Carolina Clutch came through for me
04-28-2005, 12:27 PM
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Carolina Clutch came through for me
I thought I would just post a short note on my experience with Carolina Clutch.
I purchased a Stage 2 clutch kit from them for my son's '73 454 and I had trouble from the get-go with it grabbing and chattering. I discussed this with Tim and Tom and they advised me to give it a hundred miles or so.
After a hundred miles it was no better so I tore it down again and the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate were pretty much trashed. Lots of burns, chunks out of the clutch disk and surface cracks on the pressure plate. I think the problem was a bad machining job on my flywheel by the knuckleheads at the local NAPA shop. The burns are all clustered and there appears to be a slight raised area at the site of the burns.
I sent Tom an email with pictures of the problems and pointed out that it could be a problem with the flywheel, but I could not prove it at this point. He didn't even hesitate. He sent me a new disk and pressure plate. This time he sent an AP Racing pressure plate instead of the Luk and the disk looked heavier with marcels between the surfaces. In essence he up-graded the system for me and said "I'm sorry. This never should have happened". This was on a $350 kit.
Down at the NAPA shop they wanted to blame me, my installation, adjustments, blah, blah, blah over a $45 machining job. They did measure the flywheel surface and acknowleged that it was high in the area of the burns, but argued that it wasn't enough to matter... I got my money back anyway and let them know they couldn't even machine rotors (that was the last defective job they did - warped!). They won't see me again...
I bought a new GM flywheel and installed the replacement clutch and pressure plate. I have about a hundred miles on it and it has been smooth as silk.
Kudos to Tim and Tom at Carolina Clutch! Visit them at
http://www.carolinaclutch.com
BTW, evidently they don't list all the packages on the website. The stage 2 package for my son's '73 454 was not listed at all. You just have to ask.
I purchased a Stage 2 clutch kit from them for my son's '73 454 and I had trouble from the get-go with it grabbing and chattering. I discussed this with Tim and Tom and they advised me to give it a hundred miles or so.
After a hundred miles it was no better so I tore it down again and the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate were pretty much trashed. Lots of burns, chunks out of the clutch disk and surface cracks on the pressure plate. I think the problem was a bad machining job on my flywheel by the knuckleheads at the local NAPA shop. The burns are all clustered and there appears to be a slight raised area at the site of the burns.
I sent Tom an email with pictures of the problems and pointed out that it could be a problem with the flywheel, but I could not prove it at this point. He didn't even hesitate. He sent me a new disk and pressure plate. This time he sent an AP Racing pressure plate instead of the Luk and the disk looked heavier with marcels between the surfaces. In essence he up-graded the system for me and said "I'm sorry. This never should have happened". This was on a $350 kit.
Down at the NAPA shop they wanted to blame me, my installation, adjustments, blah, blah, blah over a $45 machining job. They did measure the flywheel surface and acknowleged that it was high in the area of the burns, but argued that it wasn't enough to matter... I got my money back anyway and let them know they couldn't even machine rotors (that was the last defective job they did - warped!). They won't see me again...
I bought a new GM flywheel and installed the replacement clutch and pressure plate. I have about a hundred miles on it and it has been smooth as silk.
Kudos to Tim and Tom at Carolina Clutch! Visit them at
http://www.carolinaclutch.com
BTW, evidently they don't list all the packages on the website. The stage 2 package for my son's '73 454 was not listed at all. You just have to ask.
