User Omega

Drum roll.. Something in the clutch itself must have failed. Going to see what parts I need when I talk to McLeod tomorrow. I cannot say that I have ever had this happen before.

Sorry for view and angle. I was using a small endoscope.

Schred86

maybe the fingers on the pressure plate got messed up?!?! either way you gotta drop it. good luck and keep us updated.

stefuel

At this point there's nothing more to discuss. Clearly the slave is moving enough to do it's job. Time to break out the wrenches. Then ask yourself, do I really need a exotic clutch or is stock good enough.. I do like the idea of replacing that plastic spacer part with machined aluminum.

MTPZ06

^ Stock doesn't stand a chance at his power level.

User Omega

Oh its definitely coming apart. The hopes of that not happening went out the window when I found the MC to be good. This was more of an investigation to get the parts together before I do tear into it. I dislike ripping things apart not having the parts to go back in. I'm not dragging my feet, I just don't have the time to do anything with it until the weekend of the 29th. I would just drop it off at a shop but the thought of someone not doing it to my picky *** standards would drive me nuts.

The current clutch setup is a McLeod RXT. I'm fairly confident that even off of the nitrous I would kill a stock clutch pretty quickly so that really isn't an option. I will likely just order the parts from McLeod to make this an RXT 1200/HD setup. I will also replace the bearing support while I'm in there. Its just one less thing to go wrong.

I will keep things up to date as I go.

FNBADAZ06

That sucks.

FYI, I also have the RXT1200 with the Monster billet release bearing support in support of my move to spray later this year

stefuel

Thought I'd bump this thread up as I'm sure many are interested in what failed.

User Omega

Not too much to report. We are getting there though.

The car will go on the lift this upcoming weekend where I will get it apart and see if there is anything obvious going on. I talked with Billy at McLeod last week to see if I could order parts ahead of time knowing it was the clutch itself but without having the assembly out there was no way of knowing what needed replaced. I did not get the impression that this was a typical failure they see. I am going to box it up and send it in for a full inspection no matter what I find. I will give any info I have as I go.

I'm going to order the bearing support here soon. Unless someone speaks against the Quarter Master billet unit, I am just going to order that one through BTR. I am assuming it is identical to the Monster anyhow.

1972bluelt1

User Omega

2 more days...

User Omega

Short update for you guys as I am tired and spent way too much time standing in the shop talking with friends tonight.

Nothing was difficult about the job. The only snags we ran into were where to position the car on the lift, and separating the slip joints on the exhaust between the ARH X and the BB exhaust. Everything else just went with the flow.

I ended up ordering some silicone plugs for the brake lines and trans cooler lines last week. That helped keep the drips to a minimum. I removed the headers (you don't need to completely remove them but I needed to get the old gasket material off of them).


Complaints?

My supposed to be reusable REMFLEX graphite gaskets are trash.. Whatever.. I'll order new.


What failed?


So far all I know is that one of the discs is seized to the floater plate. I did not pry it off. I put together the entire unit with the flywheel and will ship it out tomorrow. Very little dust was in the bell shockingly. I have never experienced this condition in any other setup so it's quite the mystery as to how it happens. I certainly understand heat is a factor but 40 ft of slip has never resulted in this condition in the past.

We will see what they say and I will post up some pictures for you guys later on.

User Omega

Yay... Talked to McLeod today to find out a turnaround on rebuild time.. Since they just moved and they have a back log of rebuilds it's going to be 21 days before they can look at it.

Well this year was fun. The car made it 2 clutch issue passes and maybe 1k miles in 4 mos.


I'll update when we make some progress.

stefuel

And you are going to stay with them???

User Omega

I've used these clutches before and never had an issue. Jared@RPP has been 8's with an RXT on a nearly identical setup. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...woot-woot.html


I'm going to have it rebuilt and see how it goes. If it fails again I will either put a Tilton or Mantic triple setup in it. I am assuming at this point that the disc material is at fault. The car sat just fine at the line as I held RPM and no brakes so I do not think the clutch had an issue where it would have been dragging before the launch. I've personally never had this happen before and I have been much harder on other setups in heavier cars so I'm a bit confused.


Here are some photos. The surfaces look rough but they are in fact very smooth. On a true flat surface they aren't warped.










--

stefuel

Not my cup of tea 21 days to put their eyes on it, then rebuild time and shipping back. The car will be apart for over a month. I'd already have something else on the way and be done with it. I don't care if they do it for nothing. Who's lift is the car stuck on?

User Omega

The car is no longer on the lift. I just took the trans mount nuts off and moved the driveline to the floor today. Lift is back in service if needed... Doubt it will be.
It is what it is. Most of these new clutches are more than 2 weeks out anyhow.

Ive been hassled about this a lot today by friends.... "So you spent xxxx but won't just xxx." Ive heard it all.

The only reason McLeod is having a backup is due to the fact that they moved..

Felix Olivera

Hey man sorry to hijack your thread I'm also having an issue with my clutch mcleod rst twin disk with steel flywheel, I have a supercharged c5 making 500hp but my clutch is slipping at high rpm it got worse when I put better tires, on street tires it would float arou d 5k then increase rpm I was confused why it was doing that... I have a tick mc and oem slave I had a stock ls7 clutch on there before which had no issues but the pedal was pretty stiff wanted something lighter that could hold power... either way would a stock slave cause maybe for the pressure plate to be pushed in slightly causing it to not fully grab? I'm also gonna put a cam inside to see what's going on... any other ideas what could be causing the clutch to slip? Broke it in on daily traffic for 500... car has been 1500 miles now... sucks you buy an expensive *** clutch so you don't have issues and turns out sucking...

LS1Steve

Damn. I can remember 18yrs ago when I had my first LS car (2000 Camaro SS) and McLeod did NOT have a good reputation for reliability on the forums back then. The brand name stuck in my head, and I would never buy a clutch assy from them from that point on. Looks like nearly 2 decades later they are still pretty questionable.

User Omega

You have to make sure to measure before you install. If you did not do this you have no idea how far from the spec your are. I recently had a friend install his and it did the same thing at 700whp. He also did not measure the setup. There was a shim behind his slave that he did not know to remove to it was pressing in on the pp at all times. He removed the shim and all has been well this whole racing season. His would only slip under high boost.


To update the thread here:

I did get the clutch back from Mcleod and they were great. The clutch was fully rebuilt and the floater carrier was updated. It came back looking brand new. We got it installed this last weekend and I am currently taking it through the break in period.




I think you will find that many clutches fail for one reason or another. Monster, Tilton, and Mantic are no exception. This RXT has taken many Y body cars into the 8's at my power level. I get fantastic high RPM shifts with them. 7200rpm and no delay to the next year is great. I have heard some complaints about he RXT 1200 and high RPM shifting which I why I decided to stay with the proven standard RXT.

stefuel

Did they tell you what they felt caused the problem? Just in case it happens to someone else and they are doing a search.