Got a RAM 402/980 from New Era Performance around six weeks ago and it has sat in my garage until I got the time to yank the entire rear part of the car off to install it. Everything came out fine, got the flywheel turned and started putting it back together and the friggin' pressure plate will not bolt up to the flywheel. Tried turning the PP in relation to the FW but no go. Took the flywheel off and it is clear that one of the holes on the pressure plate is ~.100" off! I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

Since it was the weekend I picked up a SPEC locally to try to get the car together before the weekend was out but I never got it buttoned up anyway. Called New Era on Monday and said that I wanted to return the RAM since the holes did not line up and I had lost confidence with their manufacturing process if they are going to let crap like that out of the shop, but no go since it was six weeks old. They offered to replace it with one that they verified fit the holes on a PP they had which is fair (ideally they would have refunded but I suppose I can see their side) so I'm waiting for the new RAM to get to me (3-4 days) and hopefully it will go in but I am still sketchy on RAM's manufacturing process.

The thing with the RAM's is they do not use the locating pins on the flywheel to center themselves to the FW. Three of the six pressure plate holes are just large enough for the bolts to go through and this is how they choose to locate/center the PP to the flywheel. I called RAM and they said they had never hear of one not lining up. When I asked if they had a jig to drill the holes or what the process was they said that the supplier sends the plates to them and the plates are drilled prior to stamping. Seems like this would allow for a good bit of tolerence variation so I asked if they QA the plates when they come from their supplier. Nope.

So I'm awaiting the second RAM but I'm still not confident in it. I am going to balance the unit before putting it in just to make sure. I got the RAM because of the good reviews of it compared to the chattery SPEC Stage 3 but I didn't even look at the "chatterless" SPEC Stage 2 until I had the issue with the RAM. Think I should have gone that route as it is rated to hold as much as the RAM 402/980.

Just an FYI for those looking at different clutches.

 

Interesting.

FYI, even my ultra expensive Exedy didn't have any kind of locating pins. It bolted up perfectly though, no slop anywhere, even with the bolts hand tight.

Dope

 

Yes but the Exedy looks like a work of art, not a stamped piece of steel.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. FWIW, I've had a load of problems with my SPEC Stage 3 in addition to the chattering, which isn't so bad now that it is broken in. I had severe vibration issues. I have a question for you assuming you bought a SPEC Stage 3 as your 'get me through the weekend' clutch. Does the SPEC have locating holes on the PP? I'm wondering if not, that could have contributed to my vibration issues. I didn't install mine, so I never got to look.

 

Yes, the SPEC uses the stock locating pins to locate itself to the flywheel.

What did you do as far as flywheel when you put the SPEC in? Did you resurface it, leave it alone or get a new one?

This very issue is why I am going to balance the flywheel and pressure plate as a unit prior to re-installing it. Even though I am anxious to get the car back together I would hate to go through the swap all over again due to vibration issues.

 

i would be patient with RAM ... i had two Soec 3s and they were nothing but problems...my RAM 910 and aluminum flywheel with Mcleod adj. master holds like a bear hug and with no chatter or surging...

 

I have heard nothing good about the SPEC stage 3 either but just about anyone with a stage 2 seems very happy although there are not as many stage 2 adopters. I have not heard many complaints about the RAMs though so I'm hoping to chalk this one up to a fluke manufacturing flaw or bent during shipping, which is what RAM blames it on, although the PP lies flat on a flat surface.

 

I had the SPEC Stage 3 clutch PP and aluminum flywheel package installed. FWIW, The package was not balanced prior to initla install and it vibrated like a ****. Then It was removed and balanced to the old fw/pp assembly TWICE and it STILL vibrated. The tuner finally got it to calm down by putting washers under the PP mounting bolts at the right spot to counter balance it. It still vibrates a little I still have the original fw/pp and am thinking of putting in a LUK Stage2 with Fidanza aluminum fw. A friend just put one in and it is sweet. Just as streetable as stock but good to almost 600fwhp. I'll tell you what though, the SPEC is a monster at the track. If I bang 3rd at high rpm, the rear wheels rip off the track and knock the car about 10ft ahead. I love that! Just gonna see this weekend if I can improve on the tuners efforts to calm the vibration down. I'd be interested in your final assesment of RAM.

 

Well, the story gets better. My replacement clutch got here around noon last Friday. I had dropped my flywheel off to be balanced while I was waiting for the replacement to get here. I asked him if he could balance the pressure plate and flywheel as a unit and he agreed so I ran it over to him. I get a call about an hour later from him saying that he can get 5 of the six bolts in, but not the last one. Tried many different ways but it's always that same hole.

Could not F---ing believe it. :mad Same damn problem I had with the first one! Mike @ New Era had even put this one up against an aftermarket flywheel prior to shipping and said that it looked like it lined up although it's tough to tell until you actually start putting bolts in it. Asked the balancer if it could be the flywheel that is off and he said no way. He said he could drill out the one hole that was off but there would not be a lot of material left as the hole needed to be opened up towards the outside of the pressure plate. I said go ahead if you can gaurantee it will mount true to the flywheel and balance. He made the hole bigger towards the outside of the pressure plate and balanced it. Now RAM says their plates are zero balanced from them and I had already had the flywheel zero balanced after having it turned so that must not be true since he had to weld a good amount of weights to the pressure plate.

When I got it home I verified that the flywheel bolt holes were all within ~.010" from the outermost part of the hole radius to the end of the machined surface of the flywheel so I can safely say that it was not the flywheel that was out. This means that:

A. This clutch was dropped in the exact same way the last one was
B. Ram let a bad batch of pressure plates out and I got two of them

I would suggest to them SOME type of QA process since I have been told that they have none and to package their clutches better if they are confident that both my plates were dropped/bent.

Bottom line is that the clutch is in and it works. Can't say exactly how well yet as I'm still breaking it in. I don't have a vibration since it was balanced as a unit but I would not have been comfortable drilling the hole out myself without having it balanced. If I had waited until Friday night to start bolting it up without having it balanced and ran into the exact same problem I had last weekend I would have without a doubt thrown it in the trash and gotten a SPEC.

 

That's fugly... No RAM for me. Thanks for the info. It really sucks that for the money you pay for an aftermarket clutch like the RAM that you DON'T get what you pay for.