328 Clutch kit prices | Page 2 | FerrariChat

328 Clutch kit prices

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by Auraraptor, Jan 26, 2004.

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  1. Verell

    Verell F1 Veteran
    Consultant Owner

    May 5, 2001
    7,017
    Groton, MA
    Full Name:
    Verell Boaen
    Clutch progress:
    Took my flywheel for resurfacing & balancing with the new pressure plate to Kingsley Machine, a race machine shop in Nashua, NH. Strongly recommended by KTR motorsports mgr.

    FLYWHEEL WEIGHT:
    The flywheel weighed 15 lbs. Not a lightweight by US car standards.

    FLYWHEEL OEM THICKNESS:
    Measured flywheel's original thickness just inside of the ring gear where there was no wear. The flywheel thickness was 16.002mm.

    I couldn't find the thickness dimension anywhere in the manuals. It's essentially the same as the 16.05mm other new flywheel thicknesses reported here:

    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24520&highlight=flywheel+thickness
    http://70.85.40.84/~ferrari/discus/messages/256120/8362.html

    So I expect flywheel thickness & weight are the same for all 3x8s.

    Based on the pre-machining thickness, I'm confident that this is the 1st time the clutch was replaced & flywheel resurfaced.

    Just got it back. The flywheel looks great. They had to take off 0.355mm meas at the rim outside the wear area. The flywheel was cupped about 0.1mm in addition to about 0.2mm of wear. Ferrari's clutch maximum machining is 1.0mm, so ~35% of the machining spec is now used up!!!

    Discussed this tight machining spec. with Len Kingsley the machine shop's owner. He believed that the wear spec is primarily to preserve the actuation arm angle in order to minimize pedal force.

    Len said that OEM flywheels for high-rev engines (8K+) are commonly much thinner these days, & are often further lightened by selectively removing significant amounts of material. Suggested when the wear limit was exceeded a metal shim between crank & flywheel could be used restore the flywheel surface's position relative to the actuator arm.

    This is consistent with one of the posts that suggests machining up to ~1/3 of the markings are gone is feasable.

    Said that with shimming, the flywheel could be machined a lot more, almost down to the ring gear, w/o danger of it coming apart! Of course there's the issue of the timing marks disappearing. Suppose they could be transferred to the ring gear.

    Guess another option would be to mill a recess into the flywheel's wear area & insert a steel or brass ring like the Al aftermarket lightweight flywheels have.

    Good thing I had the flywheel & pressure plate balanced. The flywheel was essentially in balance. Needed only 2grams adjustment to balance it.

    The pressure plate was off balance quite a bit! Needed 40grams to balance it . He did it by a combination of lightening one side & inserting counterweights in holes on the other! Said it was fairly common for pressure plates to need fairly large weight adj, but this was on the high side.

    All in all, $150 well spent. Will be installing the clutch later today.
     
  2. enjoythemusic

    enjoythemusic F1 World Champ

    Apr 20, 2002
    10,676
    Worldwide
    Full Name:
    Steven
    So how is it Verell? Curious as just had a new clutch cable installed (basic stuff i know) and the works adjusted and it is a touch smoother and easier now. Curious how your clutch is.
     
  3. Verell

    Verell F1 Veteran
    Consultant Owner

    May 5, 2001
    7,017
    Groton, MA
    Full Name:
    Verell Boaen
    I'm about 100 miles into the 500 mile bedding in phase.
    Slightly more positive than the old clutch, but not a lot.

    I still had about 20-25% of usable thickness on the old disc, so what I really needed was to readjust the clutch again.

    Suspect that if I'd readjusted it, & given the pressure plate & flywheel a quick scuffing with scotchbrite or 800 grit sandpaper I'd have about the same results as the new clutch.

    Don't have the pedal height quite right. It's a little on the low side. Seems that there's enough drag in the cable system so that you have to press the pedal down & let it rise once to see what effect the adj had. Hard for 1 person to do with the car on the lift.

    Pedal force doesn't feel noticably different. Was a bit concerned that the newer pressure plate would significantly increase pedal pressure. I think that cleaning & lubricating the cable system & the throwout bearing carrier may have offset the higher pressure plate force.
     
  4. wolftalk

    wolftalk Formula Junior

    Jan 27, 2004
    367
    san franciso area
    Full Name:
    phil
    thanks to ferrari-uk for the info on the superceded parts. The tsb talking about the lighter effort pplate with the floating release fingers is no longer relevant.

    That didn't resolve my irritation at the clutch effort required on an ex's 308 I mucked with a year or so ago, and I happened to have the car, a 328 clutch kit, and some scotch in my garage at the same time ... so off came the bell housing again.

    The difference ... the heavy effort pplate I got from George was made by Valeo, and the lighter effort replacement I put in was made by Borg and Beck.

    That's not to say that Valeo doesn't make a lighter effort pplate...I just didn't get one if they do.

    So add pplates to the list of fine British products (along with cellar temperature beer, smarties, and strong pickled onions) :)

    The other TSB which talks about the change to the clutch lever and pedal is still important. Since I couldn't find the newer pedal at the time, I drilled a hole through the existing one and mounted the spring though the hole. Comparing to an '82 308 a few days ago, replacing the pedal will lighten things up a little more because the spring is stretched further than the length that drilling a hole can produce.

    If anyone wants a slightly used heavy effort pplate, drop me a pm.
     
  5. Verell

    Verell F1 Veteran
    Consultant Owner

    May 5, 2001
    7,017
    Groton, MA
    Full Name:
    Verell Boaen
    Ahah!,
    Bet the Valeo plate is the Daytona plate. They're known to have higher clamping pressures.

    I was worrying that my new plate would have the higher pedal pressure you reported. It's slightly higher than the finger style one I removed, but that could be 20 years of age weakening the old plate's springs. Pressure is nothing like what you reported w/the Valeo plate.

    Thanks for clearing up this mystery!
     

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