DarkCharisma

Called Gripforce and spoke to Art there. He said that they always recommended OE bolts for their applications, due to differences in bolt design.

So, I found some OE bolts. They're at a dealership about an hour away. Hopefully I can have it together tonight. Beats the hell out of cutting and weighing the bolts on my gram scale.

heavymetals

iTrader: (3)

They may bottom out also as you are not dealing with the OEM flywheel.

You should have Art verify what length you need for the clutch package he sold you, however he did say OEM, so go with that.

As for the weighing, I am a stickler for stuff being balanced that has to spin around.

punishmentcycle

iTrader: (6)

almost all pressure plate ls1 bolts are the same length...its the flywheel bolts that are longer on our cars due to that dual mass.

DougNuts

iTrader: (1)

Speaking of that, I recommend getting a local machine shop to balance your assembly. I wish I had done that and I will next time the transmission comes out.

GA95DCMSS

iTrader: (13)

What was the part number for the ARP bolts you ordered? 134-2201 sound familiar?

Cadzilla

iTrader: (3)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001VA...sr=8-1&pi=SL75

22 bucks, pay extra and get them Monday. no easy way out. no shortcut home.

Enjoy your stay in Mod Hell¡

DarkCharisma

I did buy those--1342201, from Amazon. Those were the ones that were too long.

Doesn't matter anymore anyway; after I got it back together with stock bolts, I was able to get it into gears and the clutch worked fine when it was on jack stands; fast forward a couple hours later, I lost the ability to get into gears about 100 yards from the driveway ... so I'm having it pulled to a local transmission shop while I am going to instead enjoy my time in Vegas.

Times like these remind me why I decided to pursue a career in IT versus automotive tech.

GA95DCMSS

iTrader: (13)

That's weird...I got the same bolts and they worked fine. Did you tighten them down till the pressure plate was flat against the mounting pads?

bigti99a

iTrader: (16)

all this **** seems crazy. i bought a ls7 kit for our cars from i think his name was mike at a corvette shop in NC. cant think of the name but he had a post in here about selling them. yeah i may have spent a few more bucks but my **** all went in without 1 issue and the clutch feels and operates great. good luck once you get it worked out it'll be worth it, but sounds like the install from hell.

DarkCharisma

The fun never ends.

The transmission shop said the trans wasn't mated up entirely. Charged me $200 to re-torque, bleed and test the transmission. I got a call a few hours later saying it was done, "felt great," and was ready to hit the road.

So I paid the guys, and my in-laws were nice enough to go pick it up for me.

My FIL drove it across the street to Starbucks, where it chimed a number of issues; stability system malf, traction control malf, and AC wasn't working. Thinking maybe it was just due to the battery being disconnected for a while, they left SB's and got about a mile down the road before it started dying on it's own--wouldn't even idle, even with giving it some gas.

Sooo it got towed back. Dude called me Monday and started shotgunning reasons why it wasn't actually ready, including "well it's not bled right because you probably have a leak in your slave." I told him to not a lay a finger on it until I came back by to check it out.

Tomorrow I get to go in and figure out 1) why he told me it was done when it really wasn't, 2) what they found that made them shotgun reasons to explain why it was broken, and 3) what they ended up ******* with to make the AC, stability, etc. stop working in one fell swoop.

Welcome to my personal hell.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

That's why I turn every bolt myself. Sorry to hear about your troubles. I have no idea what kind of weird s***t they had to pull to break that much stuff.

bigti99a

iTrader: (16)

yeah i have very few...meaning 1 shop i deal with. not that there isnt more good ones out there i just have trust issues when it comes to my cars.

DarkCharisma

The car is home.

I still have a weird squealing--which I think is my alternator, but it seemed to drive just fine after I replaced the bleeder screw on the end of my remote line, bled it with the Motive Power Bleeder, and did 10~ 1mi. laps around the block ... even @ 200deg. ECT it still seemed to run well.

wes8398

iTrader: (2)

Wow...this nightmare of a thread just completely scared me away from the LS7 swap I've been talking myself into recently. I realize the last post was some time ago, so wondered if there was any follow-up on the issues that caused the issues...? Are things all good now? Were any answers provided re: PP bolt lengths, etc?

DarkCharisma

Yep.

ARP bolts don't appear to work with the F1 flywheel. This is what caused all of my problems from the very beginning. Use factory bolts if you're using an F1 flywheel.

Don't test your slave outside of the car, it will burst and you will need to buy another.

Balance your flywheel and pressure plate before install.


I am tearing back into mine in the next couple months to go balance it, wish I would have from the start. Besides that, just take your time and have an extra set of hands/bolts available to revert to if needed. Since this though I have put roughly 10k miles on it, just got back from Vegas again today, no problems.

wes8398

iTrader: (2)

Copy that, thanks for the info. I've definitely come across a few mentions of balancing the assembly, but it's certainly not happening in the majority of the installs that have been posted about. I wonder what it is that causes some people to be perfectly happy with an unbalanced install, and others say that it's a must to have it balanced....

Also, you'd posted that you took it apart and reinstalled with the GM bolts, but even after that you had issues with getting into gear, etc... So was it something else that was wrong with the assembly? Or are you now SURE that it was just the ARP bolts causing the issues? And if so, why couldn't you get into gear after getting rid of those and putting the GM bolts in?

DarkCharisma

Yeah, I dunno, I guess it depends on what kit you buy. A Monster kit for $1200 is going to be of better fit and finish than the $549 kit I got from eBay, I'd imagine.

The trouble getting it into gear was simply a case of me trying to hurry. I didn't torque the transmission -> bellhousing bolts. Ran those suckers on and it worked properly thereafter.

Lots of mistakes in my attempt, a combination of hurrying, wrong parts and stress.

Fuzzy_Wuzzy

iTrader: (8)

Just order this and be done with it:

https://sdparts.com/details/scoggin-...enter/sdls7ack

Works just fine. ARP bolts and all (you still need a slave spacer or an LS7 slave)

TeamSorad

iTrader: (2)

I actually bought both kits when I was having problem with mine (F1). After talking to Dark through text and not being able to figure it out. I ordered the ebay kit (first) and then the kit Fuzzy linked. The pressure plate and disk are the same "Luk" in both kits. I compared them, only thing different is the ebay kit is painted blue.

That is how I know the pressure plate bolts were the problem (I compared the flywheels) The ram flywheel the threads go all the way through the flywheel, f1 the threads don't go all the way through.

So again the "oem kit" from sdparts is the same LS7 kit that you buy from ebay (stage 1) then you get either the ebay f1 flywheel or the ram flywheel.

edit also didn't balance mine, they come balanced from the factory. Not saying don't do it, but I'm not buying it needs to be balanced =) after 2k miles my noise/vibration is not there at all

wes8398

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the info.

Thanks for the info as well. I'm with you on the balancing thing. From all the install threads I've gone through, only a very small number have had the assemblies balanced. There are even some threads out there that explain that the vibration they had which caused them to get the assembly balanced did NOT go away after said balancing. There are too many things that can cause vibrations with these damn cars...I think that's a lesson many of us have learned over the years. LOL
That kit's been on my radar for as long as this mod has been. Definitely a worthy consideration, but the "stage 1" package from Gripforce (eBay) which includes the exact same PP and disc, the F1 flywheel (chromoly steel and ~1 lb heavier), pilot bearing, AND an LS7 slave is only $15 more. Granted, I would also have to buy the GM PP bolts. Still, I'd rather keep that $100 in my pocket. That's where I'm leaning, anyway...