RJM A.F.P Clutch Bracket G35/350z...56k run-away
#1
02-28-2012, 11:37 AM
RJM A.F.P Clutch Bracket G35/350z...56k run-away
I have been working with ACIDJAKE75 (MOD ON MY350z) on his track car with jwt clutch/flywheel that is heavily modified for track use. The major issue we had was not being able to feel connected to the clutch and when the engagement point would kick in. The stock G35/350z clutch pedal feel is very vague and seems like changes on you a lot. The major issue with the factory pedal is the clutch pedal return spring. This spring works in a weird way in that it pulls in the pedal when you push and pushes the pedal out when you let go. So while you are working the clutch pedal the feel of the clutch is gone and absorb by the spring. It is similar to a spring/shock assembly in that it will absorb the entire feel and give you a NUMB pedal.
The first mod I did when I picked up my personal car was to remove the spring and readjust the cruise control switch (G35 6mt Sedan Rev-Up). I spoke to Jake after doing the clutch mod which was removing the spring and asked him his opinion. He loved the difference between stock and being able to easily feather the throttle without jerking, stalling or bucking on takeoff. We talked about modding his pedal too but ended up getting busy due to several track events and jobs on the side for Jake.
Here comes Ryan Morgan of www.RJMperformance.com with his newly designed clutch pedal bracket. Right away I saw potential in this mod due to the removal of the spring. That alone makes a huge impact in everyday performance. The bracket was designed from the ground up to improve on all the deficiencies of the stock pedal. The new bracket has an adjustable fulcrum point which is huge so you can easily set pedal height to your preference without riding the clutch or not being able to engage gears. Along with that if you compare side by side the stock bracket and the aftermarket bracket. It is a huge difference and the stock pedal feels like tin can or aluminum foil beside RJM bracket which is solid laser cut and amazing feel in your hand.
http://rjmperformance.com/index.html
People are willing to spend $$$ on lights, body kits, wheels and other crap yet stutter at the thought of spending $160 on a bracket. Genius you use the clutch pedal a lot more than your led lights on your license plate or crappy fiberglass body kits that don’t fit and have crappy service to back it up. Along with that the first pot hole you hit will crack that FG kit and wonder why you spent money on crap products just to replace them again. Spend some money on the bracket, and a decent shift ****. I prefer a weighted shift **** to help make the throws buttery smooth.
Installation was easy overall but can be tricky if you are a very big guy and not comfortable working in tight spots. The job is very easy and does not even involve you having to jack up the car. I would ensure that you take 3-4 hours out of your day to handle this task. You do not want to be rushed and take your time. Really understand how the clutch pedal works and how it engages the master cylinder which pushes fluid to slave and that retracts the fork. Once you figure out how the clutch pedal rod and AFP (Adjustable Fulcrum Point) work together it will help you down the road when tuning/troubleshooting.
Take your time and take before pics observe where the stock clutch pedal height is in relation to the brake pedal. Take a look at the clutch pedal rod and see how many threads you see sticking out of the clevis. Little things like that will ensure that when you swap out the brackets everything will line up to 95% and then you just add little bit of adjustments and personalization's. I did most of the installation underneath the dash and ACIDJAKE took care of putting the pedal together. The time you will spend under the dash can become annoying due to being in a tight spot. This is very important you must learn to take breaks and chill for a minute. When you get stressed and under pressure your quality of work will reduce. Take time and view my pics and others that have been provided my Ryan and other members as well.
The initial difference we saw even before turning on the car was the clutch pedal was much more smooth and fluid all throughout. Before when you let go of clutch after pushing it in all the way it wanted to spring back hard and then spring back slow. Now it is all 1 smooth operation and you can really feel when the clutch is engaging. ACIDJAKE has a 2 way LSD in the rear which is pretty much like a clutch and then having a AFP bracket along with no spring he is now able to easily feather the throttle to the point where he can exactly pick the point on the clutch pedal travel to break loose the LSD and perform his drifts on the track. Before he would clutch kick to break loose the lsd and give a shock to the drive train. Now he can easily feather throttle without having such a hard drive train shock.
Imagine launching off the line and you can easily take off and know that at 40% or 60% the clutch will engage versus having a vague high engagement point.
Most on the track line will end up revving to 2500-3500rpm and then drop the clutch and add bunch of throttle to ensure they do not stall out. With this clutch pedal you can easily know when your car feels like it will stall out and you will know right when clutch is engaging to add perfect amount of throttle versus crap load of throttle to not stall. This clutch pedal bracket builds upon the weakness of the stock pedal and adds a variety of adjustments that help you set the correct height, engagement and actually feel connected to the clutch inside the transmission and flywheel versus a spring assembly absorbing the entire feeling leaving you with a numb pedal.
