1970 duster Kinda pro-touring, somewhat lo budget build

Hoists are good things.  Just keep telling yourself that if you paid a pro to fix this, the labour would have paid for the hoist.

Pretty sure that’s not his garage, workbench area way too clean 

That's dad's shack......I think

No one else is wondering why his lunch is so long?

Stampie said:

No one else is wondering why his lunch is so long?

Gubmint work

I went back to work after lunch. 

Interesting failures.

Disc is bent pressure plate damaged. Pilot bearing was wedged inbetween the disc and flywheel. Gnawed up the bolts. Cut the inside of the pressure plate. 

And yes, dads place. He has a lift. And air conditioning. 

Dusterbd13 said:

I went back to work after lunch. 

 

Interesting failures.

Is this some sort of a sleeve around the input shaft?

Kinda. Its a cast sleeve that attaches to the round dome chaped part bolted to the front of the trans. Its what the throwout bearing rides on. When its attached. 

Is there an improved piece for this (ie more stout)?

Isn't this a TKO?

I -want- to row gears in my (soon to be boosted 6.0L) '61 Apache, but I'm hearing of too many TKO failures.  I think I'm going to be happier with the 4L80E I recently picked up....

This is actually a Tremec 3550. I bought it used from a buddy of mine that bought an X nitrous fed fox body Mustang drag car. So this transmission should not be indicative of what a later version that hasn't been abused should be. As far as upgraded Parts I'm going to be talking to Modern Driveline Monday morning about that. The Tremec 3550 is what turned into the TKO 500.

When I was looking at a stick for my '61, I debated a relatively stock engine on an NV3500, but the 3500 isn't said to be all -that- strong, and the later one was never behind anything bigger than a 4.8L. I found a bit of discussion that you really want to get a 3550, as they are stronger - I wonder if it's the same box as yours at that point.

Ive had a fer of the nv trannys. They're a truck trans with gear spacing and shift quality of a truck trans.  

Don't confuse the nv3550 with a tr3550.

My experience its comparing apples to vynil siding. 

Ah.  Ok.  It's been a long time since I've sided with apples.

It was the first thing that popped in my mind.

The tremec 3550 was the predecessor to the tko500, the 3650 to tko600 if ive read things right. 

When i bought this trans, ee both thought it was a tko500. Wasn't until modern driveline educated me that i found out what i really bought. 

And this wasn't a trans failure in my mind. The bearing retainer did fail, but i think the preceding failures are qhat broke it.

425rwhp, 400rwtq, 4k lbs, 200tw tires. And an adrenalin fueld gorilla driving. Something had to break.

Yeah, I guess, eh?!

"If you don't break traction, you're gonna break something else."

You are probably up on this already, but on the off chance that it is helpful:

Those explosion-proof bellhousings need to be centered with a dial indicator. They are not as bang on as a factory bellhousing (not an option in this case, I know). Being off center could have caused the damage to pilot bearing and cast transmission snout, and all the subsequent damage. 

You can rebuild it. Better, Stronger, faster.

Ill need to double check it, but i think we did that when this bellhousing met this engine at the machine shop. 

So dad and i are stumped.  

The failure was clutch would not disengage. Pedal to floor with no release no matter what i did.

But we cant figure out WHY. theres no smoking gun. Everything i can think of is lunatic fringe stuff. 

But it happened. Which means something failed. Which means i need to figure it out to prevent mangling another $400 clutch. 

Im open to suggestions here.

Dusterbd13 said:

 

Is the clutch disc like this the way you found it when you pulled the trans, or did you loosen the pressure plate and it came loose like this?

Reason I ask, is if the nose of the trans broke, allowing the input shaft to move, making the clutch jam into the pressure plate such that the plate wouldn't let go.

Wait.  Where is your input shaft pilot bushing?

Thats what i saw when i got the trans down. Im not certain that stuff didn't move areound on removal though.

What you see through the splined section of the disc IS the pilot bearing. Somehow it got pulled from the rear of the crank, and when the trans came out dropped and wedged between the disc and flywheel. Thre is no way for it to have dropped like that with the trans in place. We measured to make sure.