NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds - View Single Post

V · 05-31-2018, 08:00 PM

Its not as bad as I first thought, but there's definite wear that I need to have a shop check out. I bought the car with 145k miles back in November. It had higher rpm clutch issues since I got it. The previous owners parents were the sellers and didn't know everything about the car. Just that it had a replacement trans recently. Right away I bought an ls7 clutch kit with a new slave and stainless steel hard clutch lines etc etc. I was just waiting for time to do the swap. When the starter finally died, I figured now was the time. I have a feeling that when the transmission was replaced(or rebuilt?) They never went as far to even remove the bellhousing or the clutch. The trans is fairly clean(painted silver) but the bell was old dirty/greasy aluminum. It took me a good 45min to an hour to get the bell off. Those dowel pins were corroded and stuck tight. The bell was on straight though without any visible misalignment. The trans to bell dowel pins looked better and came apart easy. The clutch looked like you would think a 145k mile clutch would look, lol. The amount of hot spots was amazing. I definitely didn't burn the clutch like that in 2k miles. Also, the slave looks odd to me. The throwout bearing is a style i've never seen before. The surface that touches the pressure plate fingers is like a big flat washer, separate from the rest of the bearing. All ls-based throwout bearings i've seen are like a donut, no washer.The slave body itself is also black which is not oem, so no clue of brand. So perhaps when the last guy put the trans in, they pulled in tight with the bolts and damaged the pilot bearing. My main concern is if the input shaft is bent. I guess I could try to get a dial indicator and try to measure any run-out.
I have to rent a blind hole puller to get the remaining piece of the pilot bearing out this weekend. Then I have to see what to do about the trans. I could just throw it back together and see how long it can last. Keep in mind, I paid 3k for the entire car. I'm not building a race car out of it(yet, lol) so a performance or stage 2 or + rebuild is not necessary nor desired.

Aside for the trans issue, the bolts on the cat/mid pipes all broke/needed to be cut, so that might mean a header swap might be a cheaper fix lol.

05-31-2018, 08:00 PM	#7
V Stalker Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 12,077 iTrader: (12)	Its not as bad as I first thought, but there's definite wear that I need to have a shop check out. I bought the car with 145k miles back in November. It had higher rpm clutch issues since I got it. The previous owners parents were the sellers and didn't know everything about the car. Just that it had a replacement trans recently. Right away I bought an ls7 clutch kit with a new slave and stainless steel hard clutch lines etc etc. I was just waiting for time to do the swap. When the starter finally died, I figured now was the time. I have a feeling that when the transmission was replaced(or rebuilt?) They never went as far to even remove the bellhousing or the clutch. The trans is fairly clean(painted silver) but the bell was old dirty/greasy aluminum. It took me a good 45min to an hour to get the bell off. Those dowel pins were corroded and stuck tight. The bell was on straight though without any visible misalignment. The trans to bell dowel pins looked better and came apart easy. The clutch looked like you would think a 145k mile clutch would look, lol. The amount of hot spots was amazing. I definitely didn't burn the clutch like that in 2k miles. Also, the slave looks odd to me. The throwout bearing is a style i've never seen before. The surface that touches the pressure plate fingers is like a big flat washer, separate from the rest of the bearing. All ls-based throwout bearings i've seen are like a donut, no washer.The slave body itself is also black which is not oem, so no clue of brand. So perhaps when the last guy put the trans in, they pulled in tight with the bolts and damaged the pilot bearing. My main concern is if the input shaft is bent. I guess I could try to get a dial indicator and try to measure any run-out. I have to rent a blind hole puller to get the remaining piece of the pilot bearing out this weekend. Then I have to see what to do about the trans. I could just throw it back together and see how long it can last. Keep in mind, I paid 3k for the entire car. I'm not building a race car out of it(yet, lol) so a performance or stage 2 or + rebuild is not necessary nor desired. Aside for the trans issue, the bolts on the cat/mid pipes all broke/needed to be cut, so that might mean a header swap might be a cheaper fix lol. Last edited by V; 05-31-2018 at 08:03 PM.