90 Vintage Centerforce pressure plate replacement
02-27-2019, 02:42 PM
#1
90 Vintage Centerforce pressure plate replacement
I have made several post recently and the information has been very helpful. I am currently fixing a rear main oil seal leak and replacing my clutch. I bought all brand new clutch parts in the 90’s and have been sitting on them. The car has a little over 31K on it. When I removed the original clutch I was surprised to see that the flywheel and pressure plate still have all of the original radial machining grooves. The disk is only .015 worn from original. Again I have all new parts so I might as well throw them in. The DM flywheel is a GM part as is the Disk. The Pressure plate is a 90’s vintage Centerforce made by Valeo. It has all the same casting numbers as the GM original except it has the added Centerforce weights on the fingers. They look like a mechanical failure issue down the road. Has anybody just simply removed them and if so does the pressure plate behave exactly like the original? Any first hand experience is appreciated.
02-28-2019, 10:38 AM
#2
Team Owner
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St. Jude Donor '05
Dont remove them....Valeo made GM stuff for a long time. I have a 90 eras DF Clutch they are good stuff, wasnt made on an island somewhere
02-28-2019, 12:56 PM
#3
Melting Slicks
FWIW: I removed the centrifugal weights on my own 88 Centerforce Dual Friction. No issues after removal. Clutch still holds my 480-ish wheel hp and 480-ish lb.ft wheel torque.
02-28-2019, 08:02 PM
#4
Le Mans Master
The previous owner of my car was the lead tech for Houston Performance for several years, doing tons of mods and installs for customers. His experience with Centerforce was that the weights tended to come off in time. That pressure plate is probably a US-made Valeo, which is good. It's good even it it's Brazil-made. But the CF mods did not seem to be reliable, FWIW. I seriously doubt they changed the spring force, so without the weights it's probably an OEM Valeo unit, which would be a very good thing. Use that info however you see fit.
BTW, it's too bad you didn't also snag an OEM throwout bearing, branded INA (German manufacture). The new kits of all brands come with Chinese garbage bearings. That's what failed on my SPEC kit a couple years ago. The INA bearings are the only ones worth a crap, but to find one new (NOS) today will cost you close to $300.
BTW, it's too bad you didn't also snag an OEM throwout bearing, branded INA (German manufacture). The new kits of all brands come with Chinese garbage bearings. That's what failed on my SPEC kit a couple years ago. The INA bearings are the only ones worth a crap, but to find one new (NOS) today will cost you close to $300.