Burke0011

Well I finally got out to the strip tonight in the 06 with a few buddies along - weather was perfect.

Final results were both good...... and bad.

The good - first run

All I did was lower rear tire pressure to 30 lbs - that's it, Stock street weight (spare, jack, sub, CDs etc all in place)

Did a short dry hop to clean the tires - wasn't worried about reaction time as I just wanted to nail a good launch.

Minimal spin off the line - run felt really good:

RT: .506
60' 1.97
330 5.49
1/8 8.33
mph 87.78
1000 10.70
1/4 12.72
mph 111.7


REALLY happy


Lined up for run #2
Here's where things took a weird turn....

Spun hard out of the hole, short shifted to second before I hit the shift light
Now here's the weird thing - it felt like I was in gear but somehow not 100%??
I don't know how to explain it - it was making power and moving but it just didn;t feel right somehow - I go for third gear - and completely miss it - like I am literally trying to find it with the clutch pedal in and can't manage it

I don't over rev but for the life of me I can't get the **** thing into gear - finally get it into fourth and cross the line

in the turn around, all I can smell is one thing: CLUTCH
majorly. I grab my slip and pull off to the side.

I do a bit of stop and go out by the parking lot and the clutch seems to be engaging strangely. I park it and let the car sit for a bit. In a bit the smell subsides some. I start it and drive it around the parking lot a bit more - it seems better but not back to normal.

I talk to my buddy for a bit and in a little while, I decide to see how bad things are and go for one last run.

I baby it off the line, get it down the track without incident (blowing my time at the end trying to finish out at the top of third without another shift - I hit the limiter, feel the car pull back short of the line - instantly shift to fourth but its too late and pull a 13.2)

So the end result of whatever *** move I did with the clutch during the second run (STILL not exactly sure how I did it) has resulted in: whereas it used to release really high, now the thing releases almost at the floor.

The drive home I didn't really have any problems except forcing myself to adjust how I normally shift since I was so used to the high release

So with releasing so low, is this an indicator with the hydraulic clutch that the clutch plates are basically really worn and near the end of their usefullness? (ie - did I prematurely age them with that little incident?)

Any input is appreciated - I am ticked at myself because afterwards I kept thinking I should have bailed on the run when 2nd felt weird to me - but hindsight and all that.....

shaun_beauchamp

Perfect...finally someone with the same thing I got going on.

I had a similar incident where I lowered my car and had an alignment done at Ford. We took the car for a spirited drive after (my actual Ford Tech driving) and the clutch started acting burnt up. We let it sit and it seemed to be a bit "chattery" like we had hurt the plate. We changed the fluid and bled the system and the pedal released from the low end, maybe 2" from the floor and then hooks (which I prefer). So I was in panic over any damage to the clutch. He told me to drive it and if it failed he would tear it apart under warranty. That was 12K miles ago.

Never had an issue with it not engaging, never seems to be an issue with any chatter. I've bled the thing 3 times since then trying to see if it remedies anything, but now I don't consider it a problem. I have 24,500+ miles on my car as of today and I snapped first and second hard on the way home from work. No issue.

So I'm as confused as you, but I don't see it as a problem. I love the position and I am used to it now. I never liked the "audible" leg lift necessary for the stocker and most people do a "toe-tap" instead of a full depress going from gear to gear, which I always found inconsistent.

We'll see who else chimes in, but as far as I'm concerned it isn't broke and I'm under warranty.

mustangshadow

wow man that sounds crazy. Keep me posted on what you find out. What did your bro say it may be?

MTAS

Aw come on man - not one of these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYo7fRDxDmk

And that sucks about the clutch I hope it still has lots of life left!

tom281

Sorry to hear about the experience, but I'd give it a day or two before you start looking hard at new clutches. I smoked my clutch about 2 years ago, back when I was NA. I was trying to do a 2nd gear burnout LOL and I slipped the clutch a tad then just dumped it... My engine reved up like a SOB and smoke started rolling out from under the car- except my rear tires were hardly moving!

I pulled over and looked under the car and smoke was still billowing out of the trans area..... I limped it home and although it shifted OK it was chattering and engaging much differently than before.

