End of the Season and Possibily My Car.

[silvercoffin]

Except for the few people at etown who know how my car used to run and how I can drive (not that im that good...but i can shift the car) I had nothing but trouble at JDM Customer Appreciation Day. I thought i had my problems figured out. My clutch cable was loosenign on its own every run...so i thought the cable was the problem. I changed the cable and put in in thefiore adjuster. Still I couldnt get into 3rd and 4th gear is hard to find... Its still easier to go into 2nd.. I think all the gears are sloppy and hard to get into but 2nd you rip it into so i just dont notice any toruble with 2nd. On the street 2nd gear is bad under normal driving conditions. I have to granny shift it at the track or I wont get it into gear.

I really dont know what to do now.. I spent over 3 grand this summer on two new clutches and a new RPM TRansmission. I ended up trying two RPM TRannys because the first one they sent clicked...but shifted ok..
I might think my problems are tranny related except for the fact that I had the same problems with my stock tranny and both RPM transmissions.

Yesterday I installed a new cable and the fiore adjuster and that didnt help.

The guys from JDM looked at my clutch fork and said it seems fine.

Next season if I dont just sell the car first, i guess ill try another flywheel and another clutch...maybe something other than spec and see if that helps. I guess Ill go to JDM and pay $90 an hour to have them install it.
I just hate to spend even more money.

I was going to ask the jdm guys to drive my car yesterday...but whats the point...they might get lucky and it might shift or they might just think they missed a shift.. i know something is wrong but what else could I possibly do?

AS FAR AS RPMTRANSMISSIONS goes.. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND RPM TRANSMISSIONS to anyone. They sent me out a tranny with a clicking sound and you could see chips in the speedo gears. They wanted me to send that one back along with my core but I said no because I wanted to keep my stock trans as reimbursment for the extra labor i had to pay in installs. I sent back the broken rpm trans and they never contacted me. I called them about my shifting troubles and they never returned my call.

The rpm transmission I have now used to make weird clicking sounds as you push it into 3rd. That went away and now it makes the same clicking sound just as you start to push it into 4th. It might be enough to keep someone from buying the car..

SO I'M PRETTY MUCH TOTALLY SCREWED. i spent over $3000 in parts and labor and the car still cant make it down the 1/4 mile..

12.0 was my best run yesterday.

I am going to try changing trans fluid and flushing out the tranny real good. But im pretty sure fluid isnt the problem. I tried that with tranny #1

 

[mgmustang1]

Hey jason, its mike from the track. Im the one that knows you can drive. I put my clutch in myself and had no problems so far, but as you see the stock half shafts cant hold up. i used 4 qts of pennzoil syncromesh fluid this time around, supposedly the same as gm stuff. just a thought. i dont think its your clutch, or flywheel. i put a spec stage 3 and a fidanza aluminum flywheel. when did you start having these problems, when you changed the clutch cable?

i have a guy that is selling new level 5's for 1000 shipped new, and another guy has level 2's for 400 shipped with 3000 miles. which one would you buy?

 

[Fred Brown]

when all else fails, in the past, If i had a problem i would go back to stock. nobody knows that car better than Ford.Fred

 

[S.V.T.]

when all else fails, in the past, If i had a problem i would go back to stock. nobody knows that car better than Ford.Fred

no offense, but i disagree. most everyone should know the car better than ford, at least in my hometown, because everyone at ford in the techie dept. is young.. every part i've ever ordered has been the wrong part, which is why i've only orderd two parts from them and now go thru steve.
however, i wouldn't take my car to joe machens ford here where i'm from ever.
i do my own work, and usually have the help of a fellow cobra owner or my other friend who works at a chevrolet dealership (but he knows his stuff with fords).

now obviously i'm biased, and i'm sure some dealerships still have techs that worked on svt vehicles and were trained/ certified to do so.

to the OP i feel your pain. i was going through the same thing with shifting/ clutch/ retainer tube issues..
now i didn't spend the kind of money you have, but i think for the most part i have my issues situated.. i have been wanting to sell because after i fix one issue another one comes up. but all in all i love this car. i've owned quite a few nice cars and this car just "does it" for me. instead of selling i'm thinking about parking it in the garage, making the payment, and slowly building.. and yes, driving around a dreaded beater ;-)

any how, with whatever you do, always fully think the reprocussions down the road of the decisions you want to make now..

