Don't.

I bought their 6-puck sprung disk only a few months ago, and thought it sounded like an excellent clutch. It was streetable, made little to no clutch chatter, and would support the power I would be making when I convert to a single turbo. Without my tune, I have to be making less than 300rwhp, and this disk supposedly was used in their 800hp Supra.

So I put the clutch in(along with replacing everything else in the area... flywheel, PP, bearings, etc), and use it for about 2000 miles before storing it for winter. Super Bowl Sunday was a nice day, and since my Giants had made it to the Super Bowl, I considered it a "special occasion". But on my way back from picking up the food for the event, my car stopped shifting while running. I could shift when the car was off, and even start it in gear, I just couldn't change gears if the car was on. Thinking it was a throwout bearing, a friend and I drop the tranny. Come to find out, the clutch became welded to the flywheel. Not only that, but this garbage clutch disintegrated ON TO the flywheel, as well as chewing deep grooves into it. Now I have mountains of clutch material welded on my flywheel, along with a worthless clutch. Just take a look at how deep the chunks missing from the clutch are... and the pictures don't even do it justice, the chunks missing are far larger than they appear in the photos...

Do you think I can just resurface the flywheel, or will I have to buy a new one? Should HPFs be liable to alleviate this situation, considering it has now cost me hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to fix this?

And a VERY special THANK YOU to Alex(ALNY93R1) for driving almost an hour to my town on his day off to help me drop my tranny, it is very much appreciated!

 

Being a machinist and from what it looks like to resurface that flywheel you would have to cut too far into the gear portion, more pictures would be better

 

Take it to a parts store that turns fly wheels and they can tell you if its going to be able to resurfaced.

 

Damn, how did you manage that one???? I think HPS will only go as far as replacing the defective clutch. Who knows maybe theyre "nice" and will offer to spec the flywheel/resurface if possible?
good luck with that!!!!!!

BTW, which clutch is that? I have a similar one from clutch net.

 

How did you break the clutch in?

 

A-Rod if need be. Richy has a freshly resurfaced stock FD flywheel that he will let go fo $50. Damn it was warm in that garage, 40 degrees ain't bad.

 

HPF do not make their own clutches. They are sourced from places like ACT, RPS etc....
If anything it would have to go back to the Manufacturer for inspection.

Jason

 

I installed the whole setup. I actually drove if for the first 100 miles. I made sure A-Rod broke the clutch in for 500 miles. Since there was no meets going on it was extended to 700 miles.
I really hate horsepower freaks, they screwed me for 4 months on their drop ship methods... If A-Rod doesn't call them I'll be forced to give them a call my self.

 

MADDSLOW, in my opinion they should help you recover the cost of the clutch and flywheel. (and some of the labor if they wanted to be cool about it)

Unfortunately, it often doesn't happen that way.

 

Jesse,

It would be nice if this would happen, but I highly doubt it will. If a company believed everything people told them "happened" to their products, the company would make no money. Unfortunately, I have a very real problem that will probably be completely dismissed. The best they'll probably offer me is a replacement disk, AFTER I send it back for them to look at blah blah blah. I need this clutch disk NOW, as I am preparing my car for the upcoming spring season. I was hoping to have the car ready and on the road by April, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen, now.

What's funny is that of all the problems I am having, none of them are really "FD" problems... they're more like "wtf shitty expensive products" problems.

 

This sucks. I had the same problem. upon removal the clutch disc had to be pryed from the flywheel. I ended up putting an act in it. I did not resurface the flywheel (light weight). I just sanded it alittle. I have no problems.

 

By the way I ordered the new clutch kit from horsepower freaks. no problems

 

^You used the same 6 puck from HPF that I used?

 

Shitty!

You shouldn't have any need to resurface that f-wheel unless the rivets were hitting. I don't know what our resident machinist is talking about... maybe he thinks that's a gouge and not a deposit of clutch disc material.

Emery cloth would do that just fine if you scrape off the clutch schmutz.

I've had bad experiences with aftermarket clutches myself, not even mentioning the horror stories I've heard.

I have always had great experiences with Exedy/Daiken clutch products (Mazda OEM supplier). They feel great and hold up to abuse well. Every time I've strayed from Exedy I've had a problem with the clutch quality. It's amazing what crap some companies will sell as a usable product. No quality control and shitty materials.

 

Alright, an update:

I finally got in touch with HPFs. I sent them pictures of the damaged items, and explained how unhappy I was with their product. The salesman asked me if I was using an aluminum flywheel, which I was. He said "Ohh, yeah, they don't work too well with aluminum flywheels." While he was on the phone, I went to the site, checked all appropriate categories for my car, and checked the clutch area. No mention of it not working well with aluminum clutches. I pointed this out, and he offered me $40 off the purchase of a different clutch. Being disappointed with his offer, I asked to speak to a manager. I explained my situation to the manager, and explained how costly and tedious it was for me to remove my transmission and have a destroyed clutch/flywheel combo after only 2000 miles. I know 6-pucks have significantly shorter lifespans than full-faced disks, but 2000 miles is absolutely ridiculous, especially for the power I was making. He seemed to agree with me, but pointed out that 1) The item was considered a "race" item, therefore there are no warranties on it and 2) The item was purchased 7 months ago. However, he seemed to fully believe my situation, so he offered me $111 off of the clutch I was planning on purchasing(ACT SS). I suppose this is much better than what they could have offered me (nothing), but I have to admit that I am still somewhat disappointed. I feel like a paid a good amount of money for a product that failed almost immediately after installation, and the cost of the install plus the cost of the damaged clutch/flywheel is going to make this a costly lesson.

 

I feel you dog~! lets call it a draw...gotta get your ride running right for the spring bro!

 

For what it's worth, my spec sprung 6 puck has withstood about 14k miles of abuse now with no problems, so 6 pucks can last for a while......

 

I agree with Goodfella on the Spec sprung 6 puck. I have mine out of my car right now for my engine swap and it has almost no wear after ~8k miles. They can last for quite a while.

 

You know my opinion...

 

Well the flywheel was repairable, so thats a plus. I decided to go with a street/strip clutch, so hopefully I won't run into the same problem again...

 

I'm glad you did the RIGHT thing. If you used the paper method I would have called you Sandpaper Sally...

 

It's only right if you're **** retentive. Otherwise, resurfacing a flywheel with no stepped wear or gouging is a waste of money.

 

moving this

 

I hope that flywheel got both surfaces machined...the friction surface AND mounting surface.

The friction surface is normally stepped above the mounting surface by X amount. IF you take some of that friction material away but leave the mounting surface alone, there is now less tension on the clutch disc/pressureplate as a result, as slippage can occur. The proper procedure is to 2 step machine the flywheel, maintaining the X step distance and thus the clamping load on the clutch.

It doesnt look to me like they did it 2 step, though.

 

I'm a little bit confused on what you mean by the "mounting surface"... but I'm going to guess that it wasn't done.

And a VERY special thank you to rxrotary2 7 for moving this thread to the wrong section!