Is it m, or are these GT drivetrains super sloppy?

[ADRENLN]

i dont know what it is but my motor feels great but the drivetrain feels like crap. between the super soft clutch feel that dont catch until my knee is about head level and the slop and slack in the drivetrain the car feels terrable during normal driving.

of course its a bit notchy going into second but i think the slack in the drive line bothers me more. not sure.

anyway, i was just thinking about this because if the drivetrain was tightened up the car would actually feel awsome. strong power and a nice tight feel.

for example: as soon as i shift and lift my foot about an inch off the floor if the clutch started to engage hard without waiting a second for the slack in the driveline and hearing alot of clicking and crap from the sloppy drivetrain, that would be awsome.

so question is, how do i get what im looking for? what is it going to take. do you think just a good clutch will do the trick? what do i have to get with that to make it work so i can have it engage right from the floor?

or do we need a whole new tranny in these gts?

 

[BennyBlown2v]

It's not just the tranny, or the rear end, or any single one thing. Basically its everything combined that makes our cars so clankity. Aluminum driveshaft, urethane diff/motor mount, and a properly setup rear end are all things that are known to reduce the slop. Of course, if you go with stiffer mounts, you get more vibration - so its a trade off

 

[TweekedGT]

Mine actually feels really strong. i got a Centerforce flywheel and Spec stage 3 clutch and no more slop. If you need a clutch change anytime soon i would highly recommend these.

 

[ADRENLN]

yea, ifigured i would do the clutch next summer when i do the engine while everything is apart. hoping that it helps. my clutch now isnt old it only has 12,000 miles on it but i think it is not adjusted right as i have to have it almost all the way out for it to fully engage.

its also really spongy. i drove a friends gt and the clutch felt alot better and egeged way eairlier. same dame car.

i do have an aluminum d/s and a built rear end.

 

[98armygt]

i hear ya on the clanking noises. i always think that my rearend is gonna fall off. im thinking of throwing urethane bushings all around.

 

[Superhereaux]

as far as the clutch engagement i had the same problem. too high for my taste



bought the upr firewall adj./quadrant (kept stock cable) and adjusted it myself. problem solved

 

[BurningRubber]

Mine feels pretty loose too. Get a few nice clunks every once and a while.

 

[steveb24]

Mine feels pretty loose too. Get a few nice clunks every once and a while.

just wait till u get cams

 

[BMan5150]

Yup - tons of slack /click/clack in my driveline too. It got better when I swapped the 3.27s for the 4.10s. I had the shop set the gears up with super-low backlash and it at least reduced the slack so it's much easier to drive. But it still has quite a bit of slack for my taste.

I'm pretty sure the slack that's left in my car is from the tranny. Not sure how/why but that's what it feels like. Aluminum ds helped only a tad - really just made it easier to slip into the next gear when I'm not romping on the car.

 

[40oz]

you probably need a new clutch. Also, there is always some "slop" with a manual transmission, especially in RWD. The gears need a certain amount of room to slip past each other, and everything along the way to the rear wheels has clearances that can add up to noticeable slack.

It is very easy to drive in a manner to make the slack noticeable - letting off and hammering it so all the slack is taken up with a bang. However, this is similar to hitting everything with a hammer - it will only make it worse. If you bought the car used, and the previous owner was an idiot, you could be assuming ownership of an abused car. If you yourself can't learn to drive smoothly, I don't foresee good things for your car ownership future, whether it be a Mustang or whatever down the road.

I can drive my car to make anyone think it is a total POS, or in a manner that it feels like a tight, well-made piece of equipment that lives to be run hard. I much prefer the latter. The nice thing is the car will last longer that way as well.

 

[BennyBlown2v]

you probably need a new clutch. Also, there is always some "slop" with a manual transmission, especially in RWD. The gears need a certain amount of room to slip past each other, and everything along the way to the rear wheels has clearances that can add up to noticeable slack.

It is very easy to drive in a manner to make the slack noticeable - letting off and hammering it so all the slack is taken up with a bang. However, this is similar to hitting everything with a hammer - it will only make it worse. If you bought the car used, and the previous owner was an idiot, you could be assuming ownership of an abused car. If you yourself can't learn to drive smoothly, I don't foresee good things for your car ownership future, whether it be a Mustang or whatever down the road.

I can drive my car to make anyone think it is a total POS, or in a manner that it feels like a tight, well-made piece of equipment that lives to be run hard. I much prefer the latter. The nice thing is the car will last longer that way as well.

Wow, coming off lil like a prick there buddy.

I do agree on the whole slack thing though...except for the whole slack being good thing. Clunks and clacks are NOT normal parts of alot of all RWD cars - and plenty of FWD and RWD transaxle cars have clunks too.

