So, was hoping to upgrade my clutch master cylinder. I did the install myself and it was a bitch with a capitol B. I'm good with a wrench, but their design is a big *** hunk of billet, which after a lot of inspection, I deemed pretty much functionally useless, because I am an engineer by trade. It's big, clunky, heavy, and adds no strength whatsoever for any reason.

They have their clutch master cylinder set up so that it's adjustable, but guess what... it doesn't need to be, and it's really just an over-complication of the matter.

Lastly, had a brand new transmission rebuild, brought it to my tranny mechanic, and he put in the new tranny, with my new clutch master cylinder. I almost fell out of my chair, when he called me, and told me my Tick CMC was not working! Dead and leaking fluid. The cylinder was not pumping fluid at all. It was not working!

At first, I agued the point with him, and said it could not be so. But we could never get the pedal to come up from the floor, because the hydraulic fluid does that, because it's a hydraulic clutch. So....

We put in the stock CMC from GM, actually the upgraded one for a C5 Corvette, and BAM! It works perfect. Some clutches you have to bleed, and bleed again. We bled this setup literally once, got the air out, and the car drives and shift great now.

So, my tranny mechanic calls up Tick... says "look, I have been installing trannys for 30 years, this CMC is bad. No good. No workie. There is nothing in the world that will make it work. I get on the phone, and ask them if I can send it back for a full refund. They said no way, because you already installed it.

I believe Tick's should refund me parts and labor in the amount of $425.

 

Sorry you had a bad experience. I did want to ask what the reasoning was behind not getting another one? There is always some level of error in manufacturing and I believe tilton makes the cylinder itself. Obviously you had some failed seals, which isn't too big of a deal. I wish they would have offered to replace yours, as I use their product (luckily the first one was good) and have had excellent luck over the anemic stocker. The adjustability is nice for those seeking custom setups but somewhat overkill for closer to stock set ups.

Tick's master cylinder has been fixing GM shifting woes for a lot of people and I'm sorry it didn't do anything for you. I wish I could explain just how much of a difference it made on my car.

Irregardless, I hope you guys can come to some type of consensus regarding your situation. I would still recommend attempting to get one that is non-defective, as I believe you'd like it (when working properly) as much as everyone else. Sorry about your luck on this one man, sucks.

 

send it back and have them fix it . I have a tick master and its amazing , i would never recommend a stock cmc to anyone now . Have it fixed and sell it .

 

Great! I'm sitting here with one in my cart ready to order...

I have same car. What is this upgraded GM master? I know the slave was upgraded in 2001.

I also wondered if they are so great why there were so many for sell in the classifieds last time I looked...

 

Love my tick MC, if you are good with a wrench you wouldn't have a problems installing the MC. It may be a big piece of metal and a slight pain to put it in but it's not that big of a deal.

 

I thought this $325 miracle had a lifetime warrenty...

You just scared me out of my order. I just ordered a $39 Luk from rockauto.

 

This whole post has too many holes in it...
First and foremost the tick MC that I have isn't much bigger/bulkier than the stock one it replaced (and alleviated the high RPM shifting, and spongy clutch peddle problems i had).
And the install was easy, I don't remember having any issues with it at all.

Except it does!
Being adjustable allows you to run any clutch you want and being able to fine tune the engagement.

Let me play devils advocate.
So the mechanic could have damaged the MC, and claims he called Tick. Did you ever talk to anyone at tick or just trust what the mechanic said?
Good luck shifting at high RPMs with a stock MC...

 

I'll say that Tick MC has a very narrow engagement window. I swapped in a smaller 3/4 Tilton MC onto the Tick chassis and it helped increase the engagement window a little bit. The feel is quite numb though. Another observation is that clutch pedal with the Tick unit has a slight bind that isn't there with the factory unit. It's also a good bit firmer pedal than the stock MC. I never had an issue with high rpm shifting with the stock MC. I just bought the Tick because I had heard great reviews. I will eventually swap a stock one back in permenently.

 

i didnt read the whole thread or even the OP whole post, but you must be some kinda <mentally challenged> engineer, it took me 40 mins to install and bleed mine, I spent maybe 15 mins adjusting it and i had damn near flawless shifts.

 

I'll chime in as well. I replaced my stock MC that took a dump and wouldn't engage at all with a tick master cylinder. It was good for about a year and a half when it started failing. I noticed the tick MC was leaking so I called Tick and without any hesitation they sent me a new one (with a deposit on my side, which was refunded in full when I sent the old one back).

