What's going on at Monster? I called countless times starting at 10:30am EST on Wednesday and left 1 message. No call back yesterday or today. I left a clear message that I was having a problem and /or questions with my stage 3 and that I was disapointed with its drivability which you would think would prompt a quick return call. Nothing........
I did not want to post this online without talking to them first but I would like an answer and since they dont return calls...............

I installed this clutch a little over 175 miles ago and up until yesterday its characteristics were horrible when trying to start off at a light. Shuddered/Chattered BADLY 99% of the time. It was everything you could do to not make it do it. Least amount of throttle possible was the best. Trying to slip it was the worst. None of them stopped it. After it was moving all was good and felt great. New slave, new pilot, new flywheel ect were all used including a new McLeod hydraulic line with opened master fitting. Alignment tool was used, disks were cleaned extensively with brake clean, specs and torque sequence was followed to the T.

Now Wednesday night i took it back out for more break in miles and I beat on it a bit. No full rpm shifts or hard launches but definitely drove it harder. Shudders were very bad all night long at every attempt to take off. I put it away for the night and drove it again last night for only about 10miles. To my surprise it did NOT shutter/chatter 95% of the time. It was actually hard to make it shudder. Until yesterday I was getting quite annoyed and having a hard time believing it would get better. Then......like a light switch, it was all good.

So my questions is.... why? What causes the shudder and why did the heat cycle fix it? Why did it bed in suddenly and what actually happened to stop the shudder? I assume the shudder or chatter was caused by heavy spring rates combined with high bite clutch compounds that when new, skip across the surface?????
Is this what happens?

Its not a daily driver but im going to drive it again tomorrow and I hope its still good. If it is I will be completely happy with my purchase, other then Monster just went MIA.

Monster, I would like to hear what is happening and why, and any recommendations if any to ensure it stays better. I will continue to follow break in and heat cycle it hoping for the best.

I just thought that this might help others that may have or will experience the same issues down the road.
Until then my fingers are crossed all stays good.

 

i have the same clutch, mine doesnt slip for ****, there is no play in it what so ever which makes it kinda of a PITA to DD with it, its just like a on/off switch and doesnt grab until your just about all the way off the clutch at the very top and then BAM it graps and goes lol

i have no problem getting a hold of monster even thru email

 

didnt try email. just called many times and left a message.

Mine grabs about an inch off the floor. Much like the stock one did. Stock master as well though.

 

dam, wish mine grabbed down low like that, now im thinking something is up with my setup lol

 

If you really did do this, it could be the source of your problem.
Only flywheel and pressure plate are supposed to be cleaned with brake cleaner or a similar solvent, not the disks.
Chatter seems to be very common with the stage 3 monster though.

 

mind doesnt chatter at all

 

I meant the flywheel and PP disks not the clutch compound

 

It should not grab high like that. Mine feels like stock except a slighly heavier pedal and the fact that it did chatter. Hopefully that is over now. We will see.

Still would like to know why.

 

Mine did the same thing for about 500 or 1000 miles. It will go away, I know mine was pretty bad in reverse. I put about 20,000 miles on my level 3, pressure plate was already out of spec, too thin. I bought a new level 3 and I have about 6000 miles on it, when I broke it in, it was just like it is now, didnt shudder at all.

 

YOU HAVE TO BREAK THEM IN!!!!

people are soo impatient and jump to conclusions. i gurantee someone from SNL will jump in here and say the EXACT same thing... theres a specific way your supposed to drive the clutch for the first 500 miles... and on the monsters especially level 3 and higher... the more you beat on them the smoother they are... nature of the beast

 

I realize they need break in and I said I was and will continue to do just that. I want to know why and what happened as stated in my first post. And why they are still unresponsive 3 days later.

By the way, it doesn't really shudder anymore. But now it squeals at about 1200 when engaging. It has about 325 miles on it so far.

 

my buddy has about 15k on his stage 3. and it did shudder bad for the first 500 miles. after he broke it in and learned to release the clutch quicker the chatter has gone away 90% however it still does squeal. if he goes and beats on it the squeal will go away for a bit but eventually come back. the clutch holds great, its just part of the tradeoff with a high performance puck clutch

 

yup, you have to beat on it to get rid of the squeals. You can do this by going 55 mph in 4th. push the clutch in, rev it to 4 or 5k and drop it. You cannot get rid of the squeal if you drop it and the tires spin, it has to put a large load on it.

 

My Monster stage 3 was a pain in the *** to drive at first, then it seemed once I hit 1000 miles on the clutch, it all went away and drives great now. Mine never squealed, just chattered some on take off, which is gone now though.

 

me, level 2 bout an inch off floor grabs!!!xcellent. the guys at monster are very busy when you have a product that everyone wants you have to wait in line. great guys to deal with be patient, they will contact you but, it sounds like everything is fine break it in and then beat on it it willtake the punishment. the oldman....

 

No Offence but being busy is no excuse for not returning calls for a customer that has a potential problem. Problem or no problem, it has been 4 business days and still nothing. I went with Monster because it was made in the USA and i figured I would get better support. If I wanted service like this I would have bought the Aussie Mantic ER2 Clutch. Has the same power ratings and zero chatter or squeal. Not a 6 puck design and I know 2 friends with them. Solid units. Should have just spent the extra 200.00

 

Since monster won't answer, does anyone have an idea as to what happens on chatter and why it stops on break in? Why the squeal?

 

I am not quite sure on the chatter. The squeal is from glazing on the flywheel and pressure plate surface, which I am told is from too much slipping. I have asked on numerous occasions about this directly to Steve at monster and was told to go beat on it.

I dont drive mine daily, but put about 7000 miles on it in the NY summer. It goes to the grocery store and malls so it sees alot of areas where I cant just put the hammer down. My clutch is almost always glazed, but when I go on the highway, I cant get it to stop by dropping it at 5000 rpm.

 

Interesting. Mine isn't driven daily either. It's seems like glazing it is the only thing that stops the chatter. For me, There may have I only been about 10 clutch releases between the point when the chatter stopped to the point when the squeal started. All but 3 releases have been just off idle with a quick release. The other three were a little bit of slip to see how it could get launched but even that was still under 2k rpm. Seems very temperamental.

 

I can tell you that customer service is incredibly important here and I can assure you we've not "skipped off with your money without the intention of supporting our product". We are incredibly busy and there are numerous ways to get ahold of us. If you've called numerous times did it ever occur to you that we were having phone issues? That is the case, from Wednesday morning of last week till Friday afternoon our phones were in and out due to some work being performed by the phone company. Regardless of the excuses I apologize for missing your call.

The issue you were having is from break in. The point of breaking in a clutch is to ensure that the friction surfaces have the opportunity to bed in parallel to the mating surfaces, while this is happening you can have inconsistencies that cause shudder - this will go away with proper break in.

If you have any other questions feel free to shoot me an email, steve@monsterclutches.com, I'm the owner and will gladly field any questions you may have beyond this.

No need to get paranoid about your setup.

Which master do you have and did you shim the setup?