Many complain about first gear launch and the shift from 1st-2nd and has been a major talking point for all. I never understood why many complained about the 1st-2nd jerk until I drove my buddy’s stock car. You see I removed that spring from day one so I barely had the 1st-2nd jerk but launching was always tricky. The pedal was the remedy to both issues and several other items I wanted addressed. Removing the spring made a big difference cause I could feel when I need to add throttle. What really sucked is how late the engagement point was more like at 70% of return. I prefer it to be at 40%-50% instead of being so high and late. The pedal bracket removed the spring and AFP adjustment allows setting the height of the pedal along with adjusting the clutch pedal rod to set engagement point lower versus so high up top.
All these little tweaks make your car easier to drive and feel much more comfortable at the track or on the streets daily driving. Many will tell you that G35 is just a finicky transmission and will claim “BECAUSE RACE CAR”….well let me tell you this….RACECAR has CRAPPY TIN CAN BRACKET…fix the bracket and you fix the transmission….derp
http://rjmperformance.com/index.html
http://rjmperformance.com/products--ordering.html
http://rjmperformance.com/index.html
http://rjmperformance.com/products--ordering.html
The first mod I did when I picked up my personal car was to remove the spring and readjust the cruise control switch (G35 6mt Sedan Rev-Up). I spoke to Jake after doing the clutch mod which was removing the spring and asked him his opinion. He loved the difference between stock and being able to easily feather the throttle without jerking, stalling or bucking on takeoff. We talked about modding his pedal too but ended up getting busy due to several track events and jobs on the side for Jake.
Here comes Ryan Morgan of www.RJMperformance.com with his newly designed clutch pedal bracket. Right away I saw potential in this mod due to the removal of the spring. That alone makes a huge impact in everyday performance. The bracket was designed from the ground up to improve on all the deficiencies of the stock pedal. The new bracket has an adjustable fulcrum point which is huge so you can easily set pedal height to your preference without riding the clutch or not being able to engage gears. Along with that if you compare side by side the stock bracket and the aftermarket bracket. It is a huge difference and the stock pedal feels like tin can or aluminum foil beside RJM bracket which is solid laser cut and amazing feel in your hand.
http://rjmperformance.com/index.html
People are willing to spend $$$ on lights, body kits, wheels and other crap yet stutter at the thought of spending $160 on a bracket. Genius you use the clutch pedal a lot more than your led lights on your license plate or crappy fiberglass body kits that don’t fit and have crappy service to back it up. Along with that the first pot hole you hit will crack that FG kit and wonder why you spent money on crap products just to replace them again. Spend some money on the bracket, and a decent shift ****. I prefer a weighted shift **** to help make the throws buttery smooth.
Installation was easy overall but can be tricky if you are a very big guy and not comfortable working in tight spots. The job is very easy and does not even involve you having to jack up the car. I would ensure that you take 3-4 hours out of your day to handle this task. You do not want to be rushed and take your time. Really understand how the clutch pedal works and how it engages the master cylinder which pushes fluid to slave and that retracts the fork. Once you figure out how the clutch pedal rod and AFP (Adjustable Fulcrum Point) work together it will help you down the road when tuning/troubleshooting.
Take your time and take before pics observe where the stock clutch pedal height is in relation to the brake pedal. Take a look at the clutch pedal rod and see how many threads you see sticking out of the clevis. Little things like that will ensure that when you swap out the brackets everything will line up to 95% and then you just add little bit of adjustments and personalization's. I did most of the installation underneath the dash and ACIDJAKE took care of putting the pedal together. The time you will spend under the dash can become annoying due to being in a tight spot. This is very important you must learn to take breaks and chill for a minute. When you get stressed and under pressure your quality of work will reduce. Take time and view my pics and others that have been provided my Ryan and other members as well.
The initial difference we saw even before turning on the car was the clutch pedal was much more smooth and fluid all throughout. Before when you let go of clutch after pushing it in all the way it wanted to spring back hard and then spring back slow. Now it is all 1 smooth operation and you can really feel when the clutch is engaging. ACIDJAKE has a 2 way LSD in the rear which is pretty much like a clutch and then having a AFP bracket along with no spring he is now able to easily feather the throttle to the point where he can exactly pick the point on the clutch pedal travel to break loose the LSD and perform his drifts on the track. Before he would clutch kick to break loose the lsd and give a shock to the drive train. Now he can easily feather throttle without having such a hard drive train shock.
Imagine launching off the line and you can easily take off and know that at 40% or 60% the clutch will engage versus having a vague high engagement point.
Most on the track line will end up revving to 2500-3500rpm and then drop the clutch and add bunch of throttle to ensure they do not stall out. With this clutch pedal you can easily know when your car feels like it will stall out and you will know right when clutch is engaging to add perfect amount of throttle versus crap load of throttle to not stall. This clutch pedal bracket builds upon the weakness of the stock pedal and adds a variety of adjustments that help you set the correct height, engagement and actually feel connected to the clutch inside the transmission and flywheel versus a spring assembly absorbing the entire feeling leaving you with a numb pedal.
