TOB Went out, time for an upgrade

[Bigggy]

Hey guys, I bought a High mileage Cobra this spring and at about the middle of the summer a strange noise like a issing, but very soft started. Well couple weeks later, I was arriving at a stop sign, pressed the clutch and it felt crunchy and the TOB started to pig squeal as hell. Towed the car back home and started shopping. Car had 102k Miles and I'm pretty sure it was the stock clutch.

Final shopping list was:

Exedy Stage 3 clutch (622ft/lbs)
Spec Alu FW
FRPP TOB
FRPP Pilot Breaing
FRPP Pressure plate bolts
ARP bolts for the FW
McLeod TOB retainer sleeve

Did the install last week and just take a look at the TOB after the removal, it was stuck on the sleeve, had to hammer-it out :bash:

Installation wasn't to hard, GF helped a bit when I put the tranny back in (was working on a lift). It took me about 13 hours, swaping everything, installing the new Steeda cable, MM quadrant and SR FW adjuster + reinstalling the catback (after a polish). The old clutch was still in good shape but had some small cracks and was down to the rivet.

I'm at 200 miles now and the clutch feels great! Quadrant it freaking quick and the clutch grab pretty hard so it took a while to get used to it. Looking forward 500 miles to get back with the hammering right foot :rockon:

 

[P49Y-CY]

this would have been the perfect time to go 26-spline, but either way congrats :beer:

 

[Bigggy]

this would have been the perfect time to go 26-spline, but either way congrats :beer:

Yeah I know, but I was in a time crunch, not a whole lot of money and starting my vacation. would have been abut 500-600$ more.

The car is putting down 470/480 at the wheels and was running for a while like that and I don't intend to race the car, so 10 spline should be fine.

 

[ctgreddy]

Yeah I know, but I was in a time crunch, not a whole lot of money and starting my vacation. would have been abut 500-600$ more.

The car is putting down 470/480 at the wheels and was running for a while like that and I don't intend to race the car, so 10 spline should be fine.

Wouldn't have been nearly that man, most clutch companies sell 26splines for the same price as 10's, and an input shaft is only $350. If you can install the clutch yourself you could deff do the shaft swap also. But, like you said, at your power level it prolly isn't a necessity yet. It's weird tho you dont see many cobra guys running exedy clutches. How does that clutch feel compared to stock in terms of engagement and pedal stiffness?

 

[Bigggy]

I saw that clutch on American Muscle first and there was only good review for it, from multiple Termi's owner. It's hard to tell if the engagement is quicker because of the quadrant or the clutch (probably the quadrant). At first, it felt way more harder, but I think it's just cause I drove the mazda3 for 3 weeks straight.

Pedal feels smoother and I think it's actually easier on the leg. Engagement is quick and really hard, much harder than the stocker, but still easy to take off in first. The hard part is from first to second gear with more than half throttle, the timing has to be perfect or the clutch will hit hard at the wrong time.

As per AM it is a Stage 3 clutch, but as per Exedy it's still a Stage1 (street) clutch. It's the same clutch disk as the stg2 but it a harder pressure plate.

I also had a hard time to align the PP on the dowel pins of the spec flywheel. I had to hammer it gently so that I don't pull the PP on the flywheel by the bolts.

The ARP FW bolts and the FRPP PP bolts are also really great stuff when doing a swap like that!

 

[Bigggy]

Hey guys,

So i'm about 500miles down on the new assembly and I'm not sure if its me or not but the car seems to vibrate more now. The clutch pedal is also vibrating at the top, in the inch of freeplay. If I push the clutch a little it will stop shaking (the pedal itself).

I was reading on the forums and what I found was that the PP bolts may have backed out a bit and the fingers would not be all equal. I'm gonna take a look in the cable hole in the next days if I can see anything unsual.

Would it be better running a freeplay kit (spring to push back the fork) or running the TOB preloaded on the PP?

 

[Bigggy]

So Vibration is worst and worst. I took a look underneath the car and waht you think about the fork freeplay, is it too much?

NOTE: The front-back freeplay was created by me, loosing the FW adjuster, to have a better look at the fork play in all the direction.

2003 Cobra T56 Clutch Fork Freeplay vid1 - YouTube

2003 Cobra T56 Clutch Fork Freeplay vid2 - YouTube

 

[Bigggy]

UP

Please someone give some input on that problem, thx !

 

[djtyau]

Did you check your pivot ball? My pedal was vibrating like crazy and it was my pivot ball that was worn out.

 

[Bigggy]

Did you check your pivot ball? My pedal was vibrating like crazy and it was my pivot ball that was worn out.

When I did the install, there was no visible damage to the pivot ball NOR the clutch fork.

I'm thinking swaping these two and rechecking the presure plate and Flywheel bolt at the same time.