To begin with id like to say that this is not at all an attack on alto products.As most of you know i have used them religiously and promoted their performance probably more than their own representitives have.Most of us around here probably have a larger audience watching us than the hi performance division reps at Alto.My personal interactions with Pete ,the high performance guy at Alto have always been pleasant.Theres nothing worst than promoting others products and then having it turn into a public relations nightmare.This happened to me once before with countless defective TCS 9/11 converters and cost me alot of money as well as alot of unnecessary r and r work for my customers a few years back.Once again i am seeing a selective defect in a product line that i have always touted as number one.This is not just in the product ive purchased ,but as well as those purchased by other well known builders that have failed because of being defective.I have personally witnessed several Alto red eagle wide bands have the friction lining fall off the flexible backing of the band immediately following an overhaul.This has been over a 2 year period in batches purchased from 3 different suppliers as well as heard of this from others on the other side of the country.Direct clutches became unglued 3 times in the past year ,2 were caught during in car tests and one was not.these failures are almost always immediate so there is no need for people to be afraid of transmissions they have purchased in the past.Last week i was really beside myself following a bizzare incident.I built a stage 2 2004r with our transbrake for a 3900 pound chevelle.the weight of the car,the power of the mill and the driving habits of the owner told me to put a red lined friction in the lo reverse clutch pack,something i never do.anyhow after installing the transmission in our test vehicle to verify proper operation prior to customer delivery i began to loose reverse as ell as direct.Hearing some whining i new the filter was clogged,but there were other symtoms id never felt before.upon dropping the pan this is what i found and it was very disappointing.After disassembling the unit i found that not only did the lining come unglued from the lo reverse frictions but it also came unglued from the directs.This is not saying there stuff is junk,because it isnt.its just to point out that there are things beyond our contrlo as rebuilders.and the bonding of friction material certainly is one of them.i sent a sample of the bands to my distributor and got a reply.
dissapointing results with alto products
- Thread starter chris718
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Sleeper1987
3.8L of Fun!
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2006
- Messages
- 247
Dang..this doesnt give me a good feeling. i just finished up my turbo 350 with alto clutches 
GNational86
Member
- Joined
- May 28, 2001
- Messages
- 162
Its amazing that the price of kits keeps going up and the quality just doesnt keep up. I hope they find a problem and correct it.
JDSfastGN
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2001
- Messages
- 3,506
damn ive never seen any of the clutches fall apart like that. I have had two alto bands linings come off (just partially) and i actually never felt any problems in the tranny at the time. Good post Chris, hopefully alto will get it together 
Chris had asked me before he had posted this my opinion as to whether or not he should.
My thoughts were that he should for the good of all the other builders out there.
Alto has made excellent products in the past both in quality and design, and the ideal case is that this is strictly a manufacturing issue that will be addressed and solved shortly.
While some may argue that it may be the installers fault for the failure, it's difficult to accept given that (as Chris mentioned) a few experienced builders have had success in the past only to have failures now using the same assembly methods.
Hopefully we have caught this in time and saved alot of transmissions from unnecessary failure.
Once there is a level or reassurance from Alto that the products are indeed safe to use, we can use them with confidence.
In the meantime, I would like to suggest to those that are using them to perhaps record the serial numbers of the clutches and bands being used so that should there be a failure perhaps we can spot a trend in the dates they were made, what batch, how and where etc.
My thoughts were that he should for the good of all the other builders out there.
Alto has made excellent products in the past both in quality and design, and the ideal case is that this is strictly a manufacturing issue that will be addressed and solved shortly.
While some may argue that it may be the installers fault for the failure, it's difficult to accept given that (as Chris mentioned) a few experienced builders have had success in the past only to have failures now using the same assembly methods.
Hopefully we have caught this in time and saved alot of transmissions from unnecessary failure.
Once there is a level or reassurance from Alto that the products are indeed safe to use, we can use them with confidence.
In the meantime, I would like to suggest to those that are using them to perhaps record the serial numbers of the clutches and bands being used so that should there be a failure perhaps we can spot a trend in the dates they were made, what batch, how and where etc.
