I am in the process of building my car, I bought a brand new KY stage 3 and got the TOB included. I swapped everything over and went to bleed the clutch and the TOB leaked fluid all over the back side of my bell-housing. I had to yank the trans out the side wall since the engine was all wired up and ready to go. It had a green seal on the TOB (didn't have a choice on what i got).
I was wondering if we could get a listing of who all has had bad TOBs and how many you have gone through before finding a good one and where you got the good one from. I heard one guy went through 3 in one month.
List
1) Engine/Trans:
2) Clutch:
3) Number of bad TOBs gone through:
4) What color was the seal on the one that worked:
5) Where you got the good one:
6) Was the new replaced under warranty for labor and parts:


I will start
1) LNF/F35
2) KY stage 3
3) 1 (waiting on second one in the mail as I make this thread)
4) Last good one was the stock TOB
5) N/A
6) Got the one in the mail shipped for free since the one i got with the clutch was bad

 

Green = LSJ. They rarely go bad, actually I haven't even heard of a bad one on here.

You sure you didn't have two o-rings on the clutch pipe on top of the trans?

 

Nope positive, I put my finger over the hole and pressed on it and pshhhh all over my hands out the back side of it.

 

Usually if they blow out the rear seal they weren't seating on the trans housing properly. I had that issue when trying to fabricate my own type of spacer to work with an aftermarket clutch, turned out to not work unless you duplicate the entire thrust surface behind the bearing. I'd chalk repeated slave failures to installer error.

I've changed a lot of them out when I did clutches and have never had an issue with the replacement ones, always new from GM but they have been LSJ and LNF and have gone on stock, GMPP, Exedy stage 3, all kinds of clutches with no failures after installation.

 

Well then what's the proper way to seat them then? So I know for the next one and if I do anything different and get a different outcome I can say "this is what I did differently the first tine and it failed because of it."

 

I'm not sure, i've never had one fail so I can't say that there is any specific problem you are having. It is possible you just got a bad part, it does happen and has been noted before with this particular bearing, although lately they seem to be pretty soild. Other than normal being clean and proper torque and stuff, there shouldn't be any special action required to set it up.

 

I mean I torqued it down correctly. Between my fingers is where it leaks. Its not a slight leak its a pour when it has liquid in it. I didn't seat it off a little it was in correctly. I am hoping I don't have the same issue with the next when it gets here.

 

It's very possible it's just a bad part, it does happen. I'm sure you'll have better luck the next time. The nice part is the trans removal goes MUCH quicker after the first time

 

Not this second time for me. Tried to do the trans out the side of the car without removing the engine... big mistake.
The trans is now sitting on the drivers side the cradle is sitting on the passenger side and the engine is sitting on a roller cart under the car because I can't remove the fuel line.

 

The trans comes out pretty easy without removing the engine normally. Just lower the engine down enough to where the trans slides out under the frame rail.

 

Yeah it came out easy, it was getting it back in that was the problem.

 

I find, the best way is to get it almost in position, then lay under the car and push it up by hand the rest of the way. Only way i've ever been able to get them in there.

 

I finally dropped the engine out and just spun the shaft little by little while eyeing it up through that plastic tear away hole...
But I give up... I give up... this is the second TOB I have put in and its just pouring out the bottom of the trams again.

I installed it hooked everything back up again, vacuum bled the clutch and started pumping it pressurized up and was working. I could feel the clutch engaging and everything was great, I topped off the fluid tank and put the little rubber nipple back on the slave and went back in to give her a few more pumps to make sure and the 2nd and 3rd pump it went soft and squished. I looked under the car and it was leaking back out the bottom of the trans again.

I think I may just take it to a mechanic to replace this time i dont think I can go through another engine drop in 2 weeks.

 

Are you 100% sure the seal on the clutch pipe going out the top is good? Did you replace it? I always change them, as I have had my fair share of issues with them not sealing. I used to keep a new one in the garage anyway just in case

 

I can stick my finger inside the trans through that peep hole and I can feel around the top of the TOB its bone dry, going back up through the side of the trans all dry, all around the slave and that nipple you guessed it dry. the fluid is coming out between the trans and bottom of the block with each push of the clutch.

Its gotta be coming out the back of the TOB AGAIN thats the only place it could be leaking that would let the fluid run out the inside of the trans.

I don't have 5-600 bucks to pay a mechanic to take the whole thing out again and install one professionally. To be honest its not all that hard to do its just so damn time consuming and since I can only work on it in the evenings it has taken me all week to drop the trans change it and put it back in.

This one seriously had me going for a minute, it pressurized and felt solid I was so excited that it was working then squish and my heart sank and I about punched the dash to bits.

 

2 bad TOB's is highly unlikely, I'd replace the clutch pipe, it could very well be not sealing when threaded into the TOB, making it appear that the actual TOB is leaking.

 

Well the first TOB I put in when I pulled it out I pressurized the pipe hole with my finger and pushed on it and it started oozing fluids out the back seal of it (Scroll up to see pic of where it was leaking). I stuck my finger all around the clutch pipe on this second one through that hole in the side of the trans and nothing was wet. there was no fluid around the pipe or the banjo so its coming out some where else.

 

This is what we recommened to him. 2 TOB something else is causing the issue, not the TOB itself.

 

Called KY talked to chris he chatted with another guy there trying to think what it was. They thought it was odd too since the second one was the stronger TOB without the green boot. They wondered if it was the pressure plate or slave, so they are sending me a new TOB, Slave with new pipe, and pressure plate to replace to see if that fixes the problem.

the system has been flushed a couple times now and the brake lines emptied so its had clean fluid going through the system each time I replace something.

 

Not the p-plate, the slave is what you are replacing

Seriously, get a new TOB and new clutch pipe. It's a $10 part, you are going to have to drop the trans again anyway, change it when it's out, make sure the dist block is 100% medically clean inside. More often than not it's a sealing issue somewhere else, odds of two TOB's back to back blowing out the rear seal is just very low, especially if one was the newer LNF design. Make 100% sure there is nothing under it and the bolts are holding it down flat. That's the only thing I could think would cause it to be blowing out like that over and over again.

 

how many times has your flywheel been resurfaced? on my second resurfacing, there was too much material gone and it blew out a throw out bearing on the re-installation when bleeding the clutch

 

it hasn't been, as far as i know. 3rd owner and I didn't resurface it when I swapped clutches this time because it was good looking.

There were no grooves no non wear spots it was evenly used with the last clutch so I just sanded it with some sandpaper and stuck it back in.

I know you are supposed to get them resurfaced everytime you change the clutch but it seriously had nothing wrong with it so I didn't think it needed it.

 

Ok I made a Youtube video to prove that they are blowing out the back and aren't leaking around the inlet tube like everyone keeps telling me is leaking. I know for a fact its not because both TOB are leaking in this exact same place. This second one actually built up pressure then blew out the first one just started leaking from the start. Skip to 45 sec to see it really come out. I am waiting to install the 3rd one till I hear back from KY.

 

Tip from Chris at KY clutch: When installing a new TOB, pump very slowly once you have vacuumed the line when you close the nipple bolt.

He told me that these TOB need time to return air/fluid from the TOB after pressing the pedal. So what he told me was press the pedal to the floor, let up (or pull back if not enough pressure to return it) then wait a minute then press again then wait. After about 5-6 of these cycles let it sit a little longer, then cycle it a few more times and you should good to go.

You can't sit there and pump and pump and pump quickly because the air gets trapped in there and it builds odd pressure and is more likely to blow it out.

Edit: Also thanks a ton from Aaron at TTR and Chris at KY for helping me through this whole process.

 

Thanks for sharing the help!