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Keep Burning Direct Clutches Level 5 4L80e NTC

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Old Oct 16, 2018 | 12:49 PM
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Default Keep Burning Direct Clutches Level 5 4L80e NTC

Hey guys,

I have a NTC level V 4l80e with D1 brake in my 2002 camaro and it has burnt the direct clutches 2 times within 500 miles and maybe one full throttle pass. I'm lost and confused as to why this keeps happening. Unfortunately NTC is no longer in business so I cant give them a call and see if they would know why this keeps happening.

I noticed the other day after a little cruise that reverse had a soft engagement and I would have to rev the car to ~1200 rpm to get it to grab reverse. The car will shift into 3rd gear fine driving forward when under light throttle conditions but anytime you give it say 75% throttle or more the car slips and flares up in RPM, and as soon as it grabs 4th it doesn't slip at all. And now after that one pass reverse slips a bit more and takes more RPM to engage.

Upon install the fluid level was checked multiple times and the car was ran through all of the gears and checked again and again. After the first time the clutches burnt I was so paranoid that I've checked the fluid level like 20x. I literally want to start over with a new 4l80e from jakes and see if he can go through this one and see what the culprit is. I'm running Holley Dominator EFI and i'm running an NTC 4000 Stall converter. I'd like to know if its something I'm doing or if its a build error so it doesn't keep happening. This has happened 2x in the last month. The first time from NTC and then I had a local shop repair it and the same thing happened again. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Old Oct 16, 2018 | 08:46 PM
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First step would be to put a pressure gauge on it and see what the line pressure is doing. I bought a 500 psi transducer off Ebay and hooked it up to my Dominator ECU when I was trying to diagnose mine.
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Old Oct 16, 2018 | 08:54 PM
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I just ordered a gauge and I'm going to see whats going on with the line pressure tomorrow.
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Old Oct 16, 2018 | 11:25 PM
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Lip seal is likely shot.
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Old Oct 17, 2018 | 06:02 AM
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Most likely the cushion plate was left out and the first steel in, the one against the piston is getting stuck under the splines in the drum. It'll apply by bending the steel, but not by much.
The pressure test will show ok.
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Old Oct 19, 2018 | 04:31 PM
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They had lots of followers on here when they were in business copying my work (former employees I got rid of).

Guess they aren't so highly thought of now.

Pressure guage and a different builder would be my suggestion.
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Old Oct 19, 2018 | 09:12 PM
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Originally Posted by Jake's Performance
They had lots of followers on here when they were in business copying my work (former employees I got rid of).

Guess they aren't so highly thought of now.

Pressure guage and a different builder would be my suggestion.
Jake,

I was going to order a transmission from you originally and my buddy had this trans brand new sitting around so I bought it from him. Anyways...long story short I already ordered a new 4L80e/converter from you this week. I will be putting a pressure gauge on this to see whats up but I'm still just going to wait for yours to arrive so I can finally enjoy the car.

Do you happen to rebuild transmissions from other shops? I'd ship you this one if so and have it looked through and rebuilt. Thanks!
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Old Oct 20, 2018 | 04:19 AM
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Originally Posted by bwolfZ28
Jake,

I was going to order a transmission from you originally and my buddy had this trans brand new sitting around so I bought it from him. Anyways...long story short I already ordered a new 4L80e/converter from you this week. I will be putting a pressure gauge on this to see whats up but I'm still just going to wait for yours to arrive so I can finally enjoy the car.

Do you happen to rebuild transmissions from other shops? I'd ship you this one if so and have it looked through and rebuilt. Thanks!
We typically treat other shops builds as a core only but anything that came from NTC goes directly to the scrap pile.
Thanks for your business.
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