Damn I thought I was getting a deal. Not sure if the clutch is a full-on ceramic racing clutch, all I know is the clutch was orignially 860 and I talked him down. I'm really green when it comes to all this racing stuff. I didn't order online because my car is totally down and I didn't want to wait. The warehouse is in my city and I was able to get the parts right away. The way i'm looking at it is, it's cheaper than the dealer quote and Im getting better quality and performance. The whole job is costing me $1600 and the dealer quote was 2200. You're scaring me about the alignment tool though.

 

The alignment tool is probably a $2 item, just a plastic rod shaped like the transmission input shaft. It's not impossible to install a clutch without it, just frustrating and time consuming.

 

That's a subjective question. On my setup the noise starts at around 900-1000rpm, then tapers off quickly around 1500 rpm and is pretty much gone by 1800 rpm. The severity of the noise is dependent on how hard you accelerate, harder = louder, feather light/granny = softer. Since I tend to drive somewhat aggresively I always hear it and I rarely do 2nd gear starts anymore which I miss a bit when driving slowly through my neighborhood. I'm not sure how much more/less noisy others are since this was the first time I had done these type of mods. I did it because I lost faith in the stock components as well as the super high cost of the inferior factory units.

The only reason I chose the Clutchmaster and more so the Fidanza was that they were reccomended by a shop (TKX Performance in Huntington, NY) that I trust, that races Porsches and works on the them as well as Bimmers, Benzes, Lambo's and Ferrari's. Both were good values and high in quality but if I had a bit more insight I might have chosen a heavier/quieter flywheel to maintain a bit more of a smoother feel.

Another thing that I noticed is that the combo produced slightly different results on two different trannies put in at the dealer. Luckily the second one (the one I'm driving one now) is slightly better and seems to have quieted down a little since, or maybe I'm just getting used to it. Another thing suggested to me by that shop is using a 50/50 blend of REDLINE gear oils including a product called Heavy Shockproof that has weight equivilant to 75W250 and has a glue/molasses like consistency to help dampen the gear meshing noise.

As far as availability, once you've made you choice do a dealer/distributor search and make a few calls. I actually found the Fidanza in stock locally and paid $465 b4 tax and shipping. The Clutchmasters ($323) had just been sold out, but was a normal stock item for the distributor. Another local distributor had ACT stuff in stock, but JWT was nowhere to be found here in NY.

Sorry for the extra long blah, blah, hope this helps.

BTW, the JWT is listed as 14lbs and the Fidanza is 13.5lbs, not that you'd really feel the difference tho , however JWT probably knows Nissan's and the VQ's a lot more.

OMG how true that is, I can finally rev match smoothly after having the car 3 years, a much bigger pleasure when going for 'spirited' drives. The engine is much more eager now as well, that redline comes up fast and can catch you off guard.

 

how do you know if your tranny needs replacing?

 

It usually manifests as a shifting problem. Mine 1st one gave me a grind/scrape into 5th. The second one whined like a pig and gave me trouble going into 1st. The 3rd only has about 1k on it and seems much better that the others. Other's have had issues 3rd and reverse. I complain a few time to the dealer about the 1st one and persisted for about 10-15k miles until they finally agreed there was a problem.

Are you having issues?

 

thanks star...one other question..do u actually have to get a flywheel if u change out ur clutch?