WOW, glad to hear you guys were ok and have both limbs! Sorry to hear about the cars tho.

I have heard nothing but exploded clutches from Spec over the past few years. My buddies both had the Spec 3+'s in their WS6's. Both did proper break in, same guy did both clutch installs. One clutch lasted 2000 miles and one lasted 3 years. So who knows.

My brother bought his WS6 and it HAD a spec 5 in it. The slave went south so we pulled the clutch out anyways to check it out. Turns out at the bottom of each puck, there were cracks. Clutch had a few thousand miles on it and was never at the track. God forbid one of those came loose. He has a Ram twin disk now.

I will never use or put in a spec clutch!

 

Goo thinking to remove it.

Why do you think they're adds depict the clutch disc's as SAW BLADES?....bitches ain't kiddin'!!!

Anyways, I appreciate it man,...it's been a long time since that happened but,...I still have a chip on my shoulder about it. If anyone has ever been in that situation,... you'd know it's fucked up.

Very grenade like type of an explosion underneath the car-and inside the firewall.

Really cool, fun stuff. bonus points if you have a passenger in the car like my buddy did. Ohhhhh,.....the precious moments they had to share with eachother.

I offered everyone of my customers that I installed a spec clutch in,..to swap it out free of charge. Didn't matter the car or drivetrain.

Regardless, now I run a blanket on my bellhousing,... something any properly driven manual should have. FYI-the two cars made less then 500 wheel-

 

...probably one of the smartest things I could advise you on is that you did the right thing by taking out the spec. The cars were totaled,.. I ended up performing an electrical masterminded freaking majical wizardry and got the black one completely rebuilt... what a nightmare...but it taught me the guts of a corvette....literally. In the end,,....I am glad it happened to me,... I'm not bound by anyone,...nobody is sponsoring a clutch that I run,...and I don't really give a ****, i'll tell these ******* to they're face they suck.... as proffesionally put as I could make it. More on that-


...it's understood dude,..i've been in the Corvette game for a long time. ****,..since birth actually. Point is, your right,..it could happen to any clutch. Do you think I have not killed,..I mean killed other clutches? Hell yes. Matter of fact,..I worked FACTORY clutches soo bad,...1-10 more hardcore shifts,...I could had the same experience. But,..fact of the matter is, the sad thing is a spec clutch DID come apart in my car, the car I worked very hard for. My friends car,...a personal friend,...like a brother,..had the exact same thing happen. I installed mine,..with pride, proper tools,...and common sense,...oh, and lots of experience. Lots. Another dealership,..another tech,...installed my friends. Dude is a corvette tech ONLY....thats it...nothing else but vettes,...vettes vettes vettes. He installed that one. Car-death. Another CORVETTE shop,...locally,...installed one in a Z06.... sliced the car in two...

If anyone knows anything about me,..I speak from experience,...im not trying to bullshit you or sell you on my own bullshit. You can take it or leave it,..I couldn't really give a ****. Point is,..I ******* told you so. No disrespect intended to you,.....I hope you run they're product with great success and that **** doesn't happen to anyone else. Yes, I agree, an SFI bellhousing is the deal but,...it's a bitch to work with getting in and out of the car. If they come out with a two piece bellhousing,..i'll buy one.

Now,..now that you see my personal experience with they're product(spec)....the help after the disaster was really horrible. Other then the lie they publicly posted on a NISMO site(an LS1tech member sent me a pm and said hey dude,...you might wanna check this **** out)... I joined the forum, after I saw a LOOOONG drown out response filled to the top with misleading information about me. I had a badass, anger fueled, tactful direct response to them regarding they're claims..... to this day, they, have never responded. It was a daddy hit mommy moment.

Again,..consider it a public service announcement, revived. I didn't bring it back up but,..someone felt it was necc.....I'd have to agree. Who knows,..you may save some legs. Luckily, vettes have a badass center framerail,,....this and my headers probably saved my legs. Play at your own ricks boys-

 

Yea I am glad we pulled it out to check it. Could of been really bad for my bro. Not sure if my bro threw the clutch out already, if not I will have to get some pics of the cracks. They were cracked on both sides of the pucks at the bottom, some worse than others.

