Just got King Cobra Clutch Installed, Few ?

[hotmustang331]

Its pretty hard to screw up if you have all new parts....it only goes in 1 way and just tighten everything down evenly a little at a time on the pressureplate to compress it...easy as pie .

 

[stangGT97]

Its pretty hard to screw up if you have all new parts....it only goes in 1 way and just tighten everything down evenly a little at a time on the pressureplate to compress it...easy as pie .

well people still find a way to mess up!

 

[HoustonGT]

Its pretty hard to screw up if you have all new parts....it only goes in 1 way and just tighten everything down evenly a little at a time on the pressureplate to compress it...easy as pie .

Well the guys at Houston Performance did a good job on the install but still managed to piss me off. While taking off my x-pipe, the guy broke off one of the studs on the exhuast manifold and its left in the manifold with none of it left sticking out. They called me over and said "well, whoever installed this cross-threaded it, so its not our fault, blah blah blah". We can fix it but we'll have to remove the exhaust manifold on that side and it won't be cheap. They tried drilling it out and messed that up too. I was pretty pissed that they tried to throw the blame on someone else and didn't want to fix it for free. I think i'll go to another shop next time even though the install was pretty smooth.

OT Mike Since only one bolt is holding the x-pipe on instead of 2 on the drivers side, i have a massive exhaust leak. I have MIL Eliminators, but the SES light came on right after about 50 miles anyways. Will a big enough exhaust leak cause the car to run rich enough to throw the code again even though the MIL's are in there? The car also isn't running as well and again i believe its the exhaust leak.
Is it possible for an exhaust shop to get the remainder of that stud out of there or will i have to spend a crapload of money on having the whole manifold removed on that side to get it out? If so, itll be a great exhaust to get a set of Longtubes From one Mike to another, Thanks in Advance

 

[HoustonGT]

BUMP

 

[Pennywise2]

mine don't chatter at all. never chattered once..

But I installed it myself so I know it was done right, everything was tourqed by tourqe wrench in the right sequence and I used a new flywheel..

I have seen many guys impact gun the flywheel and presure plate onto a poorly resurfaced flywheel, then the customer blames the clutch for the chatter

Your right Mike it's all in the install really.You should always install a
brand new flywheel or resurfaced flywheel when installing a new clutch.
The KC clutch is a good clutch for the money though if you don't plan on
making big power.I have heard great reviews on the Centerforce DF clutch.

 

[Mike97gt]

Its pretty hard to screw up if you have all new parts....it only goes in 1 way and just tighten everything down evenly a little at a time on the pressureplate to compress it...easy as pie .

Well many manage to mess it up.. the impact gun should stay in the tool box while putting the flywheel and presure plate on..

How many techs do you think spend the time to evenly tighten down the bolts?? how many tourqe the bolts to spec..

Your right Mike it's all in the installed really.You should always install a
brand new flywheel or resurfaced flywheel when installing a new clutch.
The KC clutch is a good clutch for the money though if you don't plan on
making big power.I have heard great reviews on the Centerforce DF clutch.

Old parts should not be reused, it's just silly to spend the time to drop the tranny only have to drop it again because of a poor flywheel resurface job.. Personally I refuse to reuse parts, if you don't want to pay for it then you are signing a wavier that you will pay for the labor to drop the tranny again if there is any problems. If a customer of mine is not ok with this I do not do the work.

This is the way I do it in my own car, everytime I do my clutch it gets a new flywheel, pilot bearing, TOB, pivot ball, clutch fork.. the next clutch it will get a new front bearing retainer.

 

[hotmustang331]

I was reading some posts on SVTP and old threads on here. It really looks like EVERY high performance clutch has both good and bad reviews.

Some people with 500RWHP destroy the DF clutch....others with 600RWHP and it works fine.

Alot of people with the new DFX centerforce clutch demolish them with 600+RWHP, and even multible times before they switch.
Others send 650RWHP through them with no problems.

Havnt seen any "failures" reguarding the spec clutches...but alot of people HATE them durring break in. Most who keep the clutch end up loving it...but some still have too much chatter for their licking. Others have 0 chattering after the breakin...others got 0 chatter from the get go if they arent riding the clutch.

IMHO its hit or miss with EVERY clutch..I think alot has to do with peoples personal tollerance LVs, and how they break them in.

 

[hotmustang331]

Well many manage to mess it up.. the impact gun should stay in the tool box while putting the flywheel and presure plate on..

How many techs do you think spend the time to evenly tighten down the bolts?? how many tourqe the bolts to spec..

I WOULD HOPE ALL OF THEM WOULD! Man if a "tech" wouldnt even do that, hes not worth having IMO. He wouldnt work for me thats for sure.

But we all know that you ALWAYS treat every car likes its your own, and would never do that, right Mike?

