New Clutch

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For an update I drove the car 100 miles yesterday on the new spec stage 2 clutch and I'm liking it so far seems easy enough to drive , how serious is spec on the 500 mile break in seems kinda long ,I don't remember any other clutches having a break in period ?

I think I saw you heading down Route 66 in Middletown. Right near the Home Depot and McDonald's.
 
no one should ever buy any parts from autozone advanced auto or any other substandard retailer , especially something as important as a clutch . the parts sold at those stores are substandard at best .

I was an Advance manager for a few years. Parts that come from parts stores are hit or miss. Some of the stuff we sold was really good, and some of it was rubbish. Many of those stores sell a selection of different lines and qualities for the same part. If you get the cheapest one available, odds are it's not going to be very good. That's why I would pass on the $66 flywheel. Things like bearings you can do ok on. There aren't too many companies that actually make bearings, and almost everything is relabeled. The top BCA stuff we sold was usually NTN out of Japan, which is a very good bearing. If you go into an Advance today, don't let them sell you anything that says Driveworks on it. All those starters and alternators are old cores they ship down to Mexico, they fix whatever is broken on it, paint it black, and ship it back out. I actually had decent luck with the clutches we sold. They were surprisingly decent. I'm not sure I would put one in a Mustang though. Can't say the same for any of the AC compressors we sold, they were all crap. The parts market is more complicated than you would think. Don't think that if you go into a Ford dealer that you are getting an oem part. Standard motor products rebuilds most of the domestic electrical parts. Some they stick a Duralast sticker on it and send to Autozone; others they put a Motorcraft sticker on and send to Ford for distribution.

Kurt
 
Ive always given my clutches a few good heat cycles before i started beating on it. 500 miles is a liability thing. Ive never had an issue doing it that way, its not realistic for some people to follow those break in procedures if they are racing the car regularly.
 
Mcleod makes good stuff. I just don't like their customer service. Those guys will suddenly go racing for 5 days straight and leave no one in the office who can answer questions. If I have a customer's car in the shop, I can't wait 5 days for clutch service. I think their stuff is on par with SPEC.

Kurt
 
Glazed my cobra slightly when I got it installed, it went away after driving it normally for a little while. Kinda scary, makes you think it's all f#%k up and not installed properly, little stressful when pressed for $$$. Drive it normal and try to not get on it, just safer all the way around IMO.
 
Ive always given my clutches a few good heat cycles before i started beating on it. 500 miles is a liability thing. Ive never had an issue doing it that way, its not realistic for some people to follow those break in procedures if they are racing the car regularly.


I agree. Drive it around 100k or so till you burn the "fuzz" off of the disk, then dump it hard from a standstill a few times. Nothing seasons a cluch like a couple of good hard high RPM clutch drops. lol


....but seriously, it works.
 
My only concern is will it hold when you leave the line?
Well I raced it a few days ago and the clutch held no problem, I'll get 2nd gear rubber anytime I like. I hear what people are saying alot of autozone stuff is crap but I was impressed with the clutch kit the quality of the bearings was clearly superior than most parts store stuff, and I like the idea of staying close to OEM. Unless you are running boost or nitrous I think an OEM clutch is fine and drives very nice too.
 
I received the clutch, pilot bearing, throwout bearing, flywheel, and hardware from Summit yesterday. Today I received the cable, quadrant, and adjuster from MM. I'm dropping the car off tomorrow at the shop. Hopefully nothing else turns up and they do a good job.
 
I received the clutch, pilot bearing, throwout bearing, flywheel, and hardware from Summit yesterday. Today I received the cable, quadrant, and adjuster from MM. I'm dropping the car off tomorrow at the shop. Hopefully nothing else turns up and they do a good job.
your gonna wonder how you ever drove a fox without one of those cables.
 
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I agree. Drive it around 100k or so till you burn the "fuzz" off of the disk, then dump it hard from a standstill a few times. Nothing seasons a cluch like a couple of good hard high RPM clutch drops. lol


....but seriously, it works.
Yup, my clutch felt kinda jittery at first.. So like 15 miles into the 'break-in' i just started dumping the clutch and taking rubber between gears now it drives beautifully.
 
hey audiophile thats gonna be nice. toolow91 said it best :)

on the break in no one said treat it like grandma, but you do need to pay attention as to not glaze it...and to let the springs seat.....
 
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after about 250 miles i decided to just say f it and i ran through all the gears WOT , I have to say I'm impressed with the spec stage 2 clutch so far it grabs really good , and I like the pedal feel , no chatter felt so far ,so I think the new flywheel paid off , in the past i have gone the machine route, but I'm a sucker for new is best .