Schantin

iTrader: (6)

UPDATE #2: Well, I'll start with the imporant part... my clutch problem was due to installation stupidity, NOT the clutch.

Here's what I got: I installed a McCloud adjustable master cylinder in the hopes that was the prob. I had to adjst the cylinder arm almost full extended, and then the clutch grabbed near the floor (see the problem here), and a nasty rattling was heard from the trans. So....pulled the transmission.

Everything looked good, expect the throwout bearing front plastic lip was a little chewed up. No problem there, as I have a new slave cylinder and throwout bearing that I bought in case that was the problem. (I'm going to install them for the heck of it...since it's already apart.

Anyhow, here was the problem: I DID A TORQUE DRAG CHECK ON THE PRESSURE PLATE BOLTS. FOUR OF THE BOLTS HAD LESS THAN 10LBS OF TORQUE ON THEM, WHILE THE OTHER TWO WERE IN THE 40LB RANGE. SO, I PULLED A PRESSURE PLATE BOLT TO SEE IF THE INSTALLER HAD USED LOCK-TITE. NO. OH, IT GETS BETTER. I SAW ALL THE BOLTS WERE COATED IN A SILVERY GREY SUBSTANCE. IT WAS ANTI-SEIZE COMPOUND!! NO WONDER THEY BACKED OUT!!!! SO, THAT WAS THE PROBLEM. I started putting the new ARP bolts in (with red lock-tite) and began thinking.....if these people installed the pressure plate bolts with anti-seize, what about the flywheel bolts? Makes me sick just thinking of that. So....tomorow I'll be pulling the clutch and replacing the flywheel bolts with some more ARP ones, as the trans is still on the ground under the car. I just hope the pressure plate didn't warp from this. I won't know that till it's all back together.

Also, thanks to Pete for checking up on my today and fielding my phone calls. Your customer care is above the rest.

AS A LAST NOTE, I PUBLICALLY APOLOGIZE TO FEROCITY02. I WAS SNAPPY WITH YOU, BRO...AND YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. AND I APPRECIATED YOUR PICTURE SHOWING ME WHERE THE SLAVE BLEEDER IS LOCATED.

AND FOR 67VETTE....WELL, GUESS YOU WERE WRONG. IT DEFINETLY WASN'T THE SLAVE CYLINDER. BEST STICK TO THE OLD VETTES AND LEAVE THE COMPLICATED STUFF TO THE BIG BOYS.

UPDATE ON MY PROBLEM: I sent an E-mail to Textralia right after writing this post, describing my problem in the same way. I received a call from Peter at Textralia today and received an in-depth detail of what to check to isolate the master cylinder, the pressure plate bolts backing off, or a defective clutch or throwout bearing. Wow. I've never received such customer service from any company. Peter went on to tell me that we'd work through this setback, even if it meant them sending me another pressure plate. Damn. That's just unbelievable.

Bottomline, for whatever reason my clutch isn't working, their customer service and customer care are untouchable! I'm still amazed by this. I'll keep everyone posted when I finally get the final verdict in.

I might be the unfortunate "pioneer", but I had a complete and total failure of my Textralia OZ700 clutch. And I mean it's F'd up.

Not only is the clutch all but destroyed, but I'm also wondering if I might have jacked the trans or a shift fork too. Right now my car will only go into forward gears when the engine is off. Reverse is totally out of the question. It will not go into reverse, no matter how many times I press the clutch pedal or beat on the shifter. Once the car is on, forget shifting gears. It's locked into whatever gear is selected, regardless of clutch position. The car has to be turned off to deselect a gear and reselect another.

Here's the disgusting part. I'm running a Textralia OZ700 clutch with matched and balanced flywheel. The clutch has all of 4K miles on it and ihas only been in the car for 5 months. It has seen some dragstrip time. I logged around 30 launches off-idle on STREET TIRES (with wheelspin), and about 5 launches on Mickey Thompson ET street radials with a 3K stall. The car has a TR224 cam, LT's and headers and is putting down 375RWHP and 363RWTQ (or about 435HP at the flywheel). I also have a UMI torque arm, LCA's, and panhard rod. These mods definetly should not be enough to ruin this clutch (which cost me well over $1K shipped, I might add ).

The clutch was professionally installed by a LS1 performance shop in Honolulu Hawaii in August of 2005. So, I don't know whether the clutch was defective, or if the shop overlooked something when installing it. Either way, it's not only malfunctioning, but might have jacked the trans up too!

Needless to say I'm not happy. It began to show signs of problems a month ago, as I noticed the revs were slow to come down when if the gas pedal was pressed with the car in neutral. At the time I thought it was the IAC sensor. Nope. This last week it began to miss 2nd gear shifts on the street, even at low RPM's (like under 2.5K). It went from that to totally F'd up three drag runs later this evening.

I'm going to call Textralia Monday and see if they honor their 12 month/12K mile warranty on the clutch, as it was installed by a professional shop. $1K+ for 4K miles and 6 months of life is unacceptable. I'm also doing my own install this next time too.

So....possible it was a bad install......or this clutch isn't all that it's hyped up to be. Either way, I have a broke car in front of my house and am out a serious chunk of change for something that I thought was top quality.

Rob

iTrader: (6)

Sounds like the pressure plate might have colapsed or come apart. Have to take it out and check it.

sgarnett

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like the clutch is not releasing. That could be due to a slave cylinder failure (Textralia simply supplies a new stock GM part just to make sure it gets replaced), or a hydraulic leak, or pressure plate bolts backing out (apparently under-torqued bolts are a common problem during the install). It could also be due to failure of the pressure plate "fingers", but that's unlikely.

