TOB Failure(Pics). Nightmare & Need advice.

[gridlyne]

Hello all, thought I'd post it the specific forum as opposed to the newbie section to get better advice. I had purchased a tranny off someone and was told it was a 90 tranny when the whole time it was a 91. After installing it I could shift into anything other than 3,4,5 gears. Anyway,I decided to drive it in 3rd to a well known person on these boards and he swapped 91 shifter cables. Fixing the problem. Unfortunetly the damage had already been done. I drove the car only 40 miles most of them High way and heres what happened to my Brand new Act 2100 with street disc.

Here are some questions I had:

From what I cant tell, the tranny is fine. The bell housing is toast. Is it possible I could swap the housing myself? Would it be a good idea?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Should I use an OEM TOB next time? This ACT TOB was in pieces. Before this happened it chattered alot. What are some precautions I can take against that.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

In the pictures you can see that the flywheel chewed away at my T-Case. Is the T-Case still reusable?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

After all this damage, do you think I should get a new flywheel? The FLywheel looks like it can be re-used.

What are some recomendations for my next clutch? I would like something along the lines of a 2600 this time. But should I get another street disc with it?

Here are pics of the fried clutch:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I plan on Autocrossing the car as well as having it as a weekly driver. (about 4 days a week).

Thanks in Advance.

 

[JayRolla]

WOW that sucks man. Im sure you can swap the housing just going to be a lot of work. Yes use a OEM tob, not the ACT one as they fail prematurly. Also your xcase should be reusable. Im not sure about the flywheel since there is no pic of it. Good luck!

 

[housegsx]

I don't see how shifter cables could cause this... Something else happened. If the flywheel moved enough to chew up the transfer case, then the misalignment could have have also caused it to kill your TOB. But yeah, use a plastic sleeve oem TOB next time.

 

[gridlyne]

Even more bad news. I completely forgot the worst part. This also broke the ear on my block closest to the slave.
This isn't specifically because of the shifter cables. The problem started when I brought the tranny being told it was off a 90 when it was off a 91 and I drove it to the shop to get it repaired in 3rd-5th. (stupid on my part).
If I was told it was a 91 tranny, I would have kept searching until I found a 90 tranny and saved myself the trouble.

 

[JayRolla]

So you had a shop install the tranny. You can tell the difference just by lookin at them. Im surprised it actually got put in

 

[gridlyne]

No I put in the tranny myself. My sig shows my putting it in.

All the shop did was put in the cables. The shop did a great job. I am in no way putting any blame on the shop. They are great people who do amazing work.

What Im saying is that BY THE TIME I got it to the shop. I had already damaged it and when the shop fixed the cause of all this, I had already fried my clutch and the TOB was on its way out.

 

[kelvinb]

post a picture of the flywheel. i wanna see if it still has 6 holes in it.

 

[drewvr4]

holy shit man...i have the same problem, but i havent had the time to pull the tranny yet...i have a 2600 clutch that makes a god aweful noise and wont go into 3,4,5 either

 

[drewvr4]

btw did you pull the engine or did you just yank out the tranny

 

[gridlyne]

btw did you pull the engine or did you just yank out the tranny

I yanked out the tranny only. But the engine is coming out next. I need to rebuild the block Its the only way to get those ears back onto the block. Im not welding anything in place only to have it break on my again. Im taking it as my chance to put in 2g pistons.

Anyone in the NY area selling a 6 bolt block?

 

[drivemusicnow]

Okay I'm a bit confused:

What do you think caused the fried clutch? Was it you having to slip the hell out of it to start in third?

If so, the TOB, had a hell of a work out, But i'd still go with a stock one.

Flywheel might be toast. Post a picture and we'll take a look and see just how much heat you created by slipping the clutch that much.

... what happened to cause the cracked bellhousing/broken block?


At this point I'd say you might be better off trying to find a good 91+ trans, and save up to buy a seperate 6 bolt block. that you can build while you drive usingn the bad block, and good trans.

 

[vintagemuscle]

The transmisssion had to be installed wrong to do that kind of damage.
Are you sure you put the alignment dowel pins back into the block and torqued all of the bolts correctly. Just slipping the clutch shouldn't have caused that carnage. I can see why the clutch is toast but it doesn't explain the other damage.

 

[1stGenRocks]

The transmisssion had to be installed wrong to do that kind of damage.
Are you sure you put the alignment dowel pins back into the block and torqued all of the bolts correctly. Just slipping the clutch shouldn't have caused that carnage. I can see why the clutch is toast but it doesn't explain the other damage.

agreed.

Was it a new clutch when you installed it? Did you have the flywheel off or loose? The broken off ear off the block is definately not something to screw with fixing. Just sell the block to somebody who wants to put it in a 2g since I'm almost positive the bolt hole I think your talking about isnt used with a 2g tranny.

 

[gridlyne]

agreed.

Was it a new clutch when you installed it? Did you have the flywheel off or loose? The broken off ear off the block is definately not something to screw with fixing. Just sell the block to somebody who wants to put it in a 2g since I'm almost positive the bolt hole I think your talking about isnt used with a 2g tranny.

