i just bought a new fidanza aluminum flywheel and dual friction centerforce clutch. should i get them balanced while they are still out before i button everything back out or do i not need to worry about it since they are new items. I took heed of a previous post and used the "wet paper towel" method to get my pilot bushing out and opted to do the rear main seal as well. I just want no vibrations when i get the trans back in.

 

If you take it to get it balanced, do you put the PP bolts in place and mark them so you get them installed where they were for balancing?

And the clutch disk spins, it doesn't come to rest in the same position all of the time, so if the disk is slightly out of balance, where does that leave you?

Is it static balancing or dynamic balancing?

I guess getting it checked prior to install is good insurance, but I didn't do it because I figured Fidanza balanced their flywheel and Spec balanced their PP because I could see the weights crimped into the PP. Is the clutch disk balanced? I didn't see any weights.

 

Get them balanced. It's only $100 come on.

 

i don't think the balance is all that big of a deal, personally. a little chatter is no big deal, and most of the time it will dissipate after the clutch has been broken in anyway.

 

I JUST finished installing a Spec Billet Flywheel and Stage 3 clutch...

If you want, I can post pictures of my pilot bearing after 5 days of driving the new system like a BABY...but you prob. wouldn't be able to recognize the pilot bearing anymore - worn out, metal shavings everywhere, and crazy stupid vibrations.

Get your SH*T balanaced...it's better than having to go into the tranny 2 or (ahem, me - THREE) more times.

 

All good points; at upper rpms even if the engine is not spinning the same speed as the driveline (trans gears), if the parts are balanced they will resist vibration. Similar to tires that are out of wack.

 

LT1firebirdSLP,

Dont try to balance the Centerforce with the flywheel. You will screw up the balance on the pressure plate. You CANNOT properly balance the Centerforce with the weights attached to the Diaphragm.

 

Not to steal the thread, but along the same lines.

Brand new motor, but flywheel, pp and clutch from old setup. All ran perfectly before removing the engine.

Do I need to get everything balanced again?

Thanks

 

i don't think a balance is necessary most of the time. i think those of you that are having these serious cases of bad pilot bearings and such are just buying shitty components from spec off the bat. i've heard even the components within their "kits" are not even balanced properly brand new. no wonder so many people have problems with spec?

with a resurfaced stock flywheel, it's probably going to be balanced as much as you would need it to be since they do balance the flywheels from the factory; granted, they do balance them with a stock pressure plate, but i'm told the balance should be about zero'd out on every flywheel and PP, so it would make sense a stock flywheel resurfaced and an aftermarket clutch would work well without necessarily needing a balance.

of course, i don't know enough to confirm any of this, but this is what i've been told by a local shop that specializes in balancing flywheels and PP's (i, too, was going to get mine balanced, but they advised it would be mostly a waste of money). and pretty much all specs chatter during the break in period anyway. my car chatters so little without a rebalance it's pretty amazing. and it's getting better.

 

From the factory all pressure plates are out of balance that is why they have a yellow dot on them. So in defense of every clutch company out there when you buy a pressure plate and match it up to the "X" or "dot" on your flywheel the balance is supposed to be close. The real problem is when the after market clutch companys buy the componets from the oringinal clutch manufacture the balance is different from pressure plate to pressure plate. The same goes for your factory flywheels.

The way the factory/OE clutch and pressure plates are balanced are as follows:
1) The flywheel has a rough balance from the factory this can vary from flywheel to flywheel because they are a "cast" flywheel. Each flywheel is checked for balance then marked with an "X" or "dot" to indicate the heavy side of the flywheel.
2) The pressure plates are checked for balance and then marked with a yellow dot, this indicates the light side of the pressure plate.
3) The Yellow dot on the pressure plate is to placed as close as possible to the "X" or "dot" on the flywheel so that the two out of balances cancel each other out.
Now keep in mind that the amount of out of balance will vary from pressure plate to pressure plate and the same for the flywheels it is really a hit and miss.

Here is were some of you run into problems, you buy "X brand" clutch then match the markings and fire up the engine and now experience a shake/balance problem. If the new pressure plate doesn't have the same amount of out-of-balance and in the same spot as your oringinal then you may and I say may now have an out-of-balance assembly. In most cases the balance is close enough that you won't feel a balance problem.

The only sure way to ensure the balance is to take your flywheel and have is properly balanced with the correct counter balance. Then have your perssure plate "0" balanced to the flywheel for most of us this is way too much of a hastle. Keep in mind that in most cases you will not experience this problem but, for the guys that do this is probably the case. Some of the aftermarket clutch companys have balance machines so maybe they will work with you on getting the balance correct.

I hope this helps

 

I bought the centerforce dual friction clutch and an SLP lightweight billet steel flywheel. Since I am getting all new components do I have to worry about aligning xs or yellow dots or any of that crap. The flywheel only goes on one way im just wondering how my pressure plate goes on correctly.

 

You should be ok. I bought a spec II a while back and had it balanced. Supposedly there are cases where high rpm and sustained driving are somewhat interralated. Street cars may not have this problem. My clutch guy said for street usage actually shouldn't have to do that however it's a small investment for hopefully less problems down the road if you road race or run the engine at high revs for long periods of time.

 

Ive never even heard of having a clutch balanced I am doing my clutch tomorrow. Is this something i should do? I have Spec S3 clutch and stock flywheel? Do you balance just the clutch or the flywheel too?

 

I agree with the post by Will. I've read some other posts from clutch manufacturers where they responded to purchasers claiming they took their stuff to get it checked and it was out of balance, and the manufacturer says they do it a different way. So it's starting to sound a bit like voodoo. I don't really know. All I know is that the aluminum flywheel I bought was supposed to be balanced and the clutch and pressure plate I bought was also supposed to be balanced. I put it in and I don't have any vibration from being out of balance.

 

I have a spec 3 and had it put in with resurfaced flywheel (stock one). got car started it up felt like the dash was gonna fall off... vibrated so bad. the shop blamed it on the flywheel being resurfaced. i bought a spec billet steel flywheel. that went in and it still vibrates but not as bad. now my rear end just blew so im going to take everything apart myself this time and get it done right! The trans shop stiffed me!

 

Well, I can tell you that after being burned once I will ALWAYS have the balance checked.

My new SLP billet flywheel was fine, my new Spec2 disc was fine, but the spec2 plate was WAY out of balance. It would have been MUCH, MUCH, MUCH cheaper to check it before installation.