By now, you may very well have screwed up the transmission, but that is probably due to trying to force it for a month instead of fixing it right away. Making those last three drag runs when it wasn't shifting properly was NOT a good idea.

If you get lucky, the trans MIGHT still be OK once you fix whatever is keeping the clutch from disengaging. I bet you'll find that the clutch itself is fine, though it probably also has some extra wear from driving it for a month while it isn't disengaging properly.

MeentSS02

iTrader: (11)

Gonna have to take the clutch out to see what the problem is on this one...could have been hydraulics, could have been the clutch itself. Either way, that's shitty luck. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

mrhzk35404

iTrader: (7)

Thats what my car did when the slave was bad.

35th SS

iTrader: (2)

ya Phil gonna have to take it out and see what failed.I hope you didnt jacked up the trans.good luck.

camdavgar

When the car is off, you can't shift into reverse. There is a lock-out solenoid for it. They car has to be on to get it into reverse so that's not a problem.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

You are completely overexaggerating... Check the PP bolts, they have a tendancy to back out.

Schantin

iTrader: (6)

Overexggerating what? That my car doesn't shift gears? Do you "know" my car? Are you a Textrailia clutch distributor or something?

Even if the PP bolts are backing out.....what am I overexaggerating again?

Schantin

iTrader: (6)

Personally, I think the trans (except for possibly the shift fork) is fine. To clarify, I WAS NOT driving the car for a month on a bad clutch. The car shifted gears fine till last night. The conditions I listed before with slow return to idle when reving the car....well, I didn't think it was the clutch at that time. As for missing a couple shifts this last week....bought a new car for the wife that's a 6-speed manual, but uses a closer ratio gearing than the Camaro T56. I thought it was my screw up for missing the gears.

Now, the 1st drag run...well, that's when I definetly realized a problem existed. should I have done the next two..... I agree that that wasn't a good idea. It was done more to confirm the problem than anything. But, yea, not a good idea.

MeentSS02

iTrader: (11)

Well, before people start getting fired up on here, you really need to get the clutch out and see what the culprit is. Could be any one of a number of things...

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

You said the clutch has had a complete and total failure... Have you pulled it out to prove this? The clutch didn't mess up your trans or shift fork. The only way the clutch can do that is short of the clutch exploding. Then you go and tell people not to buy it before you even know whats wrong... The clutch is clearly not disengaging completely. A couple backed out PP bolts can easily cause this, which appears to be a common issue. Or a faulty slave.

Mike K.

I agree with the not disengaging properly,, is the pedal feel normal? did engagement points change on you? Even if your tranny needs a shiftfork or basic upgrades its really not as bad as you think. TRUST ME I KNOW.

SPEEDYws6

iTrader: (9)

Regardless of what failed Pete and Jeff will stand behind their product and help you out, I don't know how you could have missed all the threads about their customer service. I'll bet your PP bolts backed out and nothing is damaged. My PP bolts backed out 300 miles from home in Austin traffic.

Schantin

iTrader: (6)

You are right, Pete will stand by his product. I spoke with him on the phone an hour ago. Top notch customer care. (I have added an update to my problem.)

As for people saying I wrote the clutch is junk...read carefully. I was very specific to say it was either the clutch OR the install. Hell, I paid to have it installed due to my busy work schedule (ie lack of time)...so I wasn't sitting in the shop and looking over the mechanic's shoulder while he put it in!! The shop that installed it very well could have F'd up and not put locktite on the pressure plate bolts. I don't know, at least until I disassemble the thing myself. I was looking for feedback, as when I bought it there was nothing on this clutch save for great reviews. This was a few months ago now...and sometimes problems are found after a while when several people are using a specific product.

Again, I'll keep everyone posted on what the final outcome is. I will say with confidence that the customer care provided with this clutch is worth the buying price Even with this "setback", I'm not left out to dry or having to buy another clutch. That's just unbelievably great in today's corporate world!!

J-Rod

Yup, you can't beat Pete for customer service. I think anyone who has had an issue of any sort can attest to the fact that Pete has stood behind them 110% and done whatever it takes to ensure that at the end of the day they were 110% satisfied with the product. I think that speaks volumes about Pete.

Schantin

iTrader: (6)

Well, I pulled the master cylinder line QD from the trans. Pedal was stiff as hell then. Guess the master cylinder's good. Damn....now I have to pull the trans and see what happened inside. I'll give an update Sturday on what I find.

BTW, for those thinking I was driving a month on a bad clutch. No. That problem WAS my IAC sensor, like I origonally suspected. I was driving on an iffy clutch about 2-4 days till I realized what was going wrong. Just setting the record straight.

1RADWS6

iTrader: (1)

I've been trying to email you and have left messages for you.........I'm still waiting for you to return my call

67vette

I hate to be the bad guy but you start the post with textralia clutch destroyed, bad clutch or install? You say you had a complete and total failure of my clutch. You say its all destroyed. You say that it will only go into gear with engine off. You clearly have no idea how the clutch system works. In another post you ask where is the bleed valve? Why start off a post with something you have no clue about. Your "clutch" is just fine and that is why you can't shift through gears when engine is running, your slave/throwout is not working properly. If the slave does not press the throwout bearing into the clutch fingers then the clutch wont release and you wont be able to shift. Other people have already mentioned the slave but you probably don't know what that is. Go buy a chiltons.

618HAWK

iTrader: (361)

Damm 1st post and you slam him like this....