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Unread 05-03-2019, 01:04 PM   #2311
Rich Z
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For reference, this is the torque tube input shaft currently in the car after the tech polished up the stub that goes into the pilot bearing:




He said he checked and the shaft has zero runout and zero play.

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Unread 05-04-2019, 07:22 PM   #2312
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Well, the apparent manufacturer of this input shaft I bought (AMP Distributing) says in a post in a thread I posted elsewhere about this:

Quote:
The sleeve pressed on is a case hardened bearing material and designed to work with a pilot bearing.
I didn't realize that I was looking at a sleeve pressed onto the stub end of the input shaft. But the guy says this will be fine. Still, I wish it had been polished somewhat smoother than my closeup pics are showing. Holding the input shaft in hand, it does look just fine, so maybe I am just looking at it far too closely to where what I am seeing just doesn't matter. I measured the stub, and it comes to 0.590", which from what I have been told, is GM spec for the diameter of that end that goes into the pilot bearing.

But I still haven't heard why it looks like the area in front of the splines appears to have been hand filed, instead of machined. But does it matter? Maybe I am just expecting perfection in an imperfect world.

Something tells me that if I used that same camera to take pics of the stub on that input shaft that came out of my car, I would likely have a heart attack, even after the tech polished it up.
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Unread 05-08-2019, 11:02 AM   #2313
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Well, sort of a "smoking gun", I guess. The material around the pilot bushing was checked, and it is magnetic, as is the pilot bushing itself. When I had the drivetrain work done at the local Chevy dealership here, I specifically requested that a pilot bushing be installed instead of a pilot bearing. And that the bushing be non magnetic (non-ferrous). I said this to the tech directly. Obviously that last part was ignored.



I suppose I understand now why when I contacted Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet, where that particular tech is now the shop foreman, why they never got back to me about bringing my car back into their shop to diagnose a drivetrain noise.

Everything I read concerning using a pilot bushing strongly recommended against using a pilot bushing made out of sintered steel instead of pure sintered brass. I guess now I know why.
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Unread 05-12-2019, 03:15 PM   #2314
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Well, the new clutch from Monster is scheduled to be delivered sometime on Tuesday. So from time of order (10:00am 04-25) to actual scheduled delivery (05-14) we are talking about 19 days. Honestly, had I known the delay would have been this long, I think I would have looked harder for another brand/model that was on the shelf and ready for immediate shipping. Maybe I'll feel differently about it when it is installed and hopefully will be tickled pink about how it performs, but historically, my surprises concerning this car and the problems I have faced over the years have not been pleasant ones. So I'm not holding my breath thinking the excessive wait will prove to have been worthwhile.

So we will see how this turns out.
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Unread 05-13-2019, 04:13 PM   #2315
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So the machine marks on the stub of that input shaft have been bugging me ever since I received it. I talked with a representative of the company who actually made it and expressed my concerns, but he said it will be perfectly fine "as is". So I asked him if I could polish it up a bit, or would that negatively impact anything by doing so. He said it likely wouldn't have any impact either way, and if it would make me feel better, and I didn't get carried away with it, to go ahead.

So I did....

Chucked it up in my little lathe and then used increasingly finer grit polishing paper (from 1500 grit to 3000 grit) and then applied some Simi-Chrome.








BEFORE:



AFTER:


I wasn't inclined to take off too much metal to try to get all the machine marks out, just enough to make any riding surfaces of the shaft on the pilot bearing smooth and silky. As frictionless as practical. Shaft nub feels smooth as butter now.
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Unread 05-14-2019, 07:10 PM   #2316
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Well, this is *special*.

The clutch shows up via UPS around 10:30 am. Was planning on running it right out to the shop, but I have been recovering from a pretty bad migraine headache and decided to hold off for a day. So early afternoon, UPS shows up again, bringing another box from Monster Clutch. Which, btw, I knew nothing about ahead of time. Well, turns out that apparently they didn't have the slave cylinder ready when they shipped out the clutch, so they sent the slave separately afterwards but over nighted it. Swell, I thought.

