Captain InsaneO

iTrader: (38)

Back in May 18th 2005 I bought a Textraila clutch from A&A Corvette through a GP. When I recieved mine I got a call from Textraila asking me to measure the clutch cause some of them were too big and would not work in my car. Mine was one of them, so they sent me a new one out.

I took the clutch to a reputable tranmission shop, RPM transmissions, to have it installed. Rodney (The owner of RPM) looked the clutch over and noticed a single clutch pad was a different thickness. I called and they sent me another new one out.

I had the clutch installed by Rodney, and drove on it for 3k miles before I did any racing on it.

In late August 2005 I entered a event at IRP. My very first run resulted in me going no where. I did the basic burnout, and 5k launch... but nothing. The car would not move. I tired another run but this time N/A with the same result. So I let it cool off for about an hour, and tried again.. same result. The last time I did no burnout, and launched at 3k and was able to muster a 11.3 @ 126 on a 1.74 60'

Well.. I didn't drive on the car much after that, and put almost 5k miles on the clutch itself. Here are the pics.











So after 4 track runs and less than 5k miles that is the end result.

sgarnett

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure I see what the problem is regarding the end result. I agree that the 3K clutch dump problem is an issue, but that clutch doesn't look worn out. It almost looks barely broken in. Yes, it has been hot, but that is to be expected, and the heat marks and discoloration seem fairly evenly distributed. The pads aren't very thick to begin with, but they don't seem to be worn much.

It sounds like you drove another 2K miles after the trouble at the strip. Was it behaving on the street? Were the pressure plate bolts still tight? Which flkywheel is that, the 24 lb cast or the 18 lb billet with the "composite" (sintered metal) friction surface?

dheck

iTrader: (9)

It's the stock flywheel from Textralia. Under normal driving the clutch acted fine but under heavy acceleration it slipped. The PP bolts were still tight. The clutch pads were flaking extremely bad.

Coy

iTrader: (4)

Have you talked to Textralia? They seem to be pretty good with helping customers.

dheck

iTrader: (9)

He ended up going auto. This was his third bad Textralia clutch and they sent him a fourth. I think he just gave up.

MY99TAWS6

iTrader: (3)

Great just great.was all ready to order one of the textralias and now I see this post!!

I have seen quite a few happy guys with the tex but that does look not so good to me and he said it was slipping.

Doubt that is intall problems.

I am now thinging of going with the ls7.At least its gm,can get parts anywhere and
decently cheap. How much actual hp it can stand up to no real idea as we have to see some track and hard use results on the ls7.
I plan on 500 to 600 street and maybe the odd blast at 700 to 800 rwhp occasionally but that will likely be very occasionally as not going to keep tracking the car past 11.5 kick me off run.No cage in my car.
I want light pedal pressure,driveability and reliability. The tex is not looking so good after seeing those pics and its pretty hard to put in a clutch wrong.
if you use red loctite,torqe the bolts right and align the disc and pressure plate pretty hard to mess up.

I think just have to take my chance on an ls7.

b00sted

iTrader: (7)

If I was sticking with a 6-speed the only clutch I'd ever run would be the McLeood twin disk. I don't have the 1500 to drop on a clutch, hence why I went to a stalled a3.

A friend ran one in a 10 second n/a SS, and beat the **** out of it. He pulled everything out and got rid of the car, but when that clutch came out it looked like it had barely been broken in.

dheck

iTrader: (9)

It was not installed wrong, Rodney at RPM installed it himself. I just think there are some QC issues with these clutches. The first one they sent him they asked for him to send it back because of it being to large. Then they sent him a second one and I am glad we checked it over good because the rivits that held the clutch material on were sticking up further than the actual material itself. So we sent it back and got a third clutch (the one you see pictured). It was broken in properly and installed correctly and still slipped under heavy acceleration. They sent him a fourth out with a new flywheel and later he was informed that their flywheels were coming apart and that they were unsafe to run it so he junked the flywheel and sold the new clutch and just went auto. I know they have good customer service, but I think there is a limit on good service vs. faulty parts. I know I don't like pulling the tranny everytime there is a clutch problem. How many people are happy with these clutches that are running over 550 RWHP and trying to launch hard? I don't think I have seen many. Most are bolt on cars that don't try to launch hard.

sgarnett

iTrader: (1)

Flywheels coming apart??? Got any more info, like which of the three flywheel models is affected, and the source of the information?

dheck

iTrader: (9)

I don't really want to get into that for fear of this thread not staying on track.

