Here is an update if any one is interested. The Ford tech went on a vacation so I have been waiting for him to return to get things going. He dropped the tranny yesterday to replace slave and drain stock fluid and replace with the motul synthetic. Found that the pressure plate fingers on the spec 2 + more very uneven. Some were bent in and a couple were bent out. Not sure what caused the problem. The input shaft is in good shape. (You never want your input shaft to have problems). So we are going to replace clutch/pressure plate, and the slave to see if it remedies the problem. I will be calling spec about the clutch/pressuer plate as it only has about 1500 miles on it.
Here is an update if any one is interested. The Ford tech went on a vacation so I have been waiting for him to return to get things going. He dropped the tranny yesterday to replace slave and drain stock fluid and replace with the motul synthetic. Found that the pressure plate fingers on the spec 2 + more very uneven. Some were bent in and a couple were bent out. Not sure what caused the problem. The input shaft is in good shape. (You never want your input shaft to have problems). So we are going to replace clutch/pressure plate, and the slave to see if it remedies the problem. I will be calling spec about the clutch/pressuer plate as it only has about 1500 miles on it.
This wouldn't be such a big deal if the clutch came out easy.
Right now it just plain sucks. My plan as of right now is to replace the slave, upgrade the fluid, cut some cooling holes in the bell housing and make a bleeder and reservoir that is independent of the brake reservoir this winter when the motor comes out. I am going to be PO’d if I need to get a new pressure plate too.
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Under Construction. Better, Stronger, Faster than it was before.
This wouldn't be such a big deal if the clutch came out easy.
Right now it just plain sucks. My plan as of right now is to replace the slave, upgrade the fluid, cut some cooling holes in the bell housing and make a bleeder and reservoir that is independent of the brake reservoir this winter when the motor comes out. I am going to be PO’d if I need to get a new pressure plate too.
The tech said it took 3 of them to turn the tranny the 30 degrees counterclockwise required to get it to drop out of the way. Glad it was them with a lift and not me in my garage! I went with a dual disc setup and a new aluminum flywheel. Figured I might as well do it right this time.
Pulled my trans last night to put in my new SPEC 2+ clutch.
That was a riot! SLP headers royally suck to pull a trans. Had to screw the trans back and forth as dropping it out. Top LH bell bolt was a bee-atch too!
Anyhow, once I got it out, the Throwout bearing, spring and a bunch of fluid came out. The plate was all holding it in. Definitely heat related. Seal was smoked in the slave.
Dealer didn't have one, so car was pushed outside. Probably finish it Friday and drive the long boring 500 break miles by next Thursday so I can go to the FRPP track day.
May look into an aftermarket slave when I do the forged internals. But I don't know of anyone else that needed one Once again I reference my buddy's Cannonball ride. He has 20k plus on his slave cylinder with a Fidanza clutch and no issues none of us had. He can drive too! Many years of road racing under his belt. Melted his tires last time...on the front!
I think heat is the enemy. Riding the clutch, or not enough for the power (my case) super heats everything in the bellhousing and damages the slave.
tbrock...let me know what Jeremy (SPEC tech) says. Sounds like the pressure plate wasn't tightened down fully or properly. Mine is in and fingers are nice and even. Did you change the flywheel with the new disc?
sqidd, shoot me a PM when you think about it. I have a proposition for you
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2006 Legend Lime GT: Samco, Metco, LPW, Brembo 6 pot brakes with floating rotors, Magnacharger with 8-Rib, LubeLocker, Royal Purple, FR500S front end, APR Performance Carbon Fiber Rear Wing, Roll bar, 10 qt upgraded oil system...Thank you Capaldi Racing for all your help! 2007 Mustang GT/CS : Wife's Car, Magnacharged too. 1966 Mustang GT-K Code Coupe: Restored
Yes, but the van is in the rest stop on 94 in your area
SICKO!
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2006 Legend Lime GT: Samco, Metco, LPW, Brembo 6 pot brakes with floating rotors, Magnacharger with 8-Rib, LubeLocker, Royal Purple, FR500S front end, APR Performance Carbon Fiber Rear Wing, Roll bar, 10 qt upgraded oil system...Thank you Capaldi Racing for all your help! 2007 Mustang GT/CS : Wife's Car, Magnacharged too. 1966 Mustang GT-K Code Coupe: Restored
Pulled my trans last night to put in my new SPEC 2+ clutch.
That was a riot! SLP headers royally suck to pull a trans. Had to screw the trans back and forth as dropping it out. Top LH bell bolt was a bee-atch too!
Anyhow, once I got it out, the Throwout bearing, spring and a bunch of fluid came out. The plate was all holding it in. Definitely heat related. Seal was smoked in the slave.
Dealer didn't have one, so car was pushed outside. Probably finish it Friday and drive the long boring 500 break miles by next Thursday so I can go to the FRPP track day.
May look into an aftermarket slave when I do the forged internals. But I don't know of anyone else that needed one Once again I reference my buddy's Cannonball ride. He has 20k plus on his slave cylinder with a Fidanza clutch and no issues none of us had. He can drive too! Many years of road racing under his belt. Melted his tires last time...on the front!
