anybody ever seen this happen to a SPEC Clutch

[aaronamerica]

this is the spec stage 3+ clutch, what you guys think happened here, its been in the car for about less than 20,000 miles i think and I only luanched the car only three times and other than that just normal highway pulls....I now have a southbend stage 4 clutch with the stock flywheel and I love it

[ILoveT]

I might be wrong but it looks like it has been slipped a lot.

[onemoremile]

Looks like only the middle band (about half the total area) was in contact and that made some heat.

[Eurotuned_A4]

different kind of clutch, but thats what my spec looked like. not really the same wear on it, but it was a huge waste of money to ever buy that clutch.

[djwimbo]

Now I kinda want to pull mine out to look at it.

Looks like you made some heat, and not just launchin it 3x.

Was it slipping or chattering? Did you replace it b/c you already had it apart and took a look or what?

[aaronamerica]

Now I kinda want to pull mine out to look at it.

Looks like you made some heat, and not just launchin it 3x.

Was it slipping or chattering? Did you replace it b/c you already had it apart and took a look or what?

yea when it was first install we were hearing this chattering or scratching noise when we push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor so we made the slave cylinder rod shorter, and yes the clutch was slipping alot hummmm???? I replaced it because the car just all of a sudden would not go into any gear with the pedal all the way to the floor

[aaronamerica]

Looks like only the middle band (about half the total area) was in contact and that made some heat.

yea thats weird

[UGwagen]

the first set of pics looks like a Stage 1-- "3" launches. how did you launch? Revved up high & slipped it in?

Eurotuned A4 is definitely a stage 3.

[Eurotuned_A4]

stage 3 was a piece of shit. didnt hold anything and i will never buy spec again. never even launched my car or slipped the clutch. it just never held any power, except for when i was ko4 without tuning....i had a thread with even more pics of a flywheel included a long time ago. thats why i always tell people to stay away from spec.

[aaronamerica]

stage 3 was a piece of shit. didnt hold anything and i will never buy spec again. never even launched my car or slipped the clutch. it just never held any power, except for when i was ko4 without tuning....i had a thread with even more pics of a flywheel included a long time ago. thats why i always tell people to stay away from spec.

yep I've been thru 3 spec clutches for all my different setups and they all never held up for nothing, but I really think this clutch was a lemon from the beginning

[djwimbo]

thats why i always tell people to stay away from spec.

I didn't listen. Not that it makes a huge difference, but I don't like South Bend's website. SPEC's site is simple enough for me to use and not get confused.

yea when it was first install we were hearing this chattering or scratching noise when we push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor so we made the slave cylinder rod shorter, and yes the clutch was slipping alot hummmm???? I replaced it because the car just all of a sudden would not go into any gear with the pedal all the way to the floor

That sounds like an issue with the install, not he hardware. All of sudden the pedal would go to the floor? That's almost always a hydraulic issue. Unless you managed to break the Belleville spring in the pressure plate.

If SPEC f-ed up, I'm not going to try and say they didn't. Everybody makes mistakes (including me), I just don't see how a disc can just fail.
Making the push rod shorter would decrease the amount of disengagement, thus slipping the clutch more than intended during every shift.

[aaronamerica]

the first set of pics looks like a Stage 1-- "3" launches. how did you launch? Revved up high & slipped it in?

Eurotuned A4 is definitely a stage 3.

yep

[Affinitive]

While I have never personally dealt with SPEC clutches, I will say that most everything I've ever heard about is they're nothing but over priced, performance exagurated junk compariable to the OE stuff. Centerforce is not much better. Mostly just fancy painted OE style pressure plates and some sort kind of cheap ass friction disks. Everything I ever hear about them is nothing but problems and people having to pull them things back out after only short peroids of time. Again, centerforce is not much better.
In your pics there, the funny looking wear is due to the flywheel obviously since it has them countersunk screws to hold the steel plate to the flywheel. I wouldn't be real concerned about that. But the wear marks and the pressure plate and friction disk. What kind of junk are they putting together if the pressure plate is gonna rub on the friction disk. At least you have a motor built enough to justify an aluminum flywheel, by the looks of your signature line.

You wana look into a clutch more along the lines of something like this, though not many companies making REAL performance clutches -
http://www.clutchmasters.com/shop/?p...047&AppID=7960

C

[Affinitive]

Excuss me, I phrased something kinda weird there. The pressure plate spring (them fork things that the release bearing pushes on) should not be rubbing on the dampening springs of the friction disk. Obviously the pressure plate will rub on the friction disk where it is suppossed to .......LOL

Sorry about that.

The reason you were not able to get it into gear was because the clutch was not releasing due to the friction disk being pinched on the dampening springs.

Another thing to consider. Most REAL high performance clutches don't use dampening springs in the friction disk.

Get a dual disk clutch and you should be fine.

C

[aaronamerica]

I didn't listen. Not that it makes a huge difference, but I don't like South Bend's website. SPEC's site is simple enough for me to use and not get confused.



That sounds like an issue with the install, not he hardware. All of sudden the pedal would go to the floor? That's almost always a hydraulic issue. Unless you managed to break the Belleville spring in the pressure plate.

