Ben and I just put in my JWT PP w/ 2001 stock disc including brand new cable, TO Bearing and axel seals 3 weeks ago. I took it easy on it for the first 500 miles or so. After that everything was fine, I was chirping 2 no probs and even chirped third once in it with no signs of any problems (and that was only a FEW times).

So I took it up to the track to drag race it for the first time, and when I was staged for my first run, it gives out! They had to push me off the track right away cause I couldn't move. I had revved it up to 3500 and dropped it and I hardly moved while the engine just still kept revving.

There was no smell so I dodn't think it's the disc. The pedal still feels exactly the same and it goes into each gear (though it won't move hardly at all in any) so I don't think it's the cable or any of the gears. I suspect it's the pressure plate.

This surprises me since it's a JWT and it's only 3 WEEKS OLD. I'm only putting down about 150 whp. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Well, hard to say what the prob is without taking it apart. It might not be the clutch at all but the axle.

Khiem

Or a problem with the installation? :confused:

I agree. Something similar happened to me (but i wasn't on the track, or even racing for that matter) and it turned out to be just a broken axle.

When my axle broke, it shifted fine, made no unusual noises until you tried to drive it.....at that point it made a grinding noise which ended up being the two pieces of the broken axle rubbing on one another. The car would move about a foot then just stop rolling as the revs continued to rise.

Uh oh. Yeah that does sound like what my car was doing. Perhpas it is the axle. My speedo still says I'm moving even though I'm not. Ben, could that be the problem? But how would my car still have been able to roll?

If the pressure plate breaks, the clutch pedal will go to the floor, and not pop back up. Sounds like an axle issue to me.

I think you guys are right. My pedal is fine and everything seems normal except the fact that my car won't move. Speedo still works and all.

After doing some searches, it only confirms that it's the axle. I should have seen it coming. I had been experiencing wierd vibration when accelerating in certain gears for a couple months and getting alignments didnt' seem to help(between 3 and 5k in 3rd and especially 4th gears, and 2-3.5k in 5th), and there was grease on the tranny near my inner CV when Ben and I put the clutch in.

We thought it might just be a torn boot but couldn't see a tear anywhere on it. We thought the little metal band that holds that boot on the axle might be leaking so we did a quick fix with some zip ties to make it tighter. It would make sense that my new clutch putting would cause more strain on them and then doing a drag launch would finally be enough strain to cause it to snap.

I guess this weekend we will confirm it,a nd I hope that it's only the axle that's the problem! Thanks, guys.

Mike Mager had his axle break at the dragstrip at the National Convention. Be glad that it's the axle because that's a LOT easier to change then getting all the way back to the clutch!

Khiem

Yeah, but either way it wasn't cheap spending $200 to flatbed the car back to Chi-town from the track! Not to mention the $30 I spent to race at the track for nothing.

Originally posted by eric96ser
If the pressure plate breaks, the clutch pedal will go to the floor, and not pop back up. Sounds like an axle issue to me.

Not always Eric. Unfortunately I know this by personal experience. My ACT HD pressure plate broke and the clutch felt completely normal. This was after installing the entire turbo kit and clutch at the same time.

No fun to have spent 2 months custom installing a turbo kit and the night that you go to drive it out the first time you realize you can't put the car in gear. :(

This also happened to Chris at SR20 development and to a couple of people in the Northeast.

You see the gap at the 11 o'clock position? The clutch diaphram actually split right there. You can see the jagged crack and split if you hold the pressure plate upright and shine a light behind the cover.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/f/t/fthomasr/act/clutch.jpg

Good Luck.

Originally posted by RySE-R 1
I think you guys are right. My pedal is fine and everything seems normal except the fact that my car won't move. Speedo still works and all.

After doing some searches, it only confirms that it's the axle. I should have seen it coming. I had been experiencing wierd vibration when accelerating in certain gears for a couple months and getting alignments didnt' seem to help(between 3 and 5k in 3rd and especially 4th gears, and 2-3.5k in 5th), and there was grease on the tranny near my inner CV when Ben and I put the clutch in.

We thought it might just be a torn boot but couldn't see a tear anywhere on it. We thought the little metal band that holds that boot on the axle might be leaking so we did a quick fix with some zip ties to make it tighter. It would make sense that my new clutch putting would cause more strain on them and then doing a drag launch would finally be enough strain to cause it to snap.

I guess this weekend we will confirm it,a nd I hope that it's only the axle that's the problem! Thanks, guys.


Weren't you guys working on fixing an axle in Ben's garage when my wife and I stopped by? I thought I remember Ben trying to clamp the band back on one of them?!?! Eitherway, I hope that's all it is as I am sure that the clutch job is not something you want to get involved with on your own. Keep us posted.

Curt B. Shumaker