Is this Testarossa Clutch Intermediate Plate messed up?

Great advice here. To veedub, if you haven't put the car back together yet, don't bother with the kevlar...go back to the OEM AP

From a reminder from Ferralc, I thought I would post my experience here.

Many years ago, ( before I sidelined my 91 Testarossa for 6 1/2 years ) I replaced the clutch with lots if help from this forum...no issues.

It started with leaking TO bearing slave cylinder seals at the 50k mile mark. Sometimes we can take " while we're in there " too far and do things that are unnecessary. I pulled the bell housing, changed the seals and thought....well, "while I'm in here " let's do the clutch, rear main seal and TO bearing.

I went ahead and had clutch masters rebuild my clutch and reline it with Kevlar. I thought, surely with 50k miles, I was just lucky and it was on it's last legs and would soon need replacing. When I removed it, I was surprised that it had a lot of life left...and the clutch felt fine.

Ok, get it done anyways. You have to put those new expensive "one time use " flywheel bolts whether you put the old or a new one back. They did a great job resurfacing and replacing a broken finger edge tab. I put the whole thing back together with the OEM spacers and tested release /engage on the jackstands....no problem.

Now, on the road was a different story. At 4000 rpm, the clutch pedal would sit on the floor. Rifle and Tom are right on the money as usual. The clutch material is oversized and a call to clutch masters was "shrugged shoulders...yes, the material is slightly oversized "

In my case, I left everything in the OEM set up...no modifying of spacers. I drove it and shifted at 3000 rpm until the clutch wore down from use. Since the car is a daily driver, I could put up with the annoyance. I usually treat a clutch like an on/ off switch ( got 50k miles on my Diablo VT Roadster clutch) and they last a long time this way.

In this case, I decided to slip the clutch at moderate rpm for parking, backing up etc to wear it down faster. It took 5000 miles for the clutch to act normally! It took another 10,000 miles for the odd feel to go away. For a long time, the car would have a normal pedal feel, then go hard then go normal for the first 20 minutes of driving. That's gone and the car feels perfect now.

I will say that that the kevlar isn't worth it. It's abrupt and too easy to make it chatter. Since I put in kevlar to make it last longer, it's a mute point on the Testarossa. If you don't do daily driver miles like I mentioned, you will have a miserable driving experience for a very long time. Yes, you've already spent the money, forget it, scrap it and go OEM.

....and as Tom mentioned, he is 100% correct on the egear Murcielago. I was advised not to put in a kevlar clutch in my Murcielago Roadster and I'm glad I listened. I went with the OEM and will spend another $15k in 23k miles....but have an enjoyable driving experience. I warned my friend not to put in the kevlar in his Murcielago as he was new to the brand ...didn't listen. 200 miles later, had to pay for a another whole engine out service just to go back to the OEM. Experience is never cheap lol

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!


Shamile

Freeze....Miami Vice!

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