:beer:

also if you don't buy those level 2 DSS' i'm quite interested!

 

[FromGTtoSVT]

sounds like you are in pretty deep, a third set of fresh eye's probably would be your best bet.

 

[CobraBob]

I am sorry to hear about your issues. I can tell you that I had an occasional issue shifting into 3th and 4th year at high RPMs. I never found out what the issue was. I do know of someone who tried a few tricks (link to that info on my website follows) that fixed his shifting problems. This info may or may not help you. http://stangshiftergaskets.com/2003_2004faqs.htm#_Toc35092464

As far as putting a car back to stock and allow the professionals at Ford handle it, IMO that is not usually a good option. One reason is that a dealer will typically ONLY perform certain diagnostics and make a conclusion based on what their manual says. A good shop, on the other hand, will often look at the problem from different angles to better troubleshoot it. Other dealers are only as good as the people performing the diagnostics. Same applies, of course, to an independent shop. Bottom line. Find the best shop you can find and work with them. Be prepared to spend some money if they have to dig deep to find the problem. IF they even find it. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, the issue remains a mystery. There is absolutely no guarantee that a Ford dealer will find a solution to a problem any faster than an independent shop. Often the independent knows more about the '03/'04 Cobra (through hands on work over time) then the dealer who has only worked on a few Terminators and has to pretty much rely on their manuals. JMO.

 

[silvercoffin]

..

Hey Mike...

I would just go level 2s. Thats all i have and I beated them up bad with my 3+ clutch i had earlier this summer. Bad hop and they held up...both wheel bearing went bad too.

THE BOTTOM LINE ON MY CAR IS SHIFTING IS SLOPPY ON THE STREET AND IMPOSSIBLE AT THE TRACK. CANT FIND 3RD GEAR OR 4TH...ON THE STREET 2ND IS NOTICABLY BAD BUT AT THE TRACK IT GOES IN.... if you want all the details continue reading LOL...

if I start the car up and go without any heat up time 2nd gear bumps like three or four times into gear...not a grind but a real rough like your hitting into something problem.. was like that with three different trannys. Once it heated up for like 10-15 min driving it seems to go away. What is that?


I just dont know really whats going on. Third set of eyes is going to happen. Im taking it to Wicked Motorsports and giving it to them for a week in the spring and ask them to please drive the car. I was going to ask them to put in a good old FMS clutch and flywheel and new fork, but Kevin from their said he refuses to just have me spend more money. he wants to check thigns out first..

AGAIN HERES THE TIMELINE..........
I started having trouble shifting from 3rd to 4th after Crazyhorse installed my 2nd FMS clutch years ago. It was very hard to get into 4th and if I wasnt careful I would shift to 2nd.

I put in a Steeda adjuster and quadrant and that didnt help no matter how I adjusted it.

This summer I started by getting another clutch. I got a Spec 3+ and spec aluminum flywheel. After that I started having more sloppy shifts and 2nd gear was real bad until it runs a little bit. The second I pulled it out of my mechanics shop I noticed 2nd gear was really weird...no grind but a triple bump before getting in gear. I also still had the 3rd to 4th issue at the track. On the street all shifts were randomply sloppy... I wondered if there was something the mechanic could have done wrong..

Then I got the new rpm trans and since it was 26 spline I got a spec 2 clutch and stayed with the same flywheel but a new insert for it. The first rpm trans had a clicking sound all the time. I drove it for a week while they sent out another. The same 2nd gear and general sloppy shifting was there, btu I never took it to the track because i didnt break it or the clutch in..