I try to talk people out of spec clutches all the time. Monster seems to be putting out a really good product right now and they are about the same price has a spec.

btw where can you get a blanket at for a F-body bellhousing? Are they custom fit to each bellhousing or one size fits all?

Props to you for replacing clutches free of charge!

 

thanks bro........hell yeah man, offering to change the clutches was the morally right thing to do......since i was like mike here, recommending something that i didn't know the negatives about.


For your brother in the f body, i would suggest a steel housing, as its alot easier to work with then on a C5-C6 as the housing is already one piece anyways. I don't remember them being that much..... either way, well worth the investment.

 

Wow V-Seriers I never knew you had this happen to you. I am sorry for what happened and glad you and your friend are ok. How are the cars now a days? And I have never liked Spec after all the crap I heR about them. Ill stick with Jasons Diamond Cluches at TDP.

 

Yeah man,..craziness. thank you, and we're all ok. When I first pulled up back to our shop after my clutch blew, and my car was smoking,...friends at the shop... thought I was in shock when I said I was ok(i was soo calm)... they started pulling up my pant legs(no homo)...to see if I had taken any flying objects, and just didn't realize it. I hadn't... and we were all fine. Scarred for life but, fine.

My car, is gone and totaled,...the vette, I got back together...after months and months... stitch by stitch..started the car,..had it running for a week, in my care,..was giving it back,.. the car shattered the diff on a 2nd gear roll on start. It just broke.... my friend,.. sooo over the mental stress of the whole car(was his dream car)... just traded it in,.. broken diff an all. He was done. To this day I feel bad....but, my wheels, and alot of parts, that are on my car now(I had two white FRC's)...are from that car.

I run an EXOSKEL right now... so far, soo good. haven't heard of your buddies brand but anything is probably safer then spec.

 

I am sure this guy feels the same way about Tex clutches...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAIs7BUl3V4

 

..So, how long did it take you to look for that?

lol, to each his own. Enjoy your clutch dude...

 

Haters will always hate.

 

Very true.

Dude believes in something, thats cool,...he just doesn't have all the factsm that have been presented to me, and many others.

Also the reason why I roll around with a 25lb firebottle.

 

Jamie I enjoy your posts. I just hate seeing you rip a company that has obviously also had clutch failures..

As for how long it took to find.. Go to you tube type in "clutch explodes" and you find it.. I think its on the first listing page of results. Only took a minute.

I just surely hope when you replaced your customers clutches free of labor you did not recommend Tex clutches? Because what happens if they watch the vid of the Tex clutch explode and burn a car to the ground. So now do you replace all those Tex clutches free of labor when they watch that vid.

I am willing to bet there are THOUSANDS more spec clutches out there in cars than TEX clutches. Most failures as you very well know are from install issues. And I know you know your way around installing clutches so I will not question that. The best thing you can do with a clutch is regualry inspect it if you run the car hard. All I ask is you not rip a company here who makes a high quality product. And as you have very well seen the company you list as your clutch supplier has also had there fair share of failures. I am sure if that was your C6 that burned to the ground you would be ripping TEX....

Special Note**** In all being fair. I have run a TEX Oz700 x-grip clutch for over a year... Never had a single problem with it... Never had any chatter issues or slipping issues. I liked the clutch... I just preffered spec... I cant stand people ripping companies....

 

I hear you mike but, I am not ripping anyone that I do not have the god given right to.

This is the deal:

A part was installed. A part failed. the company, did nothing about it. Nothing to make it right, and no attempts. I, was fucked. Shortly after my *** raping, a great friend, had the exact same thing happen to him, zero help, zero care, zero acceptence of guilt.,...this dude is like my brother. Do you understand the closeness to my heart this problem is, and how personal I take it. I'm not bashing them, I am making a public report that HEY,.....THIS COMPANY DOESN'T STAND BEHIND THEY'RE PRODUCT,...AND WHEN **** GOES DOWN,....YOUR THE LAST ONE STANDING WITHOUT A CHAIR. Party over,.. figure out your ****.

I don't know how that sounds but,..it sucks man,..I didn't wanna bash anyone,...in all rights, we should have sued them,..class action style. For us, that may be too late but,..be sure, it will happen to them. Where do I sign?

Also, since were being personal here,... dudes bad mouthed me all over another forum,.... i'll find it, you can read it for yourself.

