Dougs951S

I'm posting this here so that everyone can know not to do business with SPEC clutches. Last week I ordered a new clutch kit for my V8 swapped 944. The car is built using a renegade hybrids kit, as almost every ltx swap is. Spec sent me a kit with a pressure plate that does not fit inside the RH bellhousing. Their test car was using a C5 bellhousing, which is typical of LS swapped cars. The old clutch kit that came out of my car was a spec disc, but a sachs pressure plate. I would soon learn why this is important.

In doing my research on this topic, I found out this was a well known, documented issue with the spec kit for lt swap cars that the company has refused to awknowledge.

I want you all to understand that I didnt discover this problem until after my transmission was already installed and the car was ready to start for the first time. I turned the key, and found the motor was locked up. wouldnt turn over on the starter. I take it apart again, and find it starts fine. Inspection reveals where the pressure plate was jamming up against the bellhousing. When I called spec to tell them this, they insisted I was crazy since the clutch "fit their test car just fine". When I pressed them further, thats when i found out their test car uses a C5 bellhousing. These yahoos know so little about what they were talking about they kept insisting I was using the wrong bellhousing...the RH bellhousing has been in use for lt swaps since before the C5 corvette even existed.

They still insist its my fault, even though their website states it fits all swap cars with 1 pc rear main seals. I even placed my order over the phone, and explained to spec my exact setup to be sure it would fit.

When I called them to explain all of this, they initially tried to charge me for a replacement pressure plate that WOULD fit (there are two types for the camaro, wtf wouldnt their kit just include the smaller of the two that is gaurunteed to fit everything). Then they said they'd probably be changing the part in the v8 swap clutch kit, which means they are aknowledgeing its a problem, that they made a mistake, and they still dont want to help me.

When I balked at this, they begrudgingly agreed to ship me out the correct part for free. Now, good customer service would have been to overnight it to me. They did not do this even though I asked. Fine...I called again today to request a partial refund on account of them forcing me to take my entire car apart again and for all my wasted time. Danny; who is the guy I've been working with at Spec; was extremely rude to me and asked me how I had the gall to ask for a refund after they sent me a "free replacement pressure plate and even paid for the shipping". When I asked him how he would have handled this if the car was at a shop and now I was out $1000+ dollars in extra labor to redo the clutch. His response was "that's not our problem".

What a ****show of a company. Save yourselves a headache and dont do business with SPEC.

V2Rocket

...any company who sends you something for free to correct a problem is doing good customer service.
You can't expect them to pony up for overnight unless you're in some crazy emergency situation and explain that beforehand.

Wouldn't the "right move" have been to contact Renegade for a replacement clutch since they spec'd it out?
Spec's owner has an LS-swapped 944 - it would make sense that their product focus would be on the LS combos.

Dougs951S

I disagree with you Spencer. Spec failed to do their engineering homework; they did their mockup using a newer C5 bellhousing and they stated to me over the phone, after I explained which flywheel and bellhousing I have, that it would fit just fine. The fact is that MOST LT swap cars are using the RH bellhousing and the cars using the C5 are almost all LS cars. So, they make a kit for "lt swapped 944" and it doesnt fit the majority of lt swapped 944s out there.. as I said, this is a documented issue among the v8 swap guys that SPEC is only apparently just now admitting is an issue. Since it was their mistake, they are hardly giving me "good customer service" by sending me the correct ****ing part I paid for. That is the bare minimum which they are legally required to do. A clutch job is a big, time consuming thing to have to redo because of their oversight so again, in my humble opinion a small refund to me for my troubles would have made the difference between me being a happy customer and be publicly blasting the company like I am right now.

Also, contacting Renegade is impossible since they've been out of business for what, 10+ years? Before I called spec I DID phone Texas Performance Concepts; the company that bought out renegade hybrids. They dont deal with LT stuff anymore and have never swapped RH components. I spoke to the owner of TPC and he was a very nice gentleman, but was unable to help me. Again, the fault here lies entirely with spec.

ltusler

They make a mistake with one part for a bastard child car and then fix it and that means everyone should stop doing business with them? I don't think so. I have Spec clutch and PP still going strong after 4 years of racing. I'll stick with them, thanks.

V2Rocket

i guess i missed that part in the previous post.

Renegade is still open for business...
I visited them in 2009 and toured the shop...and the website is still up?
http://www.renegadehybrids.com/

TPC was entirely separate from RH - they were not a spinoff nor did they buy RH. The founder of TPC didn't like RH's business practices (keeping the parts they developed proprietary rather than sharing details to public for DIYers) so he started his own swap-source.