My drivetrain woes started back in Feburary when the Torsen in the stock rear went south. So I purchased a Moser (~$2300 all together) 12bolt to replace it. I figured now that I had a REAL rearend that could run REAL tires (slicks) that I needed to replace my stock clutch also. It would not hold up to anything more than DRs at 4800rpm. I had been waiting to get a clutch until it looked like there was a solution that did not have bugs. The Cartek looked to be that solution. I purchased the whole package for around 900. Right after installing this and going through the breakin for each I lost the oil pump on a trip 500 miles from home. Another 2 weeks of down time. I finally get the car back and make a couple of trips to the track when I loose 3-4th gears. I was pretty bummed as I thought that I had the drivetrain thing mostly sewed up except for the DS. After about a month of agonizing over what to do I sent the tranny off to D&D to be rebuilt. Fedex Ground promptly looses my tranny for 9 days. After opening the tranny D&D finds that almost all of the internals must be replaced. The bill came up to ~$1600. I was just finishing the 500 mile breakin when it started jumping out of 2nd gear on downshifts. I called D&D and the only resolution was to pull the tranny and ship it back. The only problem is that shipping to and from them is $200. I procrastinated for awhile and then decided just to live with it.
Now on to the clutch. When I was running my stock clutch and rear with DRs I was pulling a best of 1.72 60s. Not real consistent. After adding the 12 bolt and 26x10.5x15 ETstreets I was pulling low 1.7s pretty consistently. After adding my H/C I had a handfull of good hard launchs and then my 60's suddenly fall to mid 1.8s. I then read a post that Julio had made about some people adjusting their master too high, causing the clutch to not engage fully. This is what I had done. I had been having problems with 2nd gear crunching after a launch. This is a disengagement problem, so I had kept raising the pedal. After reading Julio's post, I tried dropping the pedal. It helped , but that night I lost 2nd gear completely. So its back off to the tranny shop again. This time I called Tremec and got a recommendation on someone local to do the work. They gave me the name of Pro-motion down in FtLauderdale. I go down there every couple of weeks anyway so I pulled it and carted it down. After opening the tranny they found that 2nd gear had no engagement teeth left and that 5th was almost as bad. Another $750 bucks. They found that the damage had been caused by clutch disengagement problems. D&D had said that they damage was from missing shifts. I found that hard to beleive as I don't miss that many, especially in 6th. Walt from Pro-motion was adament about me doing the drill-out mod. He gave me a copy of the CHP article and beleived that this what was causing my problems. When I first bought the clutch and was going to install it I called Cartek and asked about doing the drillout mod. They did not recommend doing it. So I didn't, but I should have. After pulling the clutch it was toast. It was really my fault for adjusting the master too high. I needed a replacement, but I could not afford $650 for a new disk/pp from Cartek so I went with the RAM 402/6130 combo ($320 from Summit). I'm pretty happy with it so far. It seems to hit harder than the Cartek, but some of that could be the drillout mod. On top of all this my Moser rear had decided to puke an axle bearing, Getting a replacement was a struggle to say the least, but that's a whole other story and this post is already too long.
So here I am $1100 to be right back where I was 6 months ago, all because I did not do the damn drill-out. Oh well maybe now I can get the 1.5x 60's that I'm looking for. <img src="graemlins/camaro.gif" border="0" alt="[Chevrolet]" />


Sorry for the long rant, but it has been almost 12 months now that my car has been either broken or in some kind of break-in. That and the ~4400 I've spent on the drivetrain.

Mark

 

1MADSS, i want to start by saying i dont know how any bodys synchros are lasting without clutch line mod. Second you went thru all that info and didnt manage to give your times? Just curious before and after H/C. thanks

 

I just did the drill out mod about 2 days ago. I can't tell to much of a diference. I am having problems with my trany to. When I shift from 2nd to 3rd almost at the redline sometimes it lockup my driveline. I am hopind this will help and also I just ordered a Pro 5.0 shifter. I will hate to have the trany rebuilt. I took it to the dealer 5 times and they don't wan't to touch it because they can't duplicate. And I talked to Tremac and they sad it might be something internaly. I will see what will hapen to my trany.
Good luck with yours.

 

Sorry for your problems!
My .o2 is god i love my a4 & stall
Maybe someone is trying to turn you
to dark force <img src="gr_grin.gif" border="0">

 

Wow, that really sucks, and is quite frightening as my next project (after pretty much finishing with the motor) is the drivetrain. Wow <img src="gr_sad.gif" border="0">

 

Hey Mark. Sorry to hear about all your troubles. I just installed the 2002 ZO6 clutch. I didn't go to the track much over the past year, but its opening on Feb 13th. Got 4.10's in the rear as well. I hope I don't break anything <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0">

Good luck... let me know when you're coming to Moroso again <img src="graemlins/camaro.gif" border="0" alt="[Chevrolet]" />

 

Mark I have been following your situation and I feel your pain.. It is hard to make investments and things do not work out the way you planned it.. Some just slap stuff in and never have a problem and others always have problems.. At times I want to run my car into a tree and start all over again.., but I have to be patient.. I am sure 2002 will work out for you.. See you at the track.. Vince

 

hey guys I know your pain I have had my A4 crap out on me 3 times already and my car is basically stock and I am still having some small problems with some slippage ...... I will big ending that problem this summer with the FLP level 4 and about a 2800 stall gears and some suspension parts! I'm sure I wont have many problems then

 

Chalk that up as 2 Pewter cars going through growing pains. I've been in "Torgue Management" hell for about 6 months... not mention my major flexplate "problem"..

I've about got mine sorted out... hope you have the same luck!

 

I hear ya, Stock 2002 TA and the bastard grinds 3rd if I downshift over 70mph. Had one tranny rebuild and besides hard shifting at high rpms it has ground 3rd only once since then. All this whit 2000 miles on it.

 

Damn, this sounds familiar to me also. I've spent a TON of money on clutches, tranny rebuilds, the driveshaft, multiple busted rearends, tow trucks, rental cars, etc...

Anyone that wants to run low 11s in a 6-speed will figure out that having a setup that is consistent and solid is going to cost them money. If I knew what I did now about 2 years ago I'd have saved a TON of money! We really can't afford to leave any weak links on our 6-speed drivetrains once we start running 11s or better. Those weak links break and screw up all kinds of other connected ****.

Life with a 6-speed really sucked before we had adjustable masters for our clutches. I burnt up quite a few disks because the suckers would wear down and not be fully engaged. Then they would also have disengagement problems and I'd grind my synchros. One thing just leads to another.

My setup is solid (finally) and has held up great for over a year now. I also bought a spare T56 tranny to have as a backup in case this one takes a ****. I only paid $600 for it, which is less than a $750 synchro rebuild. I've never broken any T56 internals though, just the synchros got worn out.

Tony