Don't make me to be the bad guy bro,...it aint me. I'm the consumer, getting screwed over by the corporate man.... In the end,..they've cost us nothing buy physcological damage, time, money, and two of our prided cars.

....you dpn't understand how personal it is mike,... how could you sit here and say I am wrong when you have no idea what it is like to deal with THIS company in the negative like how we have. Do you think I am making this **** up or what? I've dealt with a lot of vendors, a lot that I do not want to do buisness with but,...I won't make a public announcement like this...because nothing has threatened my life or my extremities like how spec has.... thats why they get special treatment from me,...and everyone I run across in my line of work.... be it car shows, race events, work, websites, or whatever. I hope they're company fails....possibly even burn.

Obviously, you have some sort of affiliation with them. Sorry for you but, I understand....but don't pretend to know where I am coming from until you have a clutch shooting through your firewall....only then could you understand.

 

....and I don't recommend clutches anymore,...only GM parts. I keep the race stuff for our personal cars,..which gets out own personal recommendations. I'm not an idiot,...like I said,..i've beaten up a lot of clutches dude,...a lot. Therefore, unless it's a special case, I don't recommend anything like that anymore. Not only that, my personal clutch FEEL,...is much more hardcore then any of my customers wants or needs soo,..what feels awesome to me,..feels like puching through a brick wall to them... soo,..again, different strokes, different folks. They can bring what they want, just as long as its not a spec. throw that death metal in the garbage.

 

It all comes down to, out of every other clutch company out there SPEC is at the top of the list for most failed, horrible customer service and have put people lives in danger with there product. No one I know supports Spec or uses there clutch for a reason. And i am not sure why anyone would with a rep like that.

And V-series I get exactly where your coming from it is totally unacceptable for what they did to you. Or should I say what they Didn't do for you.

 

I had a tex pressure plate distort and egg out the bolt holes on a hard launch at the track. The balance was off after that so I pulled it, but it could have come apart in the same way if I kept running it. Not sure if I'd point fingers at the company as most of these clutches use the same damn stamped steel pressure plate housing on the single disk clutches (or one of maybe 2 or 3). I put blame on the ARP pressure plate bolts that were used when I got the car as they use large washers under the bolt head and distribute the clamp load over a greater area reducing the bite on the plate to hold it in place and letting it slip under the washer and egg out the bolt holes.

 

I grew up differently,..pointing fingers, and throwing fists. I'm smarter now,..can't fight too much these days without major problems, so I gotta point fingers. I don't point fingers, unless i'm 120% confident. Once again, you didn't go through what I went through(twice)....I wouldn't expect you to understand. You had a vibration,...I had no warning at all. Lucky you-

Once again,..people,...I said I have had problems with other clutches,...it's just that the safety equipment incorporated into the clutch/pressure plate system, worked, as in didn't fail as BOTH OF OUR SPEC CLUTCHES DID.....

...do you get it? Or do you guys skip through all of my bullshit? TooMuchMoney gets it,...others have read through, and get it....

...anyways,..lets see if we can get another page of this,..you guys can blow spec till your blue in the face(spec blue)... i'll still be breaking the same beat.

 

Easy buddy, when I said "not sure if I'd point fingers at the company" I was speaking for me and my issue alone. If you want to rant and rave go ahead as I was just adding a data point so when others search through all this trash they might be able to draw a better conclusion. The only blowing going on around here is your mouth

 

..you were gonna get a rare apology up until the you give blow jobs with your mouth comment.

Like I said before,..this is a personal topic to me,..defensive as **** about it,...i'll admit that, and thats the way it is. If I misread your post,..my bad but oh well.

No regrets playa

 

I know I put the touche guys after my post just for a little jab. I'm sure it must be a major pain in the *** dealing with the problems you had. I'm just saying that it can happen to lots of the clutches we drive around and as I pointed out before most of them run the same damn stamped steel cover (LUK, Valeo, etc) and I've seen it happen on different platforms and clutch makes.

I've even had a problem with a spec clutch due to imbalance, but I fixed it and moved on as it was nothing of serious nature(except for the pain in the *** vette drivetrain). I'm not sure what happened in your cars case and since it failed so violently there is nothing left to really analyze, but if it was any other brand that failed you would have got the same treatment. Only course of action would be a lawsuit, but who knows how that would turn out.