Would I go back to stock, no way, I love shifting at the high rpm range without it locking out on me like the stocker did. according to the Tick website it says " warrantied against leakage for the entire time you own it". I installed it myself and yes it's a tight fit but if you wiggle it the right way it goes it pretty easy. Took me less than 2 minutes to wiggle it in place. My 2 cents take is as you want. I have pictures to prove

 

Tick masters have a solid rep, i dont give a **** what the OP says. The fact that you claim to be an engineer, but then say an MC that has the capability to flow way, way more fluid than stock doesnt need to be adjustable clearly shows you have no idea how it even works. Adjust that master to stock pedal height and see how long your pressure plate and/or slave cylinder lasts.

Just because someone has done something for a long time, doesnt make them immune to an honost mistake. I'm referring to your tranny installer. As for Tick, and with any aftermarket vendor, there is always the possibility of a manufacturers defect. Thats life

 

Damn if you let what one person said on the internet deter you from buying a product, i feel for you lol. Do your own research on it, you'll find tons of solid reviews. And i dont mean just looking at ticks website.

There are other reputable companies that make adjustable masters, not just tick. Again, do your research. No way i would go back stock.

 

I won't say anything about the MC. There are enough people on here using them without fault and love them that saying they do not work just doesn't cut it. They work. Hundreds if not thousands of people say they work and they probably work really good.

That being said, the part about their CS is probably not too far off base. I had an issue with a part from them and all they did was tell me to contact the manufacturer. The manufacturer said I need to go through the distributor, which was Tick and they wanted nothing to do with it. Would not return phone calls, would not help with the defective product, then called me back months later asking what happened. I was never rude to them or even impolite until they called back. Maybe they are great when things work and it is an easy fix, but when they don't, Tick leaves you hanging.

 

The Tick master is just a $90 Tilton master cylinder with an aluminum adaptor, adjustable rod, and hydraulic line. If the master goes bad, buy a new one for $90 and swap the other parts over. You're not out $400, it's not even a $400 part from Tick. There may even be a rebuild kit cheaper than replacing it, Idk for sure.

I have one in my GTA and haven't had any issues. I'm skeptical that you're story is totally accurate. I don't trust people to touch my car, but I'm a tech myself, so I have the luxury of not needing to trust a mechanic's word. If it's leaking out the back of the cylinder, that's pretty obvious though.

You should really call Tick yourself and not trust what your mechanic is telling you. And I can't tell you how many guys I've met with 20, 30, 40 years experience who have no business touching cars, so just because he's been doing it for years doesn't mean he didn't make a mistake. Also your every day mechanics don't typically do mods or install non stock parts, so decades of experience with stock parts doesn't mean as much when dealing with aftermarket stuff.

 

My girlfriend is an engineer for NASA and literally designs parts that go into space, asked me what a cylinder head is and what it does the other day. So take that for what it's worth.

 

I dunno, this guy may be right. Just wondering why he is asking for $100 more than the thing sells for?

http://www.tickperformance.com/tick-...-firebird-ls1/

Not sure what I paid, but it was a lot less than that on a group buy. Still in a box so can't comment on anything but price, but still......$100 discrepancy.

 

324.99 plus cost of labor to install? OP I get it, the part costs quite a bit and getting a bad part sucks but if I were in your shoes I would send it in to get replaced under warranty and do whatever you want with the replacement... But atleast you'll have a working one and not be out the $.

 

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate dealings.
But to bash a company because of one incident is kinda stupid. If you had multiple bad experiences like I did with PTC, (long story and many dollars later) then it's legitimate.

But Tick MCs have been proven for years. Now to say they didn't have maybe one or two have issues out of thousands sold?. Probably so.

But I have installed many of these in my own and friends cars over many, many years. The only issue I ever had was getting all the air out of the system before I had a Mity-vac.

I installed one in my sons 01 Z last fall, yes I did have an issue. I thought I had all the air bled out and was having a MC issue, I called, the guy was great. He offered a free replacement based on either getting mine back first or purchase credit. Not one argument that maybe it was something I did. We discussed some things and after driving the car about a week and having to bleed it twice more, it's been flawless.

So to bash a 99.999% approval rating from guys since the early 2000's is a hard battle to win.

Jus sayin.

 

FYI, the ones defending Tick MCs and giving good advice have that little red thing saying 10 Yr member. So we're no stranger to these cars or those who sell parts for them.
I can say I date back to the 70's working on cars and doing a clutch mod on BRAND NEW LT1 Camaros. So, I'm no noob to these either.

 

I have done my own research. Like op said, the Amazon reviews are not as glowing as the hand picked ones on their site. In my past research I found a bunch in the classifieds for sale with "low miles". As someone said above, I've also seen many people here and other forums talk of removing the tick and going back to stock.

The one thing that put me off was the customer service part. It says lifetime warrenty. I don't see how a lifetime warranty works if it's void once fluid has been run through it.

Anyway, I had to make a quick decision. Body shop is waiting on my car. I'll have the part from Rockauto by tomorrow, do the drill mod, and get this thing out the door. I can take my time and decide if I need a Tick down the line.