 

[Mike97gt]

I WOULD HOPE ALL OF THEM WOULD! Man if a "tech" wouldnt even do that, hes not worth having IMO. He wouldnt work for me thats for sure.

But we all know that you ALWAYS treat every car likes its your own, and would never do that, right Mike?

LOL you think ALL techs tourqe stuff like that right.. LOL maybe 1-100 do.. many guys use a impact gun on headbolts or pick there own specs because TTY is a pain in the ass.

I will not take one of my cars on long trips because I would rather junk it than let somebody other than me work on it. So I rent cars for trips longer than 100 miles from my house. There are a few techs out there that I have known for years and trust, maybe if I was hurt and could not work on it myself I might consider letting one of them work on my car.. but most likely I would trade it in rather than let somebody else work on it.

You would be shocked at some of the stuff I see go on.. take the two guys that work next to me for example..

One of them says he is great at fixing A/C systems.. you want to know how he fixes them.. evey car needs a compressor, condensor,evap core and all the lines.. and the manager thinks he is great because none of them come back.. DUH he replaced the entire system when all it probally needed was a o-ring.. AHH who cares it's only 3000+ dollars of the customers money..

Or the other guy next to me who diaged a 02 explorer as having a bad rear end, well he orders this 2,700 dollar rear end ( including install) He is out the day it comes in and they give me the job to do, as soon as I drive it I hear the wheel bearing is the problem and I put it on the lift and show the assistant manager ( service mgr was on vacation) that the rear end was not the problem. I refused to install the rear end and fixed the wheel bearing, this fixed the truck and it was fine, but they had another tech put that rear end in that day because it was 2,700 and they did not want to send it back... That poor customer got ripped off 2,700 bucks


I could go on for hours..

alignments that don't ever get put on the alignment rack, parts not getting installed.. a lot of techs upsell the fuel injection flushes and just dump the chemicals in the oil bucket.. thats 99 bucks down the drain, or how about the 200 dollar trans services that never get done..


I could go on and on and on.. It's not just dealers, the private shops are just as bad if not worse.

The sad thing is the hacks and butchers get rewarded with the good work because they " make money" for the company while us few decent techs get all the hard work and have a hard time making 40 hours a week.

 

[hotmustang331]

Yea thats true...alot of corrupt people I guess. Your a rare breed Mike...you definatly know your stuff and do it right.

I think I said this before, but we put 3.73s in my dads 00 V6 (M5) and went down to a big dealer in Austin.

I asked the "MASTER TECH" if they could reflash the computer to make it think it had 3.73s (for the speedo). So he procedes to tell me "oh, you just need to buy a different speedometer gear for the transmission, and that should fix it" .
I almost started laughing, and told him "Dude, the 98 and earlier had speedometer gears on the transmission....in 1999 they switched to an electronic speedometer setup....they dont have speedometer gears."
Then the guy is like "Oh, ok...well I still dont think we could do it. The computer only accepts a certain amount of change and the only way we can find out is if we try it. If it works then it works, if it doesnt then your out $100. No way to find out until then"

We just said forget it lol.

 

[Mike97gt]

Yea thats true...alot of corrupt people I guess. Your a rare breed Mike...you definatly know your stuff and do it right.

I think I said this before, but we put 3.73s in my dads 00 V6 (M5) and went down to a big dealer in Austin.

I asked the "MASTER TECH" if they could reflash the computer to make it think it had 3.73s (for the speedo). So he procedes to tell me "oh, you just need to buy a different speedometer gear for the transmission, and that should fix it" .
I almost started laughing, and told him "Dude, the 98 and earlier had speedometer gears on the transmission....in 1999 they switched to an electronic speedometer setup....they dont have speedometer gears."
Then the guy is like "Oh, ok...well I still dont think we could do it. The computer only accepts a certain amount of change and the only way we can find out is if we try it. If it works then it works, if it doesnt then your out $100. No way to find out until then"

We just said forget it lol.

Thanks Well soon I will be out of the dealers and in my own mustang shop if everything goes right.

I am not surprised about this "master tech" most of the guys I work with know very little about mustangs.

 

[hotmustang331]

PM me about this if you would (so we dont OT this thread LOL) . Im curious as to the details and may can buy stuff I may need from you, to help you out, if your going to sell parts.

 

[HoustonGT]

PM me about this if you would (so we dont OT this thread LOL) . Im curious as to the details and may can buy stuff I may need from you, to help you out, if your going to sell parts.

Damn straight, dont be throwin my thread OT

Meh go ahead, i've already had my questions answered

 

[hotmustang331]

Note to self: Stop by Houston on the way back from G.A. and "punish" HoustonGT at HRP ....

 

[HoustonGT]

Note to self: Stop by Houston on the way back from G.A. and "punish" HoustonGT at HRP ....

Better bring your A game buddy, this puppy's trappin triple digits