TO bearing issue

[DRJDVM's '69]

I swear to God my car is cursed....and people wonder why it's taken me so long to build my Cuda. I've had the transmission in/out going on 4 times now

The latest issue.... took the car to a local car show. Long line to get in so it was stop and go for a good 1/3 mile. By the time I got in, there was smoke under the car and it smelled like clutch.... bad..... couldn't really find the source but I thought I had overheated the clutch with stop and go.... its only got about 125 miles on a new McLeod twin disk. Got it parked and just hung out for the day. On leaving everything felt fine.... no more smoke, seemed to drive ok too.

Got the car home and next day got in up in air and there was fluid all over the bellhousing and the clutch master was down a good 3/4 inch. Looks like the TO puked fluid out the bell and the header, thus creating the smoke and smell.

So somehow I caused the TO to puke fluid... all I can think of is that I either didn't set the clutch pedal stop right and over extended the pedal a bunch of times in the stop and go traffic and blew the seal..... or I screwed up the TO to clutch air gap and over extended the bearing in some way.....

I must have checked both of those like 100 times.... but thats the only things I can think of to make a TO puke fluid

So.... all apart AGAIN.... TO bearing doesn't look jacked up ....Craig at Bowler had me send it back so they can inspect and rebuild

Clutch has some hot spots on the pressure plate so that's on the way back to McLeod to see if I ruined my $800 new clutch or it can be salvaged. Figured the hot spots are from the clutch slipping when the TO gave up and then wasn't fully releasing the disk

Any other ideas on how a TO would puke fluid? The lines are fine... so signs it rubbed a hole etc, so it must have come from the piston seal

This car has fought me this entire build.....

[camcojb]

A friend had a similar issue, and it turned out to be the T/O bearing fluid line was close to the headers, and was overheating the fluid. He re-routed the line and never had the issue again.

[DRJDVM's '69]

My lines are pretty far away from any heat source. I have them zip tied pretty good but I'll keep that in mind when I put it all back together to be sure

[Vegas69]

It seems like it could be heat related due to the heak soak you likely experienced. If it was me, I'd consider having another set of eyes look things over before it goes back together. You have to be missing something.

[DRJDVM's '69]

TO bearing was checked by Bowler and nothing obvious on the seal. Rebuilt it anyway since I'm 99% sure the fluid puked from there

McLeod looked at clutch and the disks were fried, and mid plate warped. I have a feeling that happened after the TO died on me and the disk wasn't fully releasing when the clutch was depressed, so it was slipping like crazy and torched the disk. The clutch is rebuilt and on the way back to me

Its got to be the throw on the pedal.....

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by DRJDVM's '69

Its got to be the throw on the pedal.....

Good thought.