Many complain about first gear launch and the shift from 1st-2nd and has been a major talking point for all. I never understood why many complained about the 1st-2nd jerk until I drove my buddy’s stock car. You see I removed that spring from day one so I barely had the 1st-2nd jerk but launching was always tricky. The pedal was the remedy to both issues and several other items I wanted addressed. Removing the spring made a big difference cause I could feel when I need to add throttle. What really sucked is how late the engagement point was more like at 70% of return. I prefer it to be at 40%-50% instead of being so high and late. The pedal bracket removed the spring and AFP adjustment allows setting the height of the pedal along with adjusting the clutch pedal rod to set engagement point lower versus so high up top.
All these little tweaks make your car easier to drive and feel much more comfortable at the track or on the streets daily driving. Many will tell you that G35 is just a finicky transmission and will claim “BECAUSE RACE CAR”….well let me tell you this….RACECAR has CRAPPY TIN CAN BRACKET…fix the bracket and you fix the transmission….derp
http://rjmperformance.com/index.html
http://rjmperformance.com/products--ordering.html
http://rjmperformance.com/index.html
http://rjmperformance.com/products--ordering.html
Last edited by faiz23; 02-28-2012 at 11:54 AM.
The following 2 users liked this post by faiz23:
ErikNYC (05-26-2014),
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#3
02-28-2012, 10:33 PM
Also you can keep an eye out on the homepage for new brackets for G37/370z and HR series Sedan
*RJM Performance.com - Home
*RJM Performance.com - Home
Last edited by faiz23; 05-02-2012 at 11:22 PM.
#4
03-04-2012, 01:08 PM
Northern G posted this on 6mt and I figured this is good info for everyone about how the pedal works. Someone had a question as to if they were to remove the spring if it is the same thing as the bracket. The spring is only 40% of the problem, engagement point and pedal feel along with pedal force to engage is modified via bracket to resolve 100% of the issues with stock pedal bracket.
Removing the spring from the first gen 350Z and G35 requires pulling the clutch bracket out to remove the pins retaining the spring assembly inside the bracket at the back.
If you have a look at the installation guide for the new clutch brackets you're basically just following the first half of the instructions and then simply reinstalling the factory bracket the same way it came out.
However, removing the assist spring mechanism makes a noticeable difference in how numb the factory pedal felt it also makes the pedal about 15-20% stiffer then stock and does absolutely nothing for the high, short and grabby clutch engagement.
The real magic happens with the new brackets due to the adjustable fulcrum point slider which allows you to lower the friction point, widen the engagement window and soften the pedal pressure all while being 100% tunable to your liking and your specific clutch setup.
The new bracket itself is only 1/2 of the equation as what hasn't been shown above is the fulcrum point adjuster mechanism that's been incorporated into the design.
My own history with clutch Mods is I adjusted my clutch rod about 1hr after I purchased the car.
About 30 days later I removed the spring completely and tossed it in the garbage. I drove it that way for over a year until I finally got sick and tired of the crappy clutch feel with short engagement and came up with the above final solution.
Removing the spring from the first gen 350Z and G35 requires pulling the clutch bracket out to remove the pins retaining the spring assembly inside the bracket at the back.
If you have a look at the installation guide for the new clutch brackets you're basically just following the first half of the instructions and then simply reinstalling the factory bracket the same way it came out.
However, removing the assist spring mechanism makes a noticeable difference in how numb the factory pedal felt it also makes the pedal about 15-20% stiffer then stock and does absolutely nothing for the high, short and grabby clutch engagement.
The real magic happens with the new brackets due to the adjustable fulcrum point slider which allows you to lower the friction point, widen the engagement window and soften the pedal pressure all while being 100% tunable to your liking and your specific clutch setup.
The new bracket itself is only 1/2 of the equation as what hasn't been shown above is the fulcrum point adjuster mechanism that's been incorporated into the design.
My own history with clutch Mods is I adjusted my clutch rod about 1hr after I purchased the car.
About 30 days later I removed the spring completely and tossed it in the garbage. I drove it that way for over a year until I finally got sick and tired of the crappy clutch feel with short engagement and came up with the above final solution.
#5
03-08-2012, 12:45 PM
I did this mod about a month ago. It is a very noticeable difference in pedal feel. I would highly recommend it to anyone that doesn't like the stock pedal feel. I used to stall out pretty frequently on the old bracket. A problem I never had on any other manual car I drove and I had some rough aftermarket race clutches. I haven't stalled out one time now and the fact that the pedal was able to be adjusted down was nice too. 
#6
05-02-2012, 11:21 PM
I have been really enjoying the laser cut bracket versus the crappy POS TIN CAN BRACKET you guys out there are still using 
. You do realize that with the added buffer spring you are feathering the clutch and prematurely wearing it out which leads to THOUSANDS in parts/labor. Get this bracket and feel connected to the clutch/transmission and rediscover driving the G....this is how the Original G35 should have been from factory....OG
www.rjmperformance.com
Latest News:
Expected Release Late May 2012.
07' - 08' G35 Sedan 6MT A.F.P. System
08' - 12' G37 Coupe 6MT A.F.P. System
09' - 12' G37 Sedan 6MT A.F.P. System
09' - 12' 370Z 6MT A.F.P. System.
February 5th, 2011
NEW- The 07'-08' HR 350Z's have now been confirmed to use