Can somebody chime in on this? ### I was just gonna throw the block away once I was done with it ### I thought it was a complete waste. But if its the case then I might save it for someone on here who might need 1.

The more I think about this the more I think the ear must have broken off the block without me knowing and that led to the damage seen here.

I called a shop near me and they quoted me $150 for a bell housing for the tranny. Anyone have a write up on how to swap a bell housing? It looks straight foward but I dont wanna take it apart only to find out that I needed to take it to a professional.

 

[topstreet]

The transmisssion had to be installed wrong to do that kind of damage.

Bingo.

The throw out bearing cannot be blamed if it is no longer a part of the trans. Look at the piece it rides on... Done!

The shifter cables only are going to get you shifting gears like you should be.

The broken ear on the tranny and some violent jerking is a possibility. If this ear was in place at the time of install, then we are back to a wrongful installation. Was this broken before you drove the car? FYI, if you know what you are doing, you can weld the bloke "ear" back on. This is how mine has been all season.

I am not by any means trying to point a finger or be rude. Just that I think the failure was related to the install. Something that would cause a break, and that much movement to hit the t-case, like that is not just a shifter cable or throw out bearing.

 

[94awdcoupe]

The broken bell/ear is from leaving out the all important 4th bolt. The one under the starter. Three bolts wont hold the tranny on and it snaps the ear off the block every time. Seen it a dozen times already. Installing the new bell is not easy. It requires all the shafts to be reshimmed. best leave it to a professional. The block will not work in a 2g. 2g block have a 5th bolt right above the ear you broke off to prevent the broke ear you just experienced.

 

[gridlyne]

Bingo.

The throw out bearing cannot be blamed if it is no longer a part of the trans. Look at the piece it rides on... Done!

The shifter cables only are going to get you shifting gears like you should be.

The broken ear on the tranny and some violent jerking is a possibility. If this ear was in place at the time of install, then we are back to a wrongful installation. Was this broken before you drove the car? FYI, if you know what you are doing, you can weld the bloke "ear" back on. This is how mine has been all season.

I am not by any means trying to point a finger or be rude. Just that I think the failure was related to the install. Something that would cause a break, and that much movement to hit the t-case, like that is not just a shifter cable or throw out bearing.

I would weld it back on but I went back under last night and saw that the axel bracket is also on its way out. It was broken before and I had it welded back on. But its breaking again and the axel looks like its shot to shit.

 

[kelvinb]

one time my car didnt shift that well, and i didnt know what was wrong till i checked underneath and had someone hit the clutch for me, the bottom bolt on the tranny backed out, and the slave cylinder was moving the tranny.....maybe i caught it before this happened?

 

[gridlyne]

one time my car didnt shift that well, and i didnt know what was wrong till i checked underneath and had someone hit the clutch for me, the bottom bolt on the tranny backed out, and the slave cylinder was moving the tranny.....maybe i caught it before this happened?

Thats exactly what I found right before I removed the tranny. Since that ear was broken, every time I hit the clutch, the tranny was flexing away from the block.

But I need some answers to some of the questions I asked in the beginning. What would be a good setup for my next clutch. I have all the stage 1 mods and half of stage 2. I would say the car has somewhere between 225-250 hp but I plan on taking it to 300+. I want to autocross the car. Should I get another Street disc or other? And if I get an ACT CLutch, Is it best I get an ACT Flywheel? I see people running Fidanza on ACT, is there anythign wrong with that?

 

[topstreet]

But I need some answers to some of the questions I asked in the beginning. What would be a good setup for my next clutch. I have all the stage 1 mods and half of stage 2. I would say the car has somewhere between 225-250 hp but I plan on taking it to 300+. I want to autocross the car. Should I get another Street disc or other? And if I get an ACT CLutch, Is it best I get an ACT Flywheel? I see people running Fidanza on ACT, is there anythign wrong with that?

Did your clutch get damaged? I dont see why you couldnt run that.

What is stage1 / stage2?

The fidanza flywheels are very nive in my opinion. There is no real reason why you cant mix and match. Just think about it this way: You can use a stock clutch with a fidanza or a act flywheel. You can also use a stock flywheel with an act/rps/south bend/ sbr clutch right? Go ahead and mix and match.

 

[topstreet]

After all this damage, do you think I should get a new flywheel? The FLywheel looks like it can be re-used.

What are some recomendations for my next clutch? I would like something along the lines of a 2600 this time. But should I get another street disc with it?

Maybe I am just not seeing it in the pictures, but what damage was done to the clutch?

 

[gridlyne]

What is stage1 / stage2?

http://www.dsmtuners.com/sub.php?page=1gtupgrades

When I said Stage 1 and 2 I was referring to the Upgrade path recomended by DSMtuners.com
I have everything in stage 1 except the feul pump. I was gonna get that until this happened.

The clutch is dead. The heat warped the pressure plate and the street disc turned into a fine powder resembling kitty litter. Upon unscrewing the clutch from the flywheel, a nice pile of dust fell down.