clutchmasters stage 3 failure...

[SHODWN]

The sprung hub helps to absorb the shock of clutch engagement. With a solid hub, the engagement shock goes right into the transaxle internals.

If you'd ever driven a heavy car with a solid hub clutch disc, you'd know it, as it's very hard to be smooth with the clutch take-up, especially with aggressive (grabby) friction materials.

If anyone thinks the Stage 3 is bad this thing would knock your socks off.. Ive had my Stage 3 from Josh for 4 years now and only beat the car on the track and its held up just fine so far.. I hope the guy that bought that has Tonys Gear set..

There are always defects in new parts, what should be done is the few of you that have had the issue write it all down and let Josh know, then Josh can call them, and tell them what the issue is and try to correct it. If everyone calls CM and starts freaking out then they wont pay much attention..

 

[gmorrell]

ClutchNet's 9.75" sprung hub disc with "fiber carbon" lining, which looks very similar to the old Fiber Tuff city bus linings I used to run in my SHO clutch.

This looks to my engineer's eye to be a much better designed hub center, especially the damper spring pockets, which almost fully enclose the springs, and the windows don't have any sharp edges to precipitate fractures.

Unlike Valeo's hub carrier, ClutchNet also doesn't use any plastic in their hub carrier.

This would be a stunning, and durable disc for a SHO, and well worth the $195 asking price

http://www.clutchnet.com/product.php?productid=4340&cat=0&page=2

 

[BlackonBlack89]

Thanks gary for the info.

So with the CM stage 3 failures it has always been the disc failing. How the's the PP holding up? I know the rivets are the weak link on the stock units. For some reason my CM stage1 is great. Beat the crap out if it drag racing and now with the boost its still fine. No slicks for it though!!!

 

[Racer X]

Whoa, is this really a Clutchnet PP for the Taurus SHO?

If so, I'm in.

 

[gmorrell]

Whoa, is this really a Clutchnet PP for the Taurus SHO?
If so, I'm in.

That's just a generic photo, besides, that's a pull-to-release clutch, ours is push-to-release.

 

[firebat45]

Whoa, is this really a Clutchnet PP for the Taurus SHO?

If so, I'm in.

I bet that's a stock photo for a "yellow" performance plate, not a photo of the actual SHO version. I haven't ordered a pressure plate from them though so I don't know for sure. That looks like a stamped plate, and ours is cast (stock, at least).

EDIT - Beaten to the punch, oh well.

 

[SHO_DOODmorrris]

I had to remove my trans due to my flywheel bolts coming loose,btw any body know where to get new ones?, so i was looking over my clutch disc and i think i was about to have the same failure as you.

yes that looks like the same failure... talk to josh about it and send the pictures in... we need to compile as much evidence as possible! lol
anyone want to buy a CM3 when i get a replacment? ill gkeep the PP you buy the disk
hmmm... clutchmasters got back to josh and they want me to send it in...

 

[Racer X]

Gary, I've seen push to release clutches that have a bearing in the middle of the fingers like that. The 2G Eclipse GSX comes to mind.

That is stamped though. I'd be interested to see the SHO one. Maybe I can get them to send me a photo.

 

[gmorrell]

I'm too lazy to search around for the other picture of their "yellow" clutch, the if you look at the similar cover in "red", it's a pull to release pressure plate. Could be DSM, could be Porsche, Porsche likes pull clutches. Integral release bearings are common with pull clutches, not so common with push.

ClutchNet uses a lot of generic pictures, if you prowl around their site, they use the same picture for the "Fiber-carbon sprung hub disc" for literally every application that calls out that disc.

 

[Sho Amo]

That is what really upset me about my southbend clutch. i thought i was getting what was in the picture. i cant complain though. the southbend clutch is actually a very nice piece that has held p incredibly well with my 100 shot and 13sec pass.

 

[92sho16]

yes that looks like the same failure... talk to josh about it and send the pictures in... we need to compile as much evidence as possible! lol
anyone want to buy a CM3 when i get a replacment? ill gkeep the PP you buy the disk
hmmm... clutchmasters got back to josh and they want me to send it in...

I called cm the other day and got a RMA number, they said that i still may be sol though. What ****** me off was the guy tried to sell me a new clutch, i told him no the disc is defective i want it replaced and if not why would i buy another clutch from them.

 

[Mr95Gl]

I called cm the other day and got a RMA number, they said that i still may be sol though. What ****** me off was the guy tried to sell me a new clutch, i told him no the disc is defective i want it replaced and if not why would i buy another clutch from them.

When my CM's disk failed, they pretty much told me the same thing. Once your warranty is up, they don't really want to hear it. Buy a new one, or wait 10 years while the inspect the other with no guarantee that it'll be replaced.

I think the best course of action is what Kirk suggested.

 

[SHO NUT]

ClutchNet's 9.75" sprung hub disc with "fiber carbon" lining, which looks very similar to the old Fiber Tuff city bus linings I used to run in my SHO clutch.

This looks to my engineer's eye to be a much better designed hub center, especially the damper spring pockets, which almost fully enclose the springs, and the windows don't have any sharp edges to precipitate fractures.