I think heat is the enemy. Riding the clutch, or not enough for the power (my case) super heats everything in the bellhousing and damages the slave.
tbrock...let me know what Jeremy (SPEC tech) says. Sounds like the pressure plate wasn't tightened down fully or properly. Mine is in and fingers are nice and even. Did you change the flywheel with the new disc?
sqidd, shoot me a PM when you think about it. I have a proposition for you
The fly wheel which was re-surface when I put the spec 2+ in has two nasty hot spots that coincide with the two sides where the pressure plate fingers were jacked up. Ford Tech said everything was tight to spec.
New slave unit went in with a zoom factor 1 dual disc and an aluminum flywheel. I am working on the break in period but it feels righteous so far. The pedal is certainly stiffer but stiff is good if the darn thing works. I'll give it a good 500 and see how it does. Also went with the motul synthetic fluid to help with the heat issue. Next move if this does not work is to replace with after market hydraulic set up.
The fly wheel which was re-surface when I put the spec 2+ in has two nasty hot spots that coincide with the two sides where the pressure plate fingers were jacked up. Ford Tech said everything was tight to spec.
New slave unit went in with a zoom factor 1 dual disc and an aluminum flywheel. I am working on the break in period but it feels righteous so far. The pedal is certainly stiffer but stiff is good if the darn thing works. I'll give it a good 500 and see how it does. Also went with the motul synthetic fluid to help with the heat issue. Next move if this does not work is to replace with after market hydraulic set up.
Sent some pictures to Paul at spec so we'll see.
You're not giving me a warm fuzzy feeling about SPEC, even though everyone at NMRA recommends them.
Mine is in now, and I went with a new flywheel as recommended. Pedal is almost to easy to push down. I like some resistance, not as much as my 66 Mustang, but enough to know it's working. Engagement is great, very smooth. But a lot of rattle at idle in N with the clutch out?
I may need to carry more than one brand of clutch, or change suppliers
For your problem, I would bet a dollar to a donut, the failed slave caused the uneven finger issue. This year is my 23 anniversary of doing clutches, I have just about seen it all.
Also, I keep hearing NOT to use syn. brake fluid in the clutch. Which is ignorant! How else you going to use it in your brakes. Again, my buddy has no issues with his using it. But I did switch to it 4 months ago, and now my slave was failed when I took it out
My professional recommendations for anyone doing a clutch: Include a new slave in the cost, no matter how few miles.
Resurface your flywheel (new bolts are recommended also), if your clutch manufactuer recommneds a new flywheel with their parts, USE IT!
The stock cast iron flywheel is a bunch of recycled junk cast together. The surface will be the weak link of the new clutch system. If you get a billet unit, designed to work with your friction material within your clutch, your results will be much better I believe.
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2006 Legend Lime GT: Samco, Metco, LPW, Brembo 6 pot brakes with floating rotors, Magnacharger with 8-Rib, LubeLocker, Royal Purple, FR500S front end, APR Performance Carbon Fiber Rear Wing, Roll bar, 10 qt upgraded oil system...Thank you Capaldi Racing for all your help! 2007 Mustang GT/CS : Wife's Car, Magnacharged too. 1966 Mustang GT-K Code Coupe: Restored
You're not giving me a warm fuzzy feeling about SPEC, even though everyone at NMRA recommends them.
Mine is in now, and I went with a new flywheel as recommended. Pedal is almost to easy to push down. I like some resistance, not as much as my 66 Mustang, but enough to know it's working. Engagement is great, very smooth. But a lot of rattle at idle in N with the clutch out?
I may need to carry more than one brand of clutch, or change suppliers
For your problem, I would bet a dollar to a donut, the failed slave caused the uneven finger issue. This year is my 23 anniversary of doing clutches, I have just about seen it all.
Also, I keep hearing NOT to use syn. brake fluid in the clutch. Which is ignorant! How else you going to use it in your brakes. Again, my buddy has no issues with his using it. But I did switch to it 4 months ago, and now my slave was failed when I took it out
My professional recommendations for anyone doing a clutch: Include a new slave in the cost, no matter how few miles.
Resurface your flywheel (new bolts are recommended also), if your clutch manufactuer recommneds a new flywheel with their parts, USE IT!
The stock cast iron flywheel is a bunch of recycled junk cast together. The surface will be the weak link of the new clutch system. If you get a billet unit, designed to work with your friction material within your clutch, your results will be much better I believe.
I agree about the clutch slave. If you are going for a clutch upgrade install a new slave. It is cheaper than a new clutch, flywheel, and slave!
As far as spec goes I've heard good and bad. One vendor I spoke with dropped them after multiple problems and other vendor have nothing but good stuff to say. I will say that one vendor does not allow negative feedback on their web site for spec products. I know some one who posted negative and it was removed.
