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Long story short, my TOB decided to commit seppuku. Dropped the trans, saw the damage, everything else seems ok. My problem is I cannot get the rest of the TOB out of the clutch where it separated, and it's not as easy as "using a flathead" to pop it out since there's no body for leverage. Pics in the link: http://imgur.com/a/nV2so
I've had a hard time finding failures like this by searching and I'm looking for some answers. Faulty install? Mfg defect? Trans shaft had chocolate cake all over the splines, the fork springs wore grooves into the fork rod, and now I'm wondering how well lubed everything was. Clutch was pro installed by a well-known Evo shop. I dropped the trans myself because I've had some questions about the quality of work from this shop, though...
Any tips for getting the rest of TOB shaft out? I've tried yanking on vice grips while depressing the collar to no avail. Was considering removing the clutch cover but don't know if that will have any other consequences. I don't have an alignment tool on hand, but if it's nothing to worry about I'll pull it...
Mods in my sig, car has 76k well-maintained miles all from me, clutch is about 25k miles old.
Show me what you got!
P.S. 1st lurker post, 5 1/2 years later, lol
Last edited by Dr-Gonzo; Feb 19, 2017 at 10:52 AM.
That's a pretty rough failure. Do you ride your clutch pedal a lot when driving?
Good luck with it!
The throw out bearing is busted with half of it still stuck in the pressure plate and will not budge. I have seen this in person and it is not like anything I have every seen. The half of the throw out still stuck in will move freely both spinning in a circle as well as in and out.
Is there any way you may be able to knock the wedge collar loose from the inside of the pressure plate? I remember when I installed a new clutch (twice) and wedge collar popped off. I had to start over. Put the wedge collar back on the PP and went forward with the install.
** From looking at the photos and remembering what happened to me... There is a ring inside the wedge collar, closest to the engine side. You may be able to get to it through the PP Blades, but my best bet would be to remove the PP to get access to the back side of the wedge collar.
Good luck Brother!
Yeah, I posed that video so you could see what was retaining the TOB on the other side. I think you should be able to get at it and, destructively, remove it from the cover without hurting the cover itself. You may want to have a clutch alignment tool handy to save yourself possible heartburn on the reinstall.
Now I know groundzero1v and ACTman say the Monoloc has nothing to do with the issues, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say otherwise. I'm thinking the Monoloc is causing premature failure of the wave springs, thus adding more force on the TOB which cause it to separate the way it did.
I am likley going to take off the PP/Cover and put on a standard Exedy collar with new wave springs, then use a fork stopper instead of the Monoloc. When I talked to the shop that installed my clutch, they made it sound like these collars can cause this type of TOB failure.
So now I wait for more parts to come in, yay
::Update::
I went ahead and ordered both the Exedy collar replacement and a new Monoloc, reason being is that I cant be sure the TOB was replaced when the clutch was upgraded. Plus I'll get to compare both with their new wave springs and if for whatever reason it fails like this again I'll have a better indicator and a spare to use. Still using a fork stopper now though...
Last edited by Dr-Gonzo; Feb 20, 2017 at 04:10 PM.
Reason: update
I got everything back in order and the car's running great. It took me some time because I did all of this solo, but I also took advantage of the situation and upgraded my CMC to the VIII/IX retrofit. Definitely an improvement over the stock/recall unit.
I went ahead and used the Exedy collar and wave springs over the ACT Monoloc. After comparing the two side by side, the Exedy is worlds easier to engage and the wave springs have more life. See below:
On the left, wave springs from the Monoloc with ~25k miles. On the right, brand new wave springs that came with the new Monoloc.
Here are the old (underneath) and new (top) wave springs that come with the Monoloc. You can see the how old ones have stretched.
New Monoloc on top and new standard Exedy two piece collar on bottom. The Monoloc is sturdier for sure, but I'm not convinced that's a good thing.
New Monoloc wave springs on the left, new Exedy/OEM on the right. HUGE difference!
I ended up taking the whole clutch off. Guess what, it was still a PITA to get the rest of the TOB removed, and the Monoloc was even harder to get out:
Pressure Plate/Cover off. Now you can really see the damage done to the TOB.
Depressed TOB, look at that slack on those springs!
Fully depressed TOB from behind, everything working as intended I suppose. But the rigidness of the collar might be a bit too much...
Popped this m'fer out with a flat head. Was not as simple without the bearing cage attached. You can see the scoring on the Monoloc where I had to pry out the TOB.
The Monoloc was harder to get out than the busted TOB! Had to pry out the tabs to get it off the ring. Needless to say, the two-piece design of the Exedy/OEM would not have this issue.
Which brings me to my conclusion:
I can't say for certain if the Monoloc was the culprit, or if the shop that did my clutch install messed something up (lazy install, reused TOB, poor lubing, who knows). However, I think going with the standard Exedy/OEM wedge collar is the way to go. I know people will say "OH NOES, U'LL POP THE RINGZ OUT", to which I reply "use a fork stopper." Both are roughly the same price, but one is internal and one is bolt on. Use a simpler solution and hopefully be done with it. You know, Occam's razor and all that. I'm sure all the clutch MFG's using standard collars have enough R&D in place to justify using the old design over a Monoloc design...
Feb 18, 2017, 05:09 PM
