A friend and fellow FD owner started having tranny problems a week ago. It acted like it was a blown slave, which I replaced, and the problem wasnt fixed at all. The fork looked to be okay, but when I examined the top part of the fork I discovered what the real cause was. He cracked the arm on the throwout bearing. Its basically only pulling the pressure plate on the top half about 20%. He has an upgraded pressure plate, so Im figuring thats the sole reason for it going (I know for a fact he still has yet to launch the car on the new clutch).

So my real question is - is there a way to reinforce the throwout bearing to prevent it from breaking? Maybe weld on an extra piece of metal? I have a spec stage 3 clutch/pressure plate and Id like to not have this problem as its gonna be a bitch to replace such a cheap part (have to drop the tranny just to get to it).

 

I guess nobody has