I asked around and most input that I got was that likely I scorched it and was recommended that I drive it around for a few days..... so I did, and the chattering went away and everything came back to normal. I would guess that was probably around 5k or 6k mile mark- the car just turned 18k yesterday with the last 12k having a blower of some type on it.

tom281

Oh one more thing- congrats on the first time slip!

Evil_Capri

Nice run and sorry about your clutch.

TonyN

Sounds to me like you may have burnt it up the clutch (which doesn't mean it's wasted). Doing so, you may have caused the fluid to boil and in return allowed some air to develop in the hydraulic system. I would bleed it out and baby the car it for a few days. Then see what happens. Once the glaze wears away, usually everything goes back to normal. But the low pedal sounds like there may be a hint of air.

If it doesn't clear up, more than likely the pressure plate is whats giving up. When you over heat them, it makes the metal softer and they just don't apply the proper pressure anymore. I have seen quite a bit of the stock pressure plates fail in S197's over the past year. Weird thing is the clutch is perfectly fine when they do fail. My buddy got his fixed under warranty. They put a new flywheel, clutch and pressure plate on.

Let us know how it turns out.

Good luck!

BTW, nice run. I am hoping for 12's by the end of summer time.

Burke0011

I didn't see any smoke from the clutch or transmission if that helps.

How would I bleed the clutch?

Read somewhere online about people who simply jacked up the driver side and pumped the clutch or something?

ski

You can check the condition of the clutch disc/pressure plate with the car at a stop, engine idling, brakes applied, and release the clutch pedal with the tranny in 4th gear. If the engine stalls, then they should be ok. If the engine keeps running, then they're toast.

Burke0011

Update - did the 4th gear test as written up in the manual (thanks Ski)

set parking brake - car at idle - push in clutch - rpms to 2000 and hold - release clutch slowly

she stalled and died just like she was supposed to so that is good news

going to try and bleed the clutch tomorrow - she seems alright in daily driving to work and back. Just trying to figure out why the release is so much lower now.....

shaun_beauchamp

As stated above, I had the same issue, little chatter for about 2 days and she went back to "normal" except the low pedal catch point. I "burped" the clutch by doing the lift proceedure and then I bought a bleeder kit for $50 with the vacuum pump.

After all that I still have a low pedal, but 25K miles on the clutch an no issues. It works great and I've tracked it twice since the issue.

Keep us posted on what happens.

Burke0011

We tried the clutch bleed yesterday and it didnt change.

I let my brother drive it (he's been racing for years) and he feels it okay to drive for now but with the way it feels when it engages, that I probably beat the crap out of the disc and wore down most of the material. I am guessing that SOMEHOW when I pulled second gear on that run, I was in gear but the clutch wasn't fully engaged as it should be - so I was killing the disc the entire time I had it in second

Weighing my options with new clutch kits to see what I am going to go with - Spec (3+) and Fidanza (3.2) are in the lead right now

kh765

That blows man. Good news is...you get a new clutch!

Sweet first time though.

Burke0011

Yeah - driver error in hindsight as the minute it didn't feel right, I should have taken it out of gear and bailed on the run - but whaddya gonna do.....

Truthfully I was never 100% happy with the stock clutch anyways

AM pleased with that time though


throw some drag radials into the mix and things could get interesting

RadBOSS

The hyd slave cylinder is self adjusting. If the release point is drastically changed, it sounds like you burned a lot off the disk. The diaphragm clutches are very non linear in engagement and disengagement. That might explain why the feel is so different from what you were used to.

Well if you do decide to do the clutch, make sure you get the flywheel faced ... blanchard ground preferable. If you don't, you are at risk of having some disk chatter problems, and then you will have to take it apart again.

Are you sure that in the excitement of the second run you still did not have some foot pressure on the clutch pedal? What ever you did it sounds like the clutch did not fully release, meaning foot pressure still on the pedal or a spontaneous hydraulic release problem (less likely).

Very impressed with your 1st time.

Burke0011

yeah exactly what we figured - thanks for the info - its much appreciated!

I can't say 100% but I think I can say 98% that my foot was not on the pedal

my brother's mantra for years to me regardings manuals has always been keep your foot OFF the clutch unless you are using it and never ever ride it or have your foot hovering above the pedal.

Going to get some feedback from a local shop tomorrow hopefully about install cost