If SPEC f-ed up, I'm not going to try and say they didn't. Everybody makes mistakes (including me), I just don't see how a disc can just fail.
Making the push rod shorter would decrease the amount of disengagement, thus slipping the clutch more than intended during every shift.

no no the clutch never just went to the floor but when you push the clutch pedal to the floor we would hear a chatter or some type of squealing noise so we made the slave cylinder rod shorter to keep it from making that noise when we push all the way to the floor

[Affinitive]

Actually you probably would want this one instead

http://www.clutchmasters.com/shop/?p...047&AppID=7959

[djwimbo]

no no the clutch never just went to the floor but when you push the clutch pedal to the floor we would hear a chatter or some type of squealing noise so we made the slave cylinder rod shorter to keep it from making that noise when we push all the way to the floor

Squealing noise would be from the "throw out bearing" being worn out/dry.
Chatter from the drivetrain is a common problem from the uber LWFW guys.
I don't want to say that the above statement/s are fact, without driving the car or properly diagnosing the problem, I can't swear by and internet Diag.

You sure you put the disc in the correct way? My disc has a sticker that says "F/W side" on it, that's the side that the hub extrudes from(similar to a brake rotor hat). You see how the one side of the splines is shiny and the other side is black and dull(this is the extruded side). The shiny side should face the pressure plate.

Flywheel side:


Pressure Plate side:

[djwimbo]

The lemon disc might not be too far off.
You see the "fins" coming out from in between the two friction materials of the disc? It's basically another built in spring to maintain tension equally across 360* of the disc facings. You can see here that it's partially broken and coming out.

[aaronamerica]

Squealing noise would be from the "throw out bearing" being worn out/dry.
Chatter from the drivetrain is a common problem from the uber LWFW guys.
I don't want to say that the above statement/s are fact, without driving the car or properly diagnosing the problem, I can't swear by and internet Diag.

You sure you put the disc in the correct way? My disc has a sticker that says "F/W side" on it, that's the side that the hub extrudes from(similar to a brake rotor hat). You see how the one side of the splines is shiny and the other side is black and dull(this is the extruded side). The shiny side should face the pressure plate.

Flywheel side:


Pressure Plate side:

your right, spec told me the same thing but it's no way the clutch would fit in the correct way, so this must mean I have the wrong flywheel for this application, do you have pics of your flywheel too?

[UGwagen]

Squealing noise would be from the "throw out bearing" being worn out/dry.
Chatter from the drivetrain is a common problem from the uber LWFW guys.
I don't want to say that the above statement/s are fact, without driving the car or properly diagnosing the problem, I can't swear by and internet Diag.

You sure you put the disc in the correct way? My disc has a sticker that says "F/W side" on it, that's the side that the hub extrudes from(similar to a brake rotor hat). You see how the one side of the splines is shiny and the other side is black and dull(this is the extruded side). The shiny side should face the pressure plate.

Flywheel side:


Pressure Plate side:

Isn't that a Stage 2+? I haven't heard too many good things about the iron-sintered pucks version (the "+" in 2+) but, the "puck" type isn't really known for long lasting durability durability.

[djwimbo]

Isn't that a Stage 2+? I haven't heard too many good things about the iron-sintered pucks version (the "+" in 2+) but, the "puck" type isn't really known for long lasting durability durability.

Yes, that's the Stage 2+ I haven't had any problems with it yet(keyword) and I've put on almost 14K since I installed it(IIRC). This is with weekly AutoX for 3 months and a handful of 1/4mi runs, as well as daily driving.
SPEC claims it to be about similar lifetime to OEM when driven normally, obviously they aren't going to claim a lifetime under heavy abuse.

your right, spec told me the same thing but it's no way the clutch would fit in the correct way, so this must mean I have the wrong flywheel for this application, do you have pics of your flywheel too?

What bolts were you using to hold the F/W to the crank? The ones SPEC Supplied?

Here's a pic of it on the table and being installed. I ran into an issue installing mine as well, but it turned out to be my own stupidity or lack or resourcefulness that got me into trouble. Not the same situation you were in.

I used the Billet Steel 16 lb F/W. The hub of the disc should fit into that machined bowl in the F/W w/o any issues. If you used the incorrect bolts it's possible that it didn't fit. I know it's a tight tolerance between those bolt heads and the hub b/c I measured it for some odd reason at one point.

[aaronamerica]

Squealing noise would be from the "throw out bearing" being worn out/dry.
Chatter from the drivetrain is a common problem from the uber LWFW guys.
I don't want to say that the above statement/s are fact, without driving the car or properly diagnosing the problem, I can't swear by and internet Diag.

You sure you put the disc in the correct way? My disc has a sticker that says "F/W side" on it, that's the side that the hub extrudes from(similar to a brake rotor hat). You see how the one side of the splines is shiny and the other side is black and dull(this is the extruded side). The shiny side should face the pressure plate.

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ok here's more pics to show how it was installed in the car and I guess how it should have been in the car, this has to be the wrong flyweel for this setup or the wrong disk for my car???? this is how it was installed in the carand this is how I guess it should've been in the car but this has to be the wrong flywhweel or disk because thats no way that would work in the carflywheel

[mike-2ptzero]

Actually you probably would want this one instead

http://www.clutchmasters.com/shop/?p...047&AppID=7959

That will be the next clutch going on my site. Just a little "warning" to anyone that has never used a twin disk clutch kit, the chatter from it when the clutch pedal is pushed in is 10 times louder then the lightest flywheel/unsprung disk combo any A4 owner has ever had. This is because there are 4 times as many parts bouncing around when the pressure is released inside the clutch unit.