Captain InsaneO

iTrader: (38)

Thanks, David, for replying for me while I was gone.

Everything dheck has said is true and accurate. The only thing I am at liberty to say about the billet aluminum flywheel is that I would NOT run it at all.. I have seen pics of one cracked at the bolt holes, and it is my understanding that it is not an isolated incident. That is all I will say about the flywheel.

The bottom line here is I was told this clutch would hold my 600+ hp car on 5k launches with no sweat. It was installed professionally and broken in. I would think 3k miles of easy city driving should be more than sufficient.

This is a $925.00 kick in the *****, but I learned a valuable lesson.

dheck

iTrader: (9)

The part that sticks out in my mind is that you got sent 3 bad clutches. How many more are out there? Hard telling if the fourth one was bad too. Three bad clutches in a row says something about quality control to me...

Schantin

iTrader: (6)

Wow, that's really suprising. I had to "redo" the pressure plate bolts ony mine a while ago....so looked at the clutch and flywheel (and put in new ARP flywheel bolts too.) Anyhow, everything looked almost new. About 40 track passes on it with 3K launches. Not a single hot spot. Mods listed in sig.

Your flywheel definetly looks cooked in the pics. Possibly a QC thing going on? Wonder if the raw material distributor for construction of the flywheel nd other parts is different? I dealt with Pete from Textralia when I thought the clutch itself was bad and had great service from him. But, there will always be defects in a product line. Just sucks to see you found them.

Guess you're just not having very good luck with them.........

gametech

iTrader: (1)

Damn, sorry to hear about the bad luck. My Tex has almost 10K miles and dozens of passes on it and it will still break the drag radials loose speedshifting into 4th on the highway. I have to slip the clutch out of the hole to keep 500rwhp from smoking the tires. Sounds like they must have shipped your clutches out of the "bad" pile in the quality control room.

Old Geezer

iTrader: (3)

The pics clearly show 2 wear patterns, on both the paddles, and the PP.
The pattern changes just outside the inner rivit, on all paddles.
I'd suggest the pressure was not evenly applied.
But then that's just my take....

hugger1975

iTrader: (3)

I had mine professionally installed, broke it in, never saw track time yet with 3k mile break in.

Gonna drop it at 5k this summer w/ over 650hp.

We shall see what happens.
Hope I am not an dissappointed.

dheck

iTrader: (9)

Yeah, it could be that...or it could just be a bad product. I know it is a band waggon clutch and people jumped all over it simply because it promised to do what no other clutch could. Hold good power and have great streetability, ect. But in this case...there were 3 clutches sent that were obviously not up to those expectations.

Care to explain why he had to send the first 2 back because of QC Issues? And they weren't ever even installed...

dheck

iTrader: (9)

Stop trying to rationalize everything. I believe this thread was created to be informative. Are we saying all Tex clutches are bad? No, not even close, and they do have great customer service. But the fact is that there were 3 bad clutches directly from Tex and we thought people should know.

Captain InsaneO

iTrader: (38)

Considering I am that actual person, please allow me to explain why I am not going to take it up with Textraila or A&A Corvette.

Textraila has costed me a lot of time, and some money in this whole deal. Their product did not work, and I have decided to go A4 because I have no faith in any street/strip LSX clutch. Over the phone Pete personally promised me it would hold.. it did not. They sent me out 3 bad clutch discs. I have spoken with Pete 2-3 times in the past. I am through with speaking to Pete. I am done dealing with it, and since this site is to help inform those with LSX cars about certain products, mods.. and what works and what doesn't.. I'm here to say the Textraila does not work on higher HP cars. I posted pics. It was professionally installed by a very well known transmission shop (and by the way the installer/shop owner was not confident in the clutch from the very beginning). I believe my initial post left little room for rationalization.

Bottom line.. the Textraila did not hold the power my car was pushing, and I am 100% certain I will not be the last person to make that statement.

hugger1975

iTrader: (3)

I miss you too