Well, I have an 86 stock. And I need a new clutch (bad!!!), I was looking at the one from ecklers, not a centerforce but just their "power matched clutch set."

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...N0SM2EPKVW1QTF

I am just wondering if this is a good clutch and if any of you have experience with it,and if its bad, if you know of one better. Also I plan on putting it in with just me and another guy. Is the 4+3 gonna be a pain, or do you think it should go smoothly. Just any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Chris

P.S. I searched the old postings and didn't see anything about this one, but I apologize if I missed it. Thanks again.

 

I went with a stock clutch for my '95 being that the car is still stock.

 

I had heard the original are signifigantly more expensive and I figured that it might just increase the life a bit. But I will check them out a little more.

Thanks.

 

carolinaclutch.com has the stock clutch for $255

 

! is that the whole thing?!

 

from what i understand its the whole kit, i'm sure someone knows, i'll probably give them a call tomorrow. I have a post going on too on where to by a stock one. From what i've noticed they are actully from than the aftermarkets. Otherwise i've heard the mcleod dual friction is nice and they run about 400.


[Modified by n1kki6, 12:23 AM 1/31/2003]

 

So now did you guys install the clutches yourselves? I talked to a guy tonight who said he worked on his off/on and it took him 6 months. I am gonna be pulling the weekends mostly, but I hear he even had to lower the rear end to get it out of there. Any advice/comments on the whole procedure?
I am almost thinking of taking it to a shop. It will kill me to have her out for that long! :banghead:

 

What kind of duty will the car see?
Drag racing? (with what kind of tires?)
Auto -X?
Road racing?
Normal every day driving?
That should help narrow down choices.
Do the job yourself! It'll be fun! That way you are much more knowledgable about your car and not at the mercy of shops.

 

:iagree: I dunno about the fun part of doing it yourself but I learnt alot, I KNOW it is done right and the money I saved can buy me more mods... :D

 

thiers no way it could take that long most people that i've talked to it took a weekend, i think the hardest part is dropping the tranny from what i understand. I dont see why he lowered the rear end to get the clutch our though, but i could be wrong.

 

I have a spec in mine and I have no complaints! Installation took all of a saturday but it was easier than I thought it was going to be. The torque arm sucked!

 

In reply to what wear it will have.
In most cases it won't be driven too hard, there will be the occasional "stress" put on it that I believe comes with driving a corvette. (AKA normal driving basically) But nothing too bad, I am just hoping since that one (ecklers) was a bit more heavy duty (and not very $), I could not worry so much about having to replace it early but still have fun with her. As for tires, right now she has goodyear f1's (I know, I have heard they are crap, but I they came with her and they've worked fine so far).
Thanks for the help so far!




[Modified by USAsOnlyWay, 9:52 PM 1/31/2003]

 

I had the Eckler's one in before the SPEC(which is doing fine). That should do you fine. Since you'll be in there, get a new pilot bearing or bushing. New pressure plate bolts don't hurt. Just that GM sells them in quantities of 5 only. You guessed it, our PP needs 6! :chevy :crazy:
Let us know what you decide. :cheers:

 

Ok, well I called some more around town at auto supply shops... and found a Borg Warner clutch kit that has everything in it.(PP, clutch, throwout bearing, and pilot bushing) You guys have any idea if that is a good set? Found it for 228$ And I think I might just end up going for that.
Thanks for the input!


[Modified by USAsOnlyWay, 2:15 AM 2/2/2003]

 

I've been very happy with my Mcleod dual friction clutch. It drives like the stocker but holds very well. I've heard a lot of bad things about SPEC but I've heard some good things as well. I've had my hands on at least 5 cars with Mcleod clutches and not one complaint. Every SPEC I've ever personally seen has caused trouble.

I think it's a crap shoot with SPEC really, if you can get it to work it will work well but it's just hard to ever get what you need.

My Mcleod cast about $400 for everything needed to install.

 

M'cleod Street Twin here all the way :) $1100 all you need

Bruce
93LT1 Conv w/ZF6
Blown D1-SC/N2O
ARE built 383ci/Stage II heads

 

Dropping the c-beam and reinstalling the gearbox so the input shaft fits properly all the way in would be the hardest parts of the job. The trans is heavy though so I would strongly recommend a tran jack or adapter for your floor jack.

It is most likley IMO that your friend probably dropped the rear because he had trouble getting the c-beam off the car. The trick is to finesse it out while adjusting the height of the gearbox with a floor jack underneath it.

It shouldn't take you too long at all even if you are new to it if you don't muck around too much. No way it would take six months unless you worked on it every other week.

edit: 89 Paul in Cali, I like your new sig pic. :yesnod:


[Modified by Red 90 L98 Coupe, 3:22 PM 2/2/2003]

 

One thing I learned while doing my ZF swap into my '87...The input shaft on the ZF is MUCH harder to stab than the 4+3 (more clearance around the splines on the input shaft/clutch disc on the 4+3), but the torque arm is MUCH harder to get out on the 4+3. My average (for simply maneuvering the arm out of the car after it's unbolted) for the 4+3 was ~10 minutes, 3 bloody knuckles, 3 dozen curses, and 1 "it's finally $#^@-ing out!". With the ZF it takes all of about 30 seconds to maneuver it out of the car. When it came to restabbing the trans, the situation was reversed.

 

Thanks alot for all the input and feel free to keep on sending it in. I am looking forward to getting it fixed, not so much to the 30 minutes of frustration but it will be worth it. I am thinking about raising the
vette in my garage about a 1 1/2' off the ground.
Adequate enough you think?
Also, should I put blocks under the engine before I take out the tranny, I hear it sort of falls back when it loses support from the tranny?

And also the Borg Warner kit, any comments?
TIA

:flag

 

(WAR and PEACE) - I did the clutch on my 87 with the 4+3 quite a few years ago and wouldn't look forward to doing it again. That said it wasn't too bad a job, it was just that I was doing it outside on my back in the middle of an English Winter.
I did most of the work on my own, needing only my wife to help me reenter the input shaft to the crank. (she's got pretty good helping me with gearboxes).
With regards to the engine tilting at the back, Yes you need to support it. A jack with a block of wood would help, so that you can tilt it slightly to help you engage/re-engage the input shaft.
My car was raised up about 12" so 18" should be fine, you need it high enough to be able to get the bell housing out from under the car on the jack or whatever you will be using to get it out. I got underneath and dropped it on myself (it was heavier than I thought). To reinstall it, I made a cradle out of mild steel flat bar (11/2" x 1/4" I think) which fitted snugly around the sump of the overdrive and had a round boss welded underneath that fitted in place of the shoe of my trolley jack. This really helped!!
I also changed the pilot bush to a roller brg. I found my flywheel badly warped so had to replace this. I didn't realise it was the lightweight 15lb flywheel that was fitted to the Corvette.
I know this is going on a bit, but I also checked the bellhousing and found that it was both low in relation to the crank centreline and the front and rear faces were about 0.010" out of parallel.
When I corrected the above and fitted a B&M shift linkage kit the difference in shifting was tremendous. (Not ZF tremendous, but very noticeable). Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps. If all is straight forward, it should be do-able in a weekend.
:steering: