Worthless POS spec clutches - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

deadtrend1 · 03-19-2006, 08:14 PM

Spec clutches are the worst ****** made clutches ever. ITs pathetic that someone can sell such crap. The discs are thinner, cheap, springs are smaller. Not to mention the pressure plate was defective. I mean it was only 20 thousands off. Thats not much it seems, but when you get it all back toget at 9:00 at night and take it for a test ride, and it shakes like hell and its dragging so bad you cant get it in gear at idle.

started saturday at 10 AM. got the tranny out and then got the flywheel off around 1:00 ... at lunch. Put everything backtogether. Installed all my spohn stuff too (which feels night and day different with stiffness of my car now ..

) Vibrated so bad to cause my exhaust pipe to smack my crossmember. I went under and shook the pipe by hand and i couldnt get it to hit. Thats a "extreme" vibration id say.

Pulled it out ... low and behold after about a 1/4 mile drive theres a heat spot on the flywheel and pressure plate. Rob_ws6 will post pics. My buddy and his dad who helped are machineists, and they narrowed the problem to the pressure plate not being machined truely flat. Not to mention the way that its built is also crap. The large rivits around the edges dont even have heads on them.

Put a Zoom clutch in that came from the parts car me and rob cannabalized. Much much better. I will be calling Thunder Racing tomorrow, and if they wont deal with it, ill go to spec directly. I want my 448 dollars back someway, somehow. Im not going to put up with this. I don't even want the stickers they sent, they can have that back too. What would have happened if i took it someplace, i would have paid 2 times the labor because of them.

I will never buy a spec product ever again.

Ian · 03-19-2006, 08:37 PM

yikes, that sucks man. Hope you get everything settled with thunder and spec.

deadtrend1 · 03-19-2006, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

yikes, that sucks man. Hope you get everything settled with thunder and spec.

yea, it took awhile to figure exactly what it was. Cuase when i got done last night and test drove it, the pilot chattered a little when the clutch fully depressed. Usually they do it when the clutch is engaged (not pressing on the pedal). I didnt use the roller that spec sent (thank god so that can be sent back as a whole kit), but instead a brass bushing I ordered from summit. That went away this morning.

When I slipped the clutch to get moving from a stop, it shook the car so damn bad. We startedinsepcting everything, motor mounts, tranny mount, binding in the rear,the driveshaft clearance witht he loop..... Then we just said fock it, take it all apart! Then we found the guilty culprit. We made better time the second round. Started taking it all apart around 11 this morning, and by 1:00 the clutch was out .... AGAIN. After we spent a lot of time mic'ing the flywheel and pressure plate, lunch, dinner, phone calls.... yada yada yada. Got everything bolted back up around 8:00.

I would have taken pictures, but being so dirty, I didnt wanna screw up my camera more then it is. two clutches in two days is too much. LOL now i owe Rob a clutch....

1984camaroz28 · 03-19-2006, 09:09 PM

That the only clutch we run and we nver have a problem there must be 20 cars around runing with spec clutch ive done and there all fine

deadtrend1 · 03-19-2006, 09:15 PM

maybe I just got a defective one then.

198esp1 · 03-19-2006, 10:02 PM

Which spec do you have I have the stage three with the billet alum fly the clutch chatterd bad for the first 500 -600 miles till it was bedded in the clutch has been in my car for 35,000 daily driven miles with no prob.

Ian · 03-19-2006, 10:24 PM

quikz28 just recently got a stage 3 with alum. flywheel installed and I dont think he had any troubles with it. Maybe yours is defective.

V · 03-20-2006, 12:28 AM

my spec did chatter the first couple of miles, but even my stocker did it. when i do a new clutch, i will definately check out all brands after hearing your issues with SPEC though.

qwikz28 · 03-20-2006, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 198esp1

Which spec do you have I have the stage three with the billet alum fly the clutch chatterd bad for the first 500 -600 miles till it was bedded in the clutch has been in my car for 35,000 daily driven miles with no prob.

word... my clutch chatters like a mofo but i only have >100 miles on the clutch. (i thought chatter was a noise, this think shakes the whole car!) the pedal feel lightened up, but not too much; its soft enough, but has a nice firm feel to it. i thought it was gonna take a while to get used to but i think i got it down after the first night. i have the spec 3f with the 17lb steel flywheel and i think its one of my favorite mods... this break in period is f'n killing me though

i dont know how your install went but i read on ls1tech if the clutch install is a little off then it can take the clutch with it.. thats why 1984camaroz28 did mine, the man knows his shiz

Rob WS6 · 03-20-2006, 12:27 PM

Sorry for the pic delay... Im surprised how good they came out, they are sized down 50% and came from my phone!

Ian · 03-20-2006, 12:29 PM

WOW, thats bad!!!!

Rob WS6 · 03-20-2006, 12:39 PM

Yeah, THAT bad... was definatley out of tolerance. Guess it was one of those freak incidents... considering every pressure plate is made by the same company Valeo, this could happen with ANY clutch you buy!

Tru2Chevy · 03-20-2006, 01:31 PM

Wow, that's really bad....

- Justin

qwikz28 · 03-20-2006, 02:49 PM

spec has magnificent customer service. you better bitch your ass off and get a new clutch

deadtrend1 · 03-20-2006, 02:51 PM

Thanks Rob. And you couldn't find a better background then the pizza box? lol

BTW EVERYONE: I called spec and i sent it down to them earlier today. I dunno what i will do when i get the new one back. Either keep it or send it back to thunder racing.

V · 03-20-2006, 06:33 PM

interesting...that looks nothing like my spec clutch. Mine was a 6 puck design, not a full circle and for soem reason the pressure plate even seems to look different. I have a stage 3 carbon i believe. I got mine back in early 2002, maybe they changed stuff around since then, maybe even quality. anyways good luck with whatever you plan to do about it, having to redo work on a car just plain sucks.