Allow me to jump into this thread, please:
First, Wayne: Welcome to Texas! I live in the DFW area, work from home, but a few days a month I drive through Hideaway on my way to Longview for work. We have a very active group in the DFW metroplex, and I know of one of our members that lives in Longview as well. We have the state-wide Texas Cobra Meet each spring in the hill country, base camp in San Marcos. This year due to covid it was postponed to October 7-11 -now less than two weeks! The latest attendance numbers are :
177 Drivers and Guests
99 Cars registered (so far)
118 Banquet Tickets sold
10 Different states represented
Texas Cobra Club Fall Meet for more info - should come check it out!
Ed: Thanks very much for the detailed post with pictures, links, and info. Invaluable information! I have the same problem as Wayne, and more - here is my story:
My setup 351/427w, 600hp/600tq on the engine dyno, built by Craft Performance Engines. TKO-600 w/.82 OD, Ram Clutch, Tilton 60-6102 internal hydraulic throw out bearing. Now with 5500 miles on the odometer.
I've been having a hell of a time with my clutch/trans lately. Its started after driving a while and coming to a stop, I go into neutral. Then when the light turns green it will not go back into first gear, or barely second. like i'm not pressing the pedal at all. I pump and pump until it finally goes in. I'm afraid i'm going to bend some forks or some such... and then later sometimes it will slide right into gear, no problem!
When this first started happening, I called the Tremec rep and regional distributor for Tremec, where I bought it. He said it sounded like the clutch fluid was boiling (btw he uses and recommends Tilton internal TOBs on all their race cars). But I said I have heat shields and i dont think thats it. He said if you kill the engine and then put it in gear does it glide in? if so then the clutch isn't disengaging. I haven't tried that yet, because I'm always in traffic. Besides, I can't start the engine while the transmission is in gear - I'm using the neutral safety switch.
Then it happened again last weekend on cold start right out of the garage ... so i can't be heat related.
This weekend i'll visually inspect the TOB through the bell housing window and see if i can see any leakage, and bleed out the clutch system again. BTW, I use Wilwood Hi-Temp 570 Degree Racing Brake Fluid 290-0632 in brakes and clutch.
The next question is: I have experienced the same as Wayne shifting from 2nd to 3rd under hard acceleration - I thought I was just missing 3rd, and had to stab it again. Ed, your recommendation in part is to move the shifter forward to the middle position. I'm not sure I would want to do that, having to cut the trans tunnel and carpet for a new location - and I also want to keep the original looking mustang reversed stick shift. Would making the internal only upgrades help with this problem, and possibly the aforementioned problem as well?