Is an original (rubber centered) clutch in a low miles - 25k- 89 S2 likely to have some life left in it? Or expect it to fall apart any time... What is experience with this? Thanks! Paul

 

my original (968) clutch croaked at 158 k miles (this same week - 1 year ago).

kind of a cool story on the failure....

happened while racing this guy on the mass pike switching from 5th to 6th gear and got the dreaded gears grinding.... about 15 miles from the house coming back from western new York...

coaxed her home without too much grief. then, about 6:00 the next morning, I hit like 8 green lights and no reds on the back roads to Natick (Mass).... good thing too. as I got to about a block from Jerry Pelegrino's shop, the clutch fully disintegrated, becoming totally inoperable.

cutting across a supermarket lot to avoid a light that is always red, i had a few cars blocking my path at the exit, and stalled the car.

at that point, all i could do was start it in 1st gear and give it the gas to make the final 200 feet of my 8 mile adventure !!

that thing was destroyed.


and the car's record of never being up on tow truck preserved.

 

Ha! Quite a story odurandina! Did the 968 also have a rubber centered clutch? If so may be stronger than I thought...

 

I can't recall. replaced with a fresh Sachs.

the new one seems slightly heavier than the old one, and it's only a stage 1.

 

What I've found with these older cars, is that if it's rubber, it's rotting or hardened. You can drive it if you want and when it craps out, you'll notice new noised underneath the car you haven't heard before. There's some metal "get home" tabs in the clutch so you should be able to get home (depending on how far "home" is). When it starts to go you'll notice rubber chunks in the inspection hole in the bottom of the bellhousing. Replacement with a conventional spring loaded disc is preferred by many but the rubber centered one will dampen out some of the "positive shifting" aspects of the spring loaded clutch. Personally, I opted for a Sachs unit and I get a little more feed back in the shifter and response to changing gears than I had in the rubber centered disc. My rubber disc was ok, but my RMS was leaking and since I had the clutch out to replace it, I chose to do the clutch at the same time.

 

I'll chime in here and say that I agree that the spring centered clutch is the preferred replacement clutch. Not to say that the springs are immune to failure either. Do a little Google time or do a search on this site and you will find the manufacturers that seem to have the least failures and the best attributes. In defense of the rubber centered clutch, I will say this. The performance of the clutch has never been an issue, it holds as good as any other. It is the best mannered (easy pressures and the compensating effect of the rubber center) and the quietest unit made for the 944. I replaced the original clutch on my early '85 at 58K miles. Plenty of friction disk left but after 20 years the rubber was starting to "chunk". But...

About 3 years ago I did a clutch replacement on a '91 S2. Original factory Porsche clutch with 116K on it. Lott'a "spirited" driving. I was amazed. It was worn down to about the last MM of friction material but the rubber center was in excellent condition! No torsional cracks, no chunks missing, no rot. Just worn out. So did Porsche improve the rubber in the last specs for the rubber centered clutch? (if they did Sachs would have applied it to all clutches for the NA '44s, says Sachs) I've asked Porsche and they don't know. The catchall answer was "everything is always evolving". So, IMHO if you like your car stock and are happy with the way the clutch performs, I see nothing wrong with going with a rubber centered clutch. It just comes down to a matter of preference.

 

I have an 86 with about 87k on the odometer. I am almost certain it still has the rubber clutch. If you don't have a reason to believe it is crumbling, I bet it will have some life left.

 

Just hit 73k miles on my S2 Cabrio with original clutch. If you know how to drive manual (and previous owners did also) then these clutches last awhile.