As far as the synthetic fluid is concerned. I guess we'll see. The vette crowd that I know use it and swear by it. My Ford Tech said our system feeds from the top portion of the resevoir and thought it made good sense to run a higher temp fluid based on what he saw when he traced the fluid line from the tranny to the resevoir. The line runs near the exhaust. We'll see, at some point you would think Ford would come up with an improved set up. Although my Ford guy said mine is the first problem he has seen, and he works on several GT500's that get driven hard???
Well, I wasn't going to mention it. And I won't say what the problem was until I here back from SPEC.
But I had a bad out of the box unit I put on my PERSONAL car last night. Ended up having to take it off and put another one on. Took pics and sent them off to SPEC.
That's 50% success rate. I need a decent explanation. Had I mail ordered that to someone, and they had the problem, them and I would have been PO'd! I was lucky to have a spare in my trunk. But what about someone in their driveway on their back. Maybe their car is their ONLY transportation and they have to get it together.
They pull the clutch out of the box, have to have it done that day...and BHAM! Bad part. Now what? Wait 3 days for another. NOT!!!
From now on, I will open & inspect any item I sell that can leave a person dead in the water on installation.
For now, I will be contacting some additional suppliers next week. I think Zoom and Exedy for alternatives.
JDM sold me on using SPEC, I will be mentioning my woes to them in a couple weeks when I see them again.
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2006 Legend Lime GT: Samco, Metco, LPW, Brembo 6 pot brakes with floating rotors, Magnacharger with 8-Rib, LubeLocker, Royal Purple, FR500S front end, APR Performance Carbon Fiber Rear Wing, Roll bar, 10 qt upgraded oil system...Thank you Capaldi Racing for all your help! 2007 Mustang GT/CS : Wife's Car, Magnacharged too. 1966 Mustang GT-K Code Coupe: Restored
Well this is just sucky poo. No that I didn’t have enough crap to do this winter now I get to add redesign slave cylinder system to the list. At the end of the day that’s what is needed to solve this completely. I figure instead of making everything 5% better and ending up with a 55% (that # came from nowhere) improvement I’m going to start from scratch and simply re-design the entire system top to bottom and over build it so there is no chance in the future. When I build a Superbike Spec bike and I don’t have the advantage of a box full of kit parts (which is rare) I have to make this stuff from scratch anyway. And I have made all sorts of hydraulic clutch systems in my day. It’s not actually that hard since there are not too many parts, but everything and all the leverage ratios and the fluid displacement need to be spot on foot it to work as OEM. The problem is that we took OEM stuff and asked it to handle things it was never even close to designed for.
If it makes you feel any better the 03 Cobra had the same issue. I don’t know if they fixed it mid year or anything and how they fixed it but it was getting so bad that I could run two races and then it needed cool down for a half an hour before I could get the car back in gear,
I’m not worried about being able to put it together right, I just won’t be doing anything till after Halloween,
Oh, and for what it's worth my Sec Stage III has nee truble free I think the problem with everyones probels started with the slave cylinder and went down hill from there.
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Under Construction. Better, Stronger, Faster than it was before.
A lot of people mention getting the aftermarket one for S197s, but what they don't realize in the fine print on the McLeod piece is that it requires a new seperate master cylinder.
Of which Wilwood has in the proper 3/4" bore size (which is recommended.
Whatever...If I get more serious about this drag racing BS for business purposes, I'll be going to an automatic anyhow. Everyone that is competitive runs an auto...for a reason.
I'll see next year when I switch to NMCA and can use a 2-step. NMRA doesn't allow it in my class, yet the auto guys can change stall converters?
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2006 Legend Lime GT: Samco, Metco, LPW, Brembo 6 pot brakes with floating rotors, Magnacharger with 8-Rib, LubeLocker, Royal Purple, FR500S front end, APR Performance Carbon Fiber Rear Wing, Roll bar, 10 qt upgraded oil system...Thank you Capaldi Racing for all your help! 2007 Mustang GT/CS : Wife's Car, Magnacharged too. 1966 Mustang GT-K Code Coupe: Restored
Whatever...If I get more serious about this drag racing BS for business purposes, I'll be going to an automatic anyhow. Everyone that is competitive runs an auto...for a reason.
That is a geat point. The chassis mI have sitting here that is ready to go 100% "race car" but will still be strret kegal will have an auto in it too. I am thinkinh the GM 400R or whetever that is called. I won;t be putting a ton on power doesn, maybe a 408-427 651 Dart boulc, ailuminum hrads, carb, etc with some big headers, and 5.5-30.0" exhaust. It already has a tubulat subframe, no, motot, no trans. but it does have a 9" narroewed in it but the center sectioin is trashed. The car has mini tubs and teh chassis is giood for 8.50's or something (I can't remember) . I will be looking forward to sitting on the line with the car sitting on the teo step at 3K and then when te lights go green I loose he ottom and he car mached out of the strting gate and just shifts in OD past the 1/4 light. It will be perfect. Oh, did I mention it will have 350hp of N2O on it. I'm thinking low 9's should be pretty easy for about $15K. I never had a auto car before in my life, this will be fun!
Oh yeah, flat black too with maybe a few spots of grey primer. Just so people will think it runs 12's
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Under Construction. Better, Stronger, Faster than it was before.
