Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Well, today I took it all apart to check up on my clutch. I've been having some issues with it recently, such as the clutch engaging REALLY early, hard to shift, not fully disengaging, etc... Textralia said it might be due to a loose PP bolt. So I took it all apart(pain in the ***) to check it out.

I found that only one PP bolt had begun backing out. It backed out .018" according to the resulting gap between the PP and flywheel. The other bolts hadn't begun to back out, but they were all less than the 52 ft-lb that they should have been at. I would be surprised if this is enough to cause noticible clutch problems. The clutch looked pretty clean, just some dust, and some residue from trying to bleed the clutch using the bleeder valve on the slave. Also, there are no hot spots at all on the PP or the flywheel, which is a good sign. However, I have come up with some concerns that I feel Textralia should acknowledge...

1) The backing out PP bolts: I think this is an easy fix: More torque, more locktite, and removal of the powdercoat on the PP under the bolts.

2) Gaps between the PP and the flywheel: I am not sure if this is how it was when installed. With all of the PP bolts tightened back down, there are still gaps between the PP and the flywheel inbetween the PP bolts. I used a feeler gauge and the gap maxed out at .020" halfway between the PP bolts, decresing as I got closer to the bolts themselves. The gaps are all all around, not just in one area.

3) Flaking powder coat: Some areas of the PP have the powder coat flaking off. I found one piece of it sitting in the bellhousing, but not sure where the rest of it went... burnt up?

4) Uneven wear of clutch: In the pics you can clearly see that the outside of the clutch disc pads is the only part that is making contact with the PP or flywheel. The inside of the pads, on both sides, appear to be almsot completely untouched. The wear on the flywheel shows the same.

5) Scratches on the outside of PP: This might be just paranoia, but scratches developed on the outside of the PP. It went in there with very minor scratches, and came out with many. By the angle of the scratches, they clearly occurred while the PP was spinning. They are not due to the uninstall. Maybe the flaking powdercoat did this, maybe brake fluid? Not sure.

Before:




After:








Flaking Powdercoat:




Gap Between PP and Flywheel (.020"):




Uneven wear of flywheel(darker on the outside):





Back of PP, looks okay:

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Clutch disc before:




Clutch disc wear:






The shinier the area, the more wear:




PP Before install:




Scratches on PP after cleaning off dust:

Ojustracing

iTrader: (4)

Hey that disc wear on my SPec 3 Looks 100% the same. I had it out about 1500 miles then the tranny blew up 5/6. First time I went WOT was when the tranny Blew up. My question to you/tex would be. How can you get tappered wear on a clutch if something is supposedly held tight together when you let off the pedal. Has anybody measured the pucks prior to install to see if there are FLAT!..

John

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

I am thinking about measuing mine. Perhaps they are tapered so as the clutch gets used more and more, it begins to use more of the pads, or something like that. Which leads to the question, wouldnt the grip be more with more surface area contact between the disc and the two surfaces?!?! The inside section of the flywheel contact area looks almost exactly like the unused outside section of the flywheel, which tells me the clutch disc never grabs on the inside half of the pads. Curious.

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

Looks like the clutch isn't broken in all the way yet.SPECs look exactly the same till they break in. It seams like I see alot of PP bolt's backing out on this clutch,maybe it is the powder coating or something.We ussually torque clutches to 45 ft/lbs and never had one back out.

Ojustracing

iTrader: (4)

Don thats also what I was told by Spec for the most part. But again can anybody explain to me if if the flywheel and pressure plate are flat. How can you get a wear patteren like this?

My theory based on my conversation with spec was this is why you have a break in period for the clutch. The pucs are at different heights and we have to wear the puck flat. Also that is why the clutch's tend to chatter/grab when new. My take on it is that because of inconsistancy in the puc thickness this is what you get. I think its BS but hey look another brand clutch that looks the same also has the same wear pattern. I would like to hear what is going on.

Mike can you lay a staight flat edge across the disc and check for taper of the pucs. I kinda remember seeing .004 I measured the each puc also but cant find my notes/remember. Gotta love brake cleaner and gasoline!!! LOL

John

Keysplayr

Wouldn't this cause a tapered groove to wear unevenly into the flywheel and pressure plate? Not to mention cause MUCH more heat at the contact points due to the same amount of friction on a smaller surface/contact area? Does not seem right to me. You don't see brake pads with this characteristic. Sure, break pads need to "break in" but that usually happens in the first few miles, but they lay flat on the rotors right from the start. IMHO.

Zeus

That's kind of odd because I had the exact same problems (PP bolts backing out and uneven wear) but I assumed it was due to installation error. Maybe it wasn't me after all.

J-Rod

If your PP bolts back out, you're going to get uneven wear. The engagement is no longer flat and even across the board. Think about a brake when you have a caliper sticking. The one part of the pad that catches is going to do all the work and get accelerated wear. Also you may get some funky chattering, etc... from the odd engagement.

Also, think about the force in a clutch. If bolts back out, the hat of the PP is going to have alot of torsional forces on it. It wouldn't suprise me if the plate gets a bit warped.

I had a bolt come completely out in a car I was driving. The clutch to bellhousing tolerances were pretty close in this application (it was an import). When I rev'd it hard the first time, it came around, and slapped the bellhousing, ,and knocked a hole in it. I had to replace the entire clutch, and the bellhousing.

Who did you buy the clutch from? Was it direct from Textralia, or through one of their vendors?

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

I thought that the loose bolt may cause the uneven wear, but the unevenness of the wear seems pretty drastic for the only slight distance the bolt had backed out. Also, the inside of the pads and the inside of the flywheel haven't even been touched at all. In the first few hundred miles, when the bolts were tight, you would think there would be even pad usage, yet the inside of the pads are untouched, except for the scattered high areas that have been worn down slightly.

I purchased the clutch from A&A Corvette in Oxnard, back when they were $1050 w/ an OEM flywheel.

Textralia

Give us a holler, or shoot us an email so we can get you all squared away ASAP.

214-227-6660

-Joe

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

E-mail sent.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

Can you post up the results of the discussion with Textralia? Very interested to see if there is a way to prevent this since I am about to install mine.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Waiting for phone call or e-mail response

AdReNoLiNjUnKiE

Should have went RPS clutch!!

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Just got off the phone with Peter. He called me straight from Australia, talk about service!

We talked about all of my concerns. The PP bolt problem may have been due to the use of blue loctite instead of red. The wear pattern is normal, and was most likely worsened by the backed out bolt. The clutch is still fairly new, I assume about a thousand more miles and the pucks will be flat against both surfaces. We also went over a better bleeding technique that should help the engagement out. I am VERY impressed by his service. I am now even more content that I went with this clutch over a SP*C. Hopefully I'll have it all back together tomarrow! Thanks again Peter!

Slow00ls1T/a

thats good to know makes me glad that i did wait over 2 months to finally recieve my clutch

and what is up with everyone commenting should of got an rps clutch

Zeus

Do you think you could start a new thread about this (so we don't hijack this one)?

MY99TAWS6

iTrader: (3)

How do you get bolts with red loctite off if you have to later..just hit them with a portable propane torch or something? I would use red but was worried never get the bolts off again.

So where those gaps from the backed off bolts or something.I am still on fence on textralia or ls7 clutch.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Red loctite is okay to use on "large" hardware. Because of its holding strength, trying to get a small bolt out that has red loctite on it usually results in the bolt breaking. I don't plan to use very much of this stuff. The gaps are normal Peter said. They are there from production. Around the PP bolts though, the PP should be tight against the flywheel.