smshirk

The clutch on my wife's 968 Cab failed yestersday at a most inoppertune time and place. I had it towed to my regular mechanic. He hasn't called yet with the estimate, but how much do you think it will cost. Pedal was on the floor, distinctive clutch smell. It had never slipped, but she was stuck in trafic for anout an hour in 97 degree heat,. AS soon as she got moving again it wouldnt' shift for a time, then seemed to start working, just before it failed for keeps. I could pull the pedal up from then floorboard, but could not push it back in more thn 2 or 3 inches. It sort of felt like the spring and arm could be bad, but it looked OK. The smell though was telltale.

flash968

labor is 4 hours or so (not the 12 a 944 takes) - parts vary depending on your source, but roughly 3-400

i would highly recommend changing all parts like release bearing, and clutch fork bearing and pilot bushing

inspect the flywheel for rebound too - you may need a new one anyway though because you may have fragged it if you really dug the disk in there when you burned it - that part is a grand or so new

User 41221

$3-400?? Where? Paragon lists the clutch kit for $600 or so, and as you mentioned, has all the parts to do the job right.

Regards,

Jason Judd

It's going to be $1,000. I don't care what anybody sais.

Jason

smshirk

I was thinking a $1000 too, especially considering the situation and having to get it towed. If the flywheel does have to be replaced,is there a lightweight one that can be bought for close to the same money. Any recommendations. also, are there any clutches that are more performance oriented ot more relaible that are recommended. I never even thought about flywheel damage.

RajDatta

Chances are your flywheel is ok. Most of the times I have seen the pressure plate side fail. I wouldn't freak out yet.
Parts should be in the $500-550 range from Sunset Porsche. This might be a good time to bleed your brake fluid as well. Make sure you lube everything. They have a special lube that is copper based that does not dry out. I can't remember the name but its made by Lube Moly.
I am working with someone on building a Crome-moly flywheel with a spring loaded disk. It might still be a few months away. I will post when its ready.
Raj

flash968

your flywheel may indeed be fine - check it out carefully for smoothness and rebound

the fidanza aluminum is a cost effective option if you are willing to deal with a noticable rattle - the performance increase is significant, but the noise would drive some people nuts

tilton engineering has also agreed to work on a chromoly flywheel that will accept a spring center clutch - price would be about the same as fidanza at under 600 - i just haven't had time to send them a stock flywheel and disk for measurement so they can get going

the last time i bought a clutch and pressure plate, they ran me less than 400 - the place i got them is no longer around, but it seems a local guy here just got them for the same money not more than a couple of months ago - don't know if it was vertek or pelican or what

now for the part where some of us disagree - i'd check the pressure plate out - neither mine, nor this other guy's were balanced out of the box (neither were either one of our stock DMFs or pressure plates) - mine was off quite a bit - with an aluminum flywheel, if i hadn't have balanced it, it would have been ugly - with a DMF, you probably won't notice anything - if you had one that was balanced, and one that was not, and compared the outputs on the same engine, there maybe a slight power loss due to some of the engine's energy being absorbed by the dampening effect of the DMF, and therefore not sent to the transmission - this has not been measured yet though - there appears to be no issue of damage with an unbalanced stock setup, unlike what would happen with an unbalanced single mass setup

Dave in Chicago

My clutch was original when it failed around 135k miles (WOW!). That's the good news. The bad news is that it took the flywheel with it. I had to get the dual-mass (stock class Club Racing thing), but the prices had come back down. I think the flywheel was 800 flippin' dollars for the part!

RajDatta

Sm, I for one believe that the factory DMF and pressure plate come balanced. Its pretty easy to prove if they do or not. If you are willing to, when you get your new setup, please take it to the nearest machine shop and ask them how well its balanced or if it needs balancing.
I will be willing to pay for the cost of balancing if its not balanced and if it is, then flash can pay.
Sounds fair to everyone?
Raj

smshirk

Soumds like I can't lose

flash968

knowing that the two i mentioned were not balanced out of the box, and that one of them definitely needed balancing and had it done (got the holes to prove it), it seems pretty easy to say that at least not all of them are balanced - my setup was 18 grams out, only 11 of which were in the flywheel - the other 7 were in the pressure plate - i have no other explaination than to say that they must not all be balanced by the manufacturer

again, this is not something that you wil neccessarily feel with a DMF - you will with a single mass flywheel like i have though - ugly mess - it has just become a standard practive of mine, after building so many race engines and seeing the extra performance available when not having to fight vibrations

it's only 40 bucks to balance both units, and probably free to check

RajDatta

So, are we up to the challenge then? Lets not try to back step here about use of DMF as an excuse and it not be noticeable on it. Feel should have nothing to do with what shows up at the machine shop.
Its only $40 but to me its worth it just to put this discussion to rest.
Raj

flash968

how many do you need to know that not all of them are balanced?

so far i have 4 pressure plates and 2 flywheels that have not been balanced from the manufacturer, and one flywheel and pressure plate (stock) that were definitely out of balance - you are the only one i have heard of that has one he claims his has been done by the factory

if you want to do a test, fine - how about we buy a bunch, say, maybe at least a dozen, from different sources, and then do the test? that should give us a decent sampling

i don't think we are arguing the need for balancing - i think the only thing in question is whether or not the pressure plates come to us already done

here's a thing to ask yourself for the sake of logic - how do they know what we are putting it up against, and whether or not that unit is balanced? since this pressure plate fits other cars, that could easily make things worse

RajDatta

My purpose is to make sure people are not misguided, that all.
Raj

flash968

mine too

so far, all experience out here is that they have no adjustments made to them from the manufacturer - yours is so far, the only one we have seen done - i will take your word for it that it is the original setup and nobody got in there and did it themselves

this means that one of the following are true:

they have either figured out a way to make them perfect without correction, where other manufacturers have not been as successful - or

porsche did not feel that it was generally neccessary to do it because of the dampening effect of the DMF and it would not be noticeable in a street car - or

the manufacturer assumes that the user will make the decision as to need, and take care of it themselves

the last one is the case with all other manufacturers of these kinds of parts that i have ever come across

all i am suggesting is to have it checked and then if needed done if using it on a single mass flywheel, or even on a DMF if maximum performance is a desire