Then my mechanic put in the second rpm trans with the same clutch set up and nothing changed...the click in the trans is gone...I dont think that was anything but a noise.. All shifting on the street is sloppy..sometimes goes in like butter and sometimes bumps into gear real harsh. 2nd gear same thing until it warms up. At the track with the RPM trans I cant find 3rd gear ever...and the 3rd to 4th problem still exists.. I think its every gear...very difficult to shift fast at high rpms.

My season ended with JDM Day. I put in a new stock cable and t he fiore adjuster just to try something new. The same problems existed. The guys from JDM were kind enough to look at the clutch fork which I thought had too much play , they said it seemed fine...and they adjusted my cable even tighter. That didnt help....

So ill try one more time and take it to someone who knows the car.

 

[99riocobra]

no offense, but i disagree. most everyone should know the car better than ford, at least in my hometown, because everyone at ford in the techie dept. is young.. every part i've ever ordered has been the wrong part, which is why i've only orderd two parts from them and now go thru steve.
however, i wouldn't take my car to joe machens ford here where i'm from ever.
i do my own work, and usually have the help of a fellow cobra owner or my other friend who works at a chevrolet dealership (but he knows his stuff with fords).

now obviously i'm biased, and i'm sure some dealerships still have techs that worked on svt vehicles and were trained/ certified to do so.

i don't think he was meaning take it to a dealer to work on it. i think he was meaning that you can't beat the reliability of a stock part. i have found this to be very true as well.....

 

[ViciousJay]

im still gonna say its the TOB and slave sleeve

 

[jlauth]

no offense, but i disagree. most everyone should know the car better than ford, at least in my hometown, because everyone at ford in the techie dept. is young.. every part i've ever ordered has been the wrong part, which is why i've only orderd two parts from them and now go thru steve.
however, i wouldn't take my car to joe machens ford here where i'm from ever.
i do my own work, and usually have the help of a fellow cobra owner or my other friend who works at a chevrolet dealership (but he knows his stuff with fords).

now obviously i'm biased, and i'm sure some dealerships still have techs that worked on svt vehicles and were trained/ certified to do so.

to the OP i feel your pain. i was going through the same thing with shifting/ clutch/ retainer tube issues..
now i didn't spend the kind of money you have, but i think for the most part i have my issues situated.. i have been wanting to sell because after i fix one issue another one comes up. but all in all i love this car. i've owned quite a few nice cars and this car just "does it" for me. instead of selling i'm thinking about parking it in the garage, making the payment, and slowly building.. and yes, driving around a dreaded beater ;-)

any how, with whatever you do, always fully think the reprocussions down the road of the decisions you want to make now..

:beer:

also if you don't buy those level 2 DSS' i'm quite interested!

S.V.T, I believe that he is talking about the engineers at Ford and other companies that supplied the parts. Not some young techs that cant order your parts properly.

I had all kind of trouble when I switched from stock to an aftermarket cable, firewall adjuster, and three pickup quadrant. If I were you I would try and go back to a stock cable it made all the difference in my car. Not to mention that the stock cable has 100k on it and the cable supplied by UPR only lasted 1K before it snapped.

 

[Fuerza]

Have you ever tried a different shifter?

 

[Corona-Extra]

sorry to hear that man. i was having tranny problems and had six Speeds Inc. rebuild mine. not a problem at all with the tranny, although i think the cluth is getting ready to take a crap on me..

i'd say go AUTO!

good luck to you man..


http://0174de9.netsolstores.com/

 

[Burninout101]

When I had my 01 snake I had a clicking noise from the tranny, eventually rear end vibe slightly at 75mph. Ford replaced the tranny and IRS, still had the noise. There replaced the tranny brace and rechecked the pinion angle and it went away. just a thought...