 

[BlackenedSVT]

I think its just your car. I love the way my car feels. Hell i like it better than all the beamers that I drive around everyday I only have the stock clutch still with 57k miles on it, but i love the MGW

 

[40oz]

Wow, coming off lil like a prick there buddy.

I do agree on the whole slack thing though...except for the whole slack being good thing. Clunks and clacks are NOT normal parts of alot of all RWD cars - and plenty of FWD and RWD transaxle cars have clunks too.

I wasn't trying ot be a prick, but when someone starts off bitching about the car THEY bought feeling like a POS, you'd be a fool not to blame THEM rather than the car.

And I never said excessive drivetrain slack was a good thing, just that there needs to be a certain amount of clearance all along the line, and those clearances add up.

Everyone starts out with a limited amount of knowledge. It takes years to learn what are "good things" to do, and what isn't. Sharing experience to speed up this process benefits everyone. A lot of people can't drive my car smoothly. I drive it every day, and have learned that being smooth and minimizing clunks and clanks is a "good thing." You can abuse ANY car simply by driving like a moron. ANY car can feel like a POS if you expect it to, and treat it as such.

A buddy has a BMW 3 series. He hardly ever goes full throttle, "because it is hard on it." he thinks my car is a bit rough, and is always finding some stupid crap and telling me to take it to the dealer for it. For example, he stuck his tiny head up under the passenger side dash, saw that there wasn't a plastic panel covering everything, and told me I bought a wreck and should take it in to have it checked out I guess he was expecting to find sheetrock and wallpaper under there or something!?! To be fair, he has taken his BMW to the dealer for one (real) issue or another every other month it seems, so in his very limited experience, all cars are missing something or always falling apart.

IMHO, you will always find what you expect to find. Seems foolish to buy a car then spend your time trying to find problems with it.

 

[ADRENLN]

i can avoid these things as i have owned the car for almost 5 years. the thing is you or i should have to try so hard to avoid the clanks and slack in the drive train.

it is really only noticeable in the lower rmp shifts when driving the car normally. when getting on it everything hooks up just fine.

you can stick up for you car all you want but the fact is that ford made plenty of errors with these cars. from the grinding trannys, to the cracked intakes, to the spark plugs blowing out of the heads. your right its probably just the drivers falt.

i take it you havent owned the car too long......well see how you do. : )

over all i love my car my friend, just trying to work out the kinks and turn them into perfection!

 

[merc123]

Shoulda bought an LS1 J/k. Yeap, lots of slack in mine too.

 

[40oz]

i can avoid these things as i have owned the car for almost 5 years. the thing is you or i should have to try so hard to avoid the clanks and slack in the drive train.

it is really only noticeable in the lower rmp shifts when driving the car normally. when getting on it everything hooks up just fine.

you can stick up for you car all you want but the fact is that ford made plenty of errors with these cars. from the grinding trannys, to the cracked intakes, to the spark plugs blowing out of the heads. your right its probably just the drivers falt.

i take it you havent owned the car too long......well see how you do. : )

over all i love my car my friend, just trying to work out the kinks and turn them into perfection!

I'm on my 3rd, my second was a 99, now I have an 03. Like I said, I wasn't trying to be a jerk (comes naturally lol), I was just thinking your original post was like something I'd expect to hear form someone who just got the car, and hadn't much experience with cars or trucks with stout drivetrains in general. Sure, my old Celica didn't "clank," but there was plenty of slop, and the only reason it didn't clank was because nothing on it was sturdy enough to "clank" rather than "ding."

You can feel the slop in almost any car if you drive it "right." I guess I just think a person will notice all kinds of things that would not be apparent to someone riding or only driving it once or twice. The slack in the drivetrain is normal. It exists on all cars, regardless of make. The degree of slop is a function of wear and factory tolerances. Obviously, regardless of what you and I think of factory tolerances, the cars last and take a beating over and over and over. Given that, I tend not to look at every little thing and see it as a huge flaw, but rather as "the cost of doing business."

Don't you think there are people out there slagging on their Ferrari for some perceived failing, making snide comments about the people who assembled it? And don't you think those people don't know what they have?

 

[ADRENLN]

no problem, i hear ya....just looking for a way to maybe inprove it a bit. i think a clutch with adjuster is the way to go for me. the slack has always been there but the clutch is way out of wack compaired to the way it used to be.

partly my falt because of the way i have to back it into my long ass drive way i guess. i have to be on the clutch all the time while baching in and out.

 

[squares98]

these drivetrains are sloppier than a post pregnancy vagina. almost makes you wanna dance.