Unlike Valeo's hub carrier, ClutchNet also doesn't use any plastic in their hub carrier.

This would be a stunning, and durable disc for a SHO, and well worth the $195 asking price

http://www.clutchnet.com/product.php?productid=4340&cat=0&page=2

Yep, we have lots of those Fibertuffs on our garage floor, worn out. We loved them to death, but our supplier back in the day for them finally decided he didn't want to be bothered with selling us any less than a skid at a time. We did that once, and the cash flow hit hurt too much .... we switched to Clutchmasters shortly after that.

The Fibertuff is a love it/hate it lining - doesn't slip until it's worn out, but is super-grabby/chattery (takes a deft foot to drive smooth), but doesn't wear the flywheel or pressure plate. We just kept re-using the pressure plate and Ceramic TOB with a new disc in our own cars (double diaphram and single diaphram clutches) until we ran out of discs (Fibertuff is not known for long life). Having said that, the constant rattle of the all-metal internals gets annoying after a while, and the tall hub rivets come loose as well. The last one in the winter beater finally died dramatically, I gotta take that apart this weekend and see what's up with it. I suspect the hub assembly failed, dunno why

My personal opinion is that once you get to a double diaphram pressure plate, you can run pretty much any material under it, and the extreme pressure won't allow it to slip. We are going to try a regular FX-100 organic disc under the double diaphram pressure plate next time (the chatter has finally gotten on my nerves enough to try something new and less chattery, especially that we are out of the Fibertuff discs). I'm sure the constant chatter will eventually break some driveline component.

 

[SHOMurph]

just used a cm 3 for our lemons car. it has single fingers compared to my hard as **** to push in old cm3 dual fingers from the sho shop.

wasn't real happy with it as it started to slip after a few hours of racing. Cooled it down then at the end of second day the clutch would not disengage. We are going to pull it and see what happends.

We broke it in with a light day of warm up laps. GRRRRR! I think stage 4 is next. Anybody want a $600 dollar frizee bee!?!

 

[SHO NUT]

just used a cm 3 for our lemons car. it has single fingers compared to my hard as **** to push in old cm3 dual fingers from the sho shop.

wasn't real happy with it as it started to slip after a few hours of racing. Cooled it down then at the end of second day the clutch would not disengage. We are going to pull it and see what happends.

We broke it in with a light day of warm up laps. GRRRRR! I think stage 4 is next. Anybody want a $600 dollar frizee bee!?!

FWIW, we've been told that the single diaphram CM3's have been discontinued for the SHO. (i.e. they are back to making double diaphram units for them)

This thread is starting to tell me we need to have CM make a 'SHO NUT special double diaphram clutch' for us, with the FX-100 disc (or some other disc), just like they make our SHO NUT special HD clutch (basically a Stage I, but without any of the pressure plate mods that people have had 'issues' with - just HD straps, rivets, and their FX-100 organic disc). This would eliminate concerns over their FX-300 disc.

Thoughts?

 

[Toolman]

This is concerning, I always thought the CMIII was bulletproof, as my original lasted 55k miles with no problems. Got a single plate CMIII on the shelf, so it is no good eh?

 

[SHO_DOODmorrris]

i LOVED the feel of the double diaphram pp and friction material... if only the ******* thing would stick together... it feels awsome, once your leg is used to doing 1000 lb leg press you are totally used to it,... and makes it almost impossible to steal! lol

 

[SHOMurph]

FWIW, we've been told that the single diaphram CM3's have been discontinued for the SHO. (i.e. they are back to making double diaphram units for them)

This thread is starting to tell me we need to have CM make a 'SHO NUT special double diaphram clutch' for us, with the FX-100 disc (or some other disc), just like they make our SHO NUT special HD clutch (basically a Stage I, but without any of the pressure plate mods that people have had 'issues' with - just HD straps, rivets, and their FX-100 organic disc). This would eliminate concerns over their FX-300 disc.

Thoughts?

We were disappointed that we didn't get the doubled fingered push hard as **** pp. That pressure plate has worked wonderfully on many boosted cars. We thought maybe CM had designed a improved pp but sadly our consensus is that we got a stage 1 pp with a kelvar disc. The pp pedal feel has a stock feel to it and we are very disappointed. I basically pushed for this clutch so I could beat the **** out of it without worry. We also drilled 1 inch breather holes in the bell housing to vent more heat. We shot the heat temp laser at holes only revealed 180-200 temps at the time the clutch was slipping which is no where near what we thought the heat would need to be for it to slip.

I think we are going to pull this clutch and have a little talk with CM. We are disappointed.

 

[SHOMurph]

This is concerning, I always thought the CMIII was bulletproof, as my original lasted 55k miles with no problems. Got a single plate CMIII on the shelf, so it is no good eh?

lightly modded sho with occasional track use would be fine.

I would never put this design on a boosted car.

 

[Wildstar]

Actually, the PP was easier to push than the stock one in my '90. Something advertised as a "Stage III Race Clutch" should hold up better than the bone stock worn out set-up that we had for the last 3 races. It didn't. CM probably won't care, but I doubt I'll be using any of their stuff in my fleet...