I've only had this thing a month now, and it really did test drive great. Now it seems it's all falling apart on me at once. Need some nice freakin weater to drive it around more also. Anyways...

Well here's the low down on what's happening:

I was taking off at I'd say mid throttle, going through the gears fast without letting RPMs get above 4k or so. I hit 5th gear and the RPMs just hang after I've already engaged the clutch in 5th. I thought I actually missed and hit 3rd, but then like 5 or 6 seconds later the tach dropped to where it was supposed to be at. This was last week.

Today while I was driving it after cleaning my throttle body (which resulted in more problems btw) I downshifted into 5th after giving it gas to get the rpms up and it did the same thing. RPMs hovered at like 4k for a few seconds, and then dropped back down.

I'm not having any issues with clutch slippage as far as I know. Every WOT run I've had (when the LT1 gremling isnt bogging me at 2k RPMs) it's fine and takes off no problem. I imagine you can feel a clutch slipping.

But then I also have this problem. I'd say 50% of the time I can't hit 3rd gear without it grinding. Mind you I'm not a newbie at driving a manual, but I'm not an expert either. I bought a shifter, and it helped a lot feeling the fork for 3rd on power shifts, but doesn't actually help getting it into 3rd. This also ONLY happens during redline and hard shifting. It seems like it's worse when I'm first driving it, but still sometimes happens after a while also. This may or may not be connected to my problem, but I'm just throwing it out there in case it's a symptom. I'd like to say this isnt related to how I'm working the clutch, but with this lovely spring weather we're having and a complete bombardment of work; I havent had time to drive it as much as I'd like.

ANY help or input you guys can give me is really appreciated. I'm thinking maybe it's the throwout bearing or something... but man I have like no money for repairs or anything. This really sucks.

Thanks guys...

BTW with all the problems I'm having I'm really starting to regret paying extra money for a supposedly well-maintained low milage LT1... yeah whatever.

 

sounds to me like it's slipping...

could be that somethign in the hydrolics is lagging and preventing full engagement of the clutch. but not sure why that would happen at that specific gear/rpm

 

I am going to have the clutch fluid drained and refilled, just in case there is air in it, and it's also due I imagine. Same thing with the transmission oil. they are both original at 55k miles and are dirty as hell. But I have no idea how air could have gotten in there if there is.

As far as grinding 3rd... it didnt do it at all today which was weird... but I was told it might be the gear synchro going south. Hopefully not. I'm thinking whatever is causing my clutch engagement to lag might also be lagging with the disengagement on my 2-3 shift.

I've also had trouble getting it into 2nd, and then I realized that it's the skip shift... but I think my solenoid is broken because it only locks gears out very rarely at low RPMs like it should be doing. And I know it's not disabled because when I first got the car I noticed it wasnt working and that was the first thing I checked. So who knows if that solenoid is causing something with not being able to hit 3rd... I dunno. Im considering putting a resistor in there to completely take it out of the equation.

Until I can get this figured out I am no longer driving it hard and taking it easy on the transmission.

It's kinda pissing me off because I was expecting 1000 things to break within a month of purchase ya know...

Anyone know how to grow a money tree? Let me know... lol

 

Sounds like the clutch is starting to slip. This happened to another car I had and a few thousand miles later it started slipping in gear at high rpms. 55k miles on an original clutch is possible..... sounds like you need a clutch.

 

take it out and put in 6th at about 40 mph and mash it. if rpms climb, but you dont go any faster then it is slipping

 

Assuming that the farthest I'd ever get is about 350 rwhp, what are recommendations then for a replacement clutch that will hold that power. I'm not looking for top of the line but also something that isnt cheap as hell either as far as quality is concerned.

This car will always be my weekend toy and probably will never see any track time.

Also what parts should be addressed or replaced while its out (clutch)?

And out of curiousity why would it be more like to slip with that 6th gear test than at WOT in 1st and 2nd or even 3rd.

PS: It also would be nice if we had some decent testing weather lately instead of all this overcast rain and bull**** cold.

 

about the 6th gear test:

when you have the car at a low mph in 6th gear, the rpms are very low also. when you floor the gas, it makes the engine stumble to try and pick up speed (because you don't have any torque multiplication.) so it's really hard on the clutch to keep the trans and engine connected, and if the clutch is on it's way out, it will slip and let the engine rev up (without the car gaining any speed.)

 

Damn, it's always done what I said above in 5th gear, so I see what your saying.

I thought about riding a bike and dropping it into a lower gear ratio and it gets harder to pedal at slow speeds. Then if your feet were wet (slipping clutch), they would slide off the pedal. Pathetic analogy I guess, but that was how I realized what you were describing.

I will do the test tomorrow when I get a chance and get back with a reply.

Would this also explain why one day my car just kept stalling out on me at take offs? I made a post about it in the LT1 tech forum a while back as I thought something was wrong with the motor. Also sometimes after driving it, especially after I got it I could smell the clutch. I just thought it was me having to get used to the pedal though, but I guess not.

 

If a clutch is slipping ... I don't really see that making the engine stall. In fact, it'd make the car hard to stall. When it normally would stall, the clutch wouldn't be able to stop the engine, and the clutch would slip as the engine revs up.

 

You're right, I was just throwing out more symptoms. I just drove it for an hour REALLY hard and nothing happened. I tried that 6th gear method about half a dozen times, each time it just lugged away at 35-40 mph. right at 1k RPMs. No clutch slipping, no 3rd gear grindage, no smell, nothing.

FWIW I also had no low RPM power loss this time either. I think this car is weather tempermental or something. It's just trying to get under my skin. Maybe it wants a name or something, I don't know. It's definately a woman though, that's for sure.

So far, I guess Teke is more accurate, though I can't figure out what it could be. Something must be lagging or it's all in my head. One or the other.