I have 550 miles on a Spec Star Stage III carbon disc.
It is still grabby and chattery, especially in reverse (feels like it is going to shake the car apart).

Does anybody else have one, and does it ever smooth out any more?

Spec told me it would get "as smooth as it's gonna get" by about 600miles, and now I'm starting to wonder if this is normal or not.

Tell me how your car drives with one...

Thanks!

Terry

 

Well I had 4k miles on my last SPEC STAGE III and it came apart.....It was the old version....sent it to SPEC and they sent me another disk that was shaped different....had more rivits holding it together....Did you get the round one or the chienese throwing star shaped one? It doesn't get any better if that's what you wanna know......It has to be the hardest clutch I have ever drove....I'll prob save for a twin disk next!

 

I have about 2000 miles on mine. It's broken very nicely. I hope it lasts! It still chatters and shakes the car in reverse, but forward engagement is just nice and firm, with no chatter. I can even slip it out slowly, almost like a stocker!

 

3,000 miles on my stage 3 carbon, and no longer chatters. (however, it never did much to begin with) "slipping" the clutch has not gotten much easier, (I'd hoped it would) however, it's still extremely grabby, making 1st gear a bit of a hassle to ease out of for everyday street driving.

All in all though, I'm pleased with it.

 

I like my Stage 3 carbon soo far..4k miles on it..

Cody

 

I had a puck rip off on mine after a few thousand miles on it. Its going back to SPEC this week. It was the old style 4 pucker which has had its share of problems, which is why they re-designed it.

Reverse with the SPEC 3 is not very pleasant so its a fact of life.
Normal driving is ok once you get use to the clutch but forget about slipping it in traffic 'cause its a pain. That clutch is also an anti-theft device as far as I am concerned.

 

Anti-theft.... hahahahah!
Good one.


I guess then I am experiencing normal Stage III operation.
Good.

Having done it myself, I always worry I screwed the pooch somehow...

I did it "right"... new fasteners, new pilot bushing, used a torque wrench (hahah!), surfaced flywheel, cleaned everything at final install (kept the plastic on the 6puck disc until I was sliding it on the alignment tool).

Mine is getting where I can move forward pretty smooth, but reverse.... oh my dear Lord is it shaky... and when I ease out of my yard in the morning, I HAVE to slip some.... I'm finding I just slip crap out of it to back up and do it slowly...

The engagement is also right at the top of the travel, which is different than stock.

I did see a glimmer of hope that around 2-4K miles the clutch should be able to drive almost normal going forward.

My wife drives the car some, and I was hoping to get the clutch smoothed out before I give her the keys again


Terry

 

I've got that clutch (old style) and I'll tell you it has a mind of its own. It'll chatter like crazy for a few months, then be OK for a few months, then chatter again for a few months, etc. It is very aggravating and make the car difficult to drive. If it didn't hold so good I would have taken that sucker out a long time ago. But, still holds good. In fact, on days that it is really bad and it really ticks me off I'll get going about 40 mph in 4th gear, push in the clutch, rev it, then drop the clutch... the tires either break loose or the engine bogs. I always say the day it quits holding like a mo fo that it's outta here but so far, it always holds
I've changed the clutch so many times I forget when the last time was it was changed but I believe it was about 15k miles ago.

 

As far as the anti-theft device....hehehe.....I think that my car is by far the hardest car that I have ever driven....

 

Thats the way mine was....had 600 miles on it before I broke a piston sprayn. It held the 150 shot on Nittos with no problem though. We'll see how it does with the new stroker and a 200 shot soon

One thing you may need to look at is your motor and tranny mounts. If you got a bad one it will really feel like the car is coming apart . Also...hopefully you had your flywheel surfaced.

Only thing I dont like about the clutch is it engages very high .

 

I had also just installed the stage III carbon clutch and broken it in about 2000 miles. I experience the same thing with 1st and reverse. You did get the new six pucks not the older four pucks right, which chatters tremendously and shatters as well?

After about 1000-1500 miles not 600 miles of breaking in, the chatters on my car almost disappear, and I also gotten use to driving it better. One trick that will help you is try reving to 1.5k rpm then partially release your clutch. At this point your rpm will drop a lot since it is trying to engage. But before you completely release the clutch, rev the rpm back up to 1.5k then release the clutch. Since it is a racing clutch, it works better when you are at higher rpm. This will help to reduce the chattering and allow much easier engagement of the first gear.

cheers

 

My Spec Stage 3 with the carbon pucks (revised 6 puch chinese star shaped) acts the same way. I have about 800 miles on it, and it is better taking off in first, still chatters a little if you let the RPM's drop too much. I am pretty used to driving it now, but in reverse, it sounds like the car is going to fall apart. Sometimes I think that I should have gone with the Stage 2, cause maybe it wouldnt be so brutal. It does hold, and I will give it that, and hopefully it will with the mods in the sig to be installed in the next week or 2.

Nick