Here's the story: I had no symptoms or signs of this coming, no leaks, no squeeks, no chatter, no smell, no pressure change, no friction point change. The clutch was installed by a pro shop, broke in properly and babied for another 800 miles or so. I just turned 4,000 miles on it, and something broke last night. It has only seen 4 track passes on street tires.

I was going through town about 30 mph, and couldn't get it into the next gear like it was blocked off or something. Tried them all, and I couldn't hardly get it to go into any of them, but at just the right RPM's I could force it into 4th and then cruised into a parking lot. I shut her down, pulled the e-brake and out of habit threw it in second with some extra pressure (I was pretty pissed and slammed it kinda hard) it went in. I left it in second pushed in the clutch and started the car. With the clutch down to the floor the car began moving forward under power as though the clutch was still engaged.

I'll tear into it tomorrow, but what do you guys think is wrong? I'm pretty pissed that a $1,100 clutch only lasted 4,000 miles. I'm definitely not trying to bash the company here, the clutch was great until this happened. I just need some guidance on how to diagnose this issue.

 

I have near identical symptoms on my cartech. It was working good then had no gears.Pumped pedal a lot and got gears back let it sit a day or so and no gears again.
This is likely not the clutch but more like air getting in to lines. Other ideas might be pressure plate or flywheel bolts that have backed out.Having the slave bleeder slightly open might also do something not sure on that one.I think whats wrong with my car is the slave bleeder was not quite closed.I tried to close it and wound up accidentally having it fall into trans.Got it out but can't get it back in.Going to drill
a hole in the floor above the slave to see if can get the bleeder back in there and see if that fixes the problem.
If not then tranny come out.

 

Was going to say that worn out cluthes slip but you still get in gear.Just that car starts to go nowhere from the slippage,lose mph etc.
I know all about that my stock clutch died an early death from racing buddies all the time.
But it went into gear perfect it was just burnt up.
I would doubt your texralia is screwed but did see that one post with guy who went thru like 3 of them.That kind of scared me away from the tex was ready to get one then saw that post.One bad clutch ok but like three? He went to auto now.Something I might be tempted to do soon if have anymore clutch problems.
I am getting pretty sick of them and just parked my car was so mad at it and its sat over a year in the garage while I play with my other cars.
I will be back working on it shortly it has to get running,if have to change out clutch again will and might go ls7 this time although doubt it will hold my plans and hp for very long.Maybe they will bring out an upgraded ls7 clutch or maybe I will just have to be happy with less hp.

 

If there was air in the lines, wouldn't the pedal feel really stiff? Where can I find the slave bleeder to check it?

What I'm really confused about is why the clutch is engaged when the pedal is to the floor. To be honest, I don't know much about clutches, but I'm guessing in order to check the flywheel and/or pressure plate bolts I need to pull the trans off, right? If that is the problem would tightening them back up do any good, or will it be damaged because of it?

 

Not to scare you but it may be your transmission. Drain the fluid and see if you have an debri. Any transmission leaks?

 

My pedal feels pretty good but still no gears..bleed hell out of it with mityvac and gears would come back but day later they were gone again.
I think it dont' take much air in there to give you no gears.
The bleeder is in a horrible place under too close to the trans tunnel.Not only did stupid gm put the slave internal but they also put it in a stupid place.You can barely access it .I managed to turn the bleeder the wrong way and it fell out .There is access plate under starter and finally fished it out of there.
Spent hours trying to reinsert the bleed screw with every tool and trick I could think of and just kept dropping them into the trans.I was tempted to dremel a hole in the trans for slave access.
You are correct to replace slave ,or check flywheel or pressure plate bolts the trans has to come out of there.No way around it. But the good news is really doubt your new clutch is shot unless they are hype and have lots of bad ones like the one poster was trying to say .But quite a few guys have the tex and seem happy with them.
Try to bleed system first .You can buy a mitvac and try to do it from top. That way yo don't open or close the darn bleeder at all.You just stick mityvac in your reservoir and pump the air out.It seemed to work in my car but the air kept coming back
I checked my master and it seemed fine.
Good luck and yes its a big pain these ls1 clutches.

 

nope, it was leaking about a month ago just a couple drops a day, swapped out the rear seal and changed the fluid. hasn't let a drop out since. What in the tranny could cause symptoms like this?

 

I thought I had problems with my tranny several times.It was clutch every time.If tranny does go usually lose a gear not every gear and its not hard to get into gear.That is clutch not letting it disengage.The master has to move far enough to push the slave and throwout into the trans or you don't get no gears or it goes in very hard.
And the number one reason for not getting it in there far enough would be air or fluid leakage. I would not worry about the trans from your symptoms they are same as mine and my trans shifts like butter when clutch system has no air. Does exactly the same thing as yours when it has air in there.
Bleed it make sure bleeder is closed .Then if its still messed might have to pull trans to inspect. Loose flywheel bolts and pressure plate may or may not have hurt the clutch..I would say if caught soon enough no big problem.

I also bought a remote bleeder with russel or earls bleed on end from this board off Steve. Only problem is it needs the tranny off to install it!!

 

Thanks for the info. Where is the slave bleeder located? If it is closed, how can I check the line for air?

Also, I've never bled a system with a mity vac before, any tips on how to actually perform this task? BTW, I love this site, everyone on here has been a life saver for me ever since I got this cursed car.

 

Slave bleeder is inside trans .bleeder access hole is near top of tunnel.You look for line from master to side of tranny it has heat shield over it. And above the line is bleeder access hole.You need to use like 1 /4 inch ratchet and forget size of socket.Its so tigth you usually have to put socket on first then ratchet.And make sure you dont loosen it too much and let it fall into trans like me!
Some guys drill an access hole in car above to get direct shot on the slave I think I am going to do that myself shortly.

With mityvac you insert the right fitting so it goes into reservoir tight,its best to search and read some more detailed posts on that.
You can try a conventional bleed with a buddy. It cant be done one person with the
traditional bleeder.
Good luck guy!

 

No worries if it is the clutch man. I read you buy great service and tech support with that clutch. I bet if it is they give you no problems on replaceing it. But 4 thousand miles pshhhh

 

I just went to load her up on a trailer and get her to the shop. It fired up, went right into gear and I pulled on, went a little too far, went for reverse, no prob. Got it to my grandpa's shop, slid right into reverse and pulled it off the trailer. How can this be???

New revolution: I could hear air leaking on the bottome of the passenger side of the motor that lasted for about 6-10 seconds after I shut the motor off. Never heard that before...What do you guys think?

Also, yes, it's only been 4,000 miles. I have a company truck that I drive throughout the week and this comes out on the weekends and dates during the week. Other than that she sits in the garage.

 

Didn't have time to tear into it completely, but did bleed the system, but it didn't help at all. I did notice that when the car is off, and I push the clutch down, there is a squeek coming from inside the belhousing area. Anyone run into this before?

 

Tearing into it tonight with a buddy. I'll let you guys know what we find. I'm guessing/hoping that the squeeking sound when pushing the pedal down is just the slave or TO bearing.