So I did a clutch in my TL-S recently. Clutch masters Stage 2 w/ an AASCO flywheel. Had to do some pedal tweaking but the car drove fine after that. Had to go on a trip to Maine so I ended up putting about 1,000 miles or so on it in a few weeks. Over the course of those thousand miles I noticed a few things. It would lock out at high rpm, some days it would lockout only during the first few miles of driving, then it would be fine later on, weird. The clutch pedal never felt right, it was always inconsistent, it had a slight vibration too. I decided to change the master cylinder with a new OE one. Changed, flushed and it did not resolve the issue, and now I had air in the system I couldn't bleed. It turned into a way too long and tiring process and the clamp I was using to compress the slave to try and bleed it slipped off and the piston blew out. So now I have a brand new OE slave cylinder with the check valve delete already done and the symptoms now completely baffle my mind.

If you turn the car on, the clutch fork will fully travel the complete distance and disengage the clutch ONLY the first time you press it. Any pedal depressions after that will result in the fork traveling less and thus I have 0 gears because its not disengaging fully. The pedal at this point also gets soft and mushy. If I turn the car off and pump the clutch it becomes firm again and has a very nice linear feel. Turn the car back on and the first depression is fine, gets soft after that again. Over, and over, and over. I can't imagine that I'm pulling air into the system because its impossible for the system to "bleed" itself, and obviously the vacuum system has nothing to do with the clutch hydraulic system so all I can deduce is that there is something going on with the pressure plate in which happens under the centrifugal force of being at idle rather than turned off. However even at that point unless something is so broken that it doesn't let the fork travel thus it holds the slave cylinder back, the piston in the slave cylinder does not travel the same distance when the car is running, as it does when the car is off. Also keep in mind the fork dances around like Micheal J Fox when its not being pushed in and the car is at idle. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I've bled and bled and bled the system. With a bleeder, with a second human, and with an entire liter of fluid flushed through the system. Anyone have any clues?

Video of the slave. You can hear me going through the gears when I can.

 

CM is crap.

 

I agree south bend clutches ftw. Did you adjust the pedal?

 

I spent quite a while playing around with pedal adjustment. I personally never liked them much, however I couldn't find too many options of pressure plates and discs to run with the AASCO single mass :/. How do you guys feel about the XLR8 clutch? Is it a South Bend?

 

Xlr8 clutch is south bend. You can just buy the clutch and pressure plate and reuse your assoc flywheel

 

I think thats what I'm going to do. I'm fucked getting a refund from Clutchmasters aren't I. I have a feeling they won't honor any kind of warranty, and I don't want to screw the company over where I bought it from.

 

once you put on parts, there's probably no recourse.... you can call and ask

 

more important than a refund...
have you contacted them to ask them what THEY think the problem with their clutch is?

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater...you say when you pump it eventually it feels linear and good? Or did I misread that?
If so...and I know you tried various methods, but are you positive you have zero air in the system? Maybe a little more clutch pedal adjusting to give more throw?

When I bought my car, it was hard af to get into gears...ended up just being some adjusting that needed done. It was for a spec 3+ though.

 

someone else recently went clutchmasters and got screwed completely by them twice so he just took the loss and bought the xlr8 clutch package. he has lots of anger towards them and when i heard his story it was rightfully so, especially considering he had to pay for labor twice for the install when clutchmasters was at fault for what they gave him. his name is maddrio on here.

 

Email them and see what they say. If they don't help out them on blast :p

 

apparently nobody is putting them on blast loudly or publicly enough to keep other people from getting to experience this shit firsthand...

 

I can't imagine having to pay for labor twice. I'm a masochist so I do the labor myself, and trust me I'm quite disgruntled that I have to pull the trans again.

I did speak with 2 guys at Clutchmasters a few times. He said the only thing I can do is send it in to have them inspect it which I'm going to. They also want me to send in my flywheel because he seemed to suspect that it could be the issue. Clearly its very doubtful its a flywheel as it has 0 moving parts, and I'm positive there is no air in the system. If there was, the pedal wouldn't become stiff again once the car turned off. Some really weird shit is going on, someone else suggested I might have a finger that failed? Could explain why the clutch fork vibrates like all hell.

I promise you that if this is the outcome, I will have plenty of words to say, and they WILL get out there for all to read.

 

Good man!

You know your stuff!