Anyway, here is what I bought.



https://www.tickperformance.com/mons...city-1150rwtq/

Note the image of the slave cylinder/throwout bearing in the above pic? In the advertising text in the link above, it plainly states that the shown slave cylinder is for the 1997-04 C5 Corvette. Which I certainly bought this for.

Well when I opened up the box I got, here is what I found inside.










OK, so maybe this is one of my dumb days brought on by that migraine headache, but darn if I can figure out how this slave cylinder they sent me is supposed to be installed. The stock unit needs to be bolted onto the engine side of the torque tube, with the input shaft running through it. So unless I have to JB Weld this thing to the torque tube, darn if I can figure it out.

Bad enough that had Connie and I just grabbed that clutch box and ran it out to the shop without opening it, there wouldn't have been ANY slave cylinder in it, unbeknownst to me. But heck, I'm not sure this is any better, except it saved us a wasted trip, of course. But I sure don't have a clutch that can be installed right now.
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Unread 05-16-2019, 08:53 PM   #2317
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Well, here is the scoop. Evidently when the clutch was sent out to me, AND when the slave cylinder was also sent out to me, Monster neglected to include a bracket needed to mount the slave cylinder to the front of the torque tube. So they overnighted it to me, and I got it this morning. NOW things are making sense to me.









At first I was concerned about there not being a spring included in this kit, as is found in the stock slave cylinder, but I was told it is not needed in this design. When I fit the two pieces together, it's a really tight fit, so I don't think any spring is needed. Matter of fact, with this design, the throwout bearing won't be constantly pressed up against the clutch pressure plate fingers as a spring operated one would be. So perhaps less wear and tear on that bearing, hopefully.

So anyway, I had everything I think I needed, and Connie and I ran the stuff to the shop so they could work on in whenever they could. With any luck, I'll have the can back in a week or two. AND hopefully the awful drivetrain noise will be gone.
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Unread 05-16-2019, 08:59 PM   #2318
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Speaking of drivetrain noise, I'm pretty much convinced that the pilot bushing is the smoking gun here.












I was able to bring that old pilot bushing home with me, and the pictures are showing some pretty awful gouging on the interior surface of the bushing. And that bushing is definitely magnetic, so that sintered steel bushing rubbing against the stub of the input shaft to the torque tube obviously were making some music together. Had the bushing been pure brass as I had requested, then I likely wouldn't have even heard anything.

Still not sure what exactly CAUSED the gouging, though, but it looks like the tech who installed this stuff back in 2012 wasn't all that gentle about it. But was that the real root of the problems I had after that repair?
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Unread 05-19-2019, 11:29 AM   #2319
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Something else that the tech found of interest. I've had a small oil leak at the rear of the engine on the driver's side for quite a while now. Not bad enough to actually look into where it was coming from. Well apparently the valve cover gasket on that side had a section of it just missing. Not just a crack or a split, just a section of about a half inch just gone.






I'm not sure when that happened. Those valve covers were originally put on by Aaron Scott. I'm not sure the tech at Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet remover the valve covers or not when he worked on the drivetrain. Seems unlikely that the section of gasket just fell off recently, but who knows?

Since this is an aftermarket valve cover set, and I don't know who made it, I'm having trouble finding replacement gaskets for them. So perhaps whoever caused that or even noticed it later on, had the same problem and decided to just ignore the problem and put it back together again anyway. I would have thought that someone could have at least permatexed the gap.
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Unread 05-19-2019, 11:51 AM   #2320
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Wonder if it shrunk because of the heat? Is the other one off too? What's that one look like? Lotsa possibilities for blame given the number of people that have their grubby little mitts inside the engine compartment. Unless someone owns up to doing it, you"ll never know. Good find by this tech nonetheless! I would hope that the gaskets used on the rocker arm covers would mostly be standardized, but apparently not. Good luck finding replacements. Hope you don't have to buy new covers to get the problem solved........
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