushed in and a 6k rev the car would move forward. Also most performance clutches will have some kind of chatter, especially and unsprung disc such as yours. It's the nature of the beast. If you want no chatter I'd really recommend a single, sprung street disc. Twin's are going to grab hard as hell, any high performance clutch will, which is why it would spin upon take off.

Honestly after a hundred or so miles I've driven every clutch hard. Break-ins on clutches are just a myth to me. I've never had one fail on any car. Even after 100's of launches and passes at the drag strip. I don't believe it to be break-in related at all. You would've had problems right off the bat if that was the case.

DMM

So, I spoke with McLeod tech assistance once again on the way to the airport. I spoke with "Billy", and advised him of how I have it installed and the problems I have had from day one...the poor pedal feel, chatter, and wear, and was told it is all perfectly normal. He said the RXT will cause this type of wear as it breaks in. He went on to say it would help to have the flywheel cut with a stone vice a lathe to give it a better surface to bite into. I asked about what would be the next course of action, and he stated that sending it in for them to look at would be the next step. He added a rebuild would cost about $540ish. He repeated it needs to be driven in stop and go driving with about 1000-1500 clutch cycles. This is nearly impossible at this point, the chatter is so bad I'm scared it'll crack the glass in the car.

So, this is where I'm at...having a rage stroke on the way to the airport after being told everything is normal and I may have to send them more money for something that has never worked correctly from day one.

runsfromdacops

mine chatters aswell if you dont slip it just right,. not to the point that i feel it will break something but it can get annoying