I installed a LuK clutch in my 1985 about 2 months ago.
http://www.rbartick.com/vetwork/clutch.html


I got it from LuK clutch from http://www.dial-a-clutch.com. I was assured that the LuK clutch was an OEM piece but my first sign of trouble was the plastic throwout bearing they sent me. Who the hell uses a plastic throwout bearing? I went out and bought an AC Delco throwout bearing and installed the LuK pressure plate (said SACHS on it) and the LuK friction disc.

I've logged about 200 fairly easy miles on the new clutch and all seemed fine. It releases immediately and seemed to grab pretty good. I did some 1500 RPM clutch drops from a standstill and the clutch grabbed immediately and I got good tire spin. Nailing the gas at low RPM in first gear breaks the rear tires with the clutch holding fine. Nailing the gas in upper gears also seemed fine.

Now the story...

A good friend of mine ordered a new Honda minivan about 2 months ago. While waiting for the order to come in the guy kept bragging about how awesome and versatile it is. Every day I would have to hear about how much better it is than my SUV and how comfortable it is, etc.. I found his enthusiasm very strange especially since the guy does not even have any kids! He finally took delivery of it last night and he told me to stop by to check it out.

I went over to his house in the Vette and went for a ride in the minivan with him. He looked at the Vette briefly, but we concentrated on the minivan. After
a very boring ride around town in the minivan we got back to his house and I was ready to go home. I decided to show him what the Vette could do. I pulled out of his driveway, revved it to about 2500 and let the clutch out. Instead of getting the expected tire smoke show I am pretty sure that my clutch slipped all the way up to redline.

:eek:

My tires did not spin at all. I could smell the burning clutch as I drove home with my head hung low. When I pulled my car into the garage the smell of burnt material was wafting through the air.

What a major disappointment. I cannot believe the clutch could not hold
up to that type of launch. My stock clutch was able to handle that. I
just hope that I did not warp and destroy the clutch since I do not feel
like replacing it again right now.

 

That is odd, I have used a lot of Luk clutches and have been pretty happy with them. I used them in my 3,600 lb Turbo Thunderbird and used to launch that car at 4,000 RPM's. I finally tore the hub out of the disc by shearing the rivets but never smoked one.

 

I put a Luk clutch in my old Fiero, it worked pretty good while I had it, up to the time I sold it to get my Vette. Don't know what to say other than I have had far more clutch/tranny problems with manual trans. cars than with automatics, just seems to go with the territory. :smash:

 

luk makes the oem clutches btw.. they don't make the pressure plates tho.. as you already found out.. i know valeo makes the oem pressure plates for lt1 cars, not sure about the early c4's.. i've had pretty good luck with the oem clutches too.. held on 4500rpm dumps with slicks on my lt1 with heads/cam/exhaust..
we'll soon see how it works on my 383, but i don't intend to run slicks or drag race it much so it should be fine.




[Modified by mikey, 6:50 PM 8/9/2001]

 

I've smoked the clutch on more than one occasion with drag radials.
At the track one day, someone mentioned that you will smoke the clutch some and then it won't slip anymore. Since my new clutch one year ago, I've smoked it about 3 times that I can recall, runs fine now, no problems at all. Just let it cool down and see what happens tomorrow.

 

Hey Mr Mojo,

We met at Englishtown twice. Hope to see you there again.

I took the car out tonight. I dumped the clutch from a standstill at 1700 RPM, 2500 RPM, and 3000 RPM. The clutch grabbed and smoked the tires each time. Normal shifting also seems perfect. It appears to be working well now so I am not sure what happened yesterday. I guess it is possible that the car was spinning the tires, but it really felt to me like the clutch was slipping. I went back to the street I was on last night and I did not see any rubber on the ground so I gotta assume the clutch did slip.

IMO the LuK clutch kit is not an OEM kit. It came with a useless throwout bearing that was 75% plastic. You can see that here: http://www.rbartick.com/vetwork/tb.html

The pressure plate that came out of the car had "Borg & Beck" stamped on it. The LuK pressure plate was a "SACHS" part. The LuK friction disc had a slightly different construction than my original friction disc. I cannot say if the LuK parts are as good as OEM parts, but I will say that I will not be putting another LuK kit in my car. :rolleyes:

 

Yeah, I remember you, we were talking after I lost at the Show and Go.

I forgot to mention, I have a LUK in mine, I can't find my receipt, thought we could compare part #'s.

Hopefully it worked out whatever happened.

 

I also saw you the next week at the Corvette Challenge. I was hanging out with Dave-T when you showed him your roll-bar/camera mount. Dave & I have been friends for a while. Your car should use a dual-mass setup so your part is probably different.

 

Disk friction material takes a while to break-in. The phenomenon is much like fresh brake pads. Both provide very poor grip until they get a few hundred miles on them. During this time, they will downright stink if abused and overheated. Prior to proper break-in, you can generate hot spots & cracks on the pressure plate and flywheel due to uneven friction/heating. I'm not telling you this is the problem, only one possibility. Clearly, slippage is a function of the pressure plate which is OEM spec and the clutch material, which is virgin. Another possibility is you could have a clutch linkage or mechanical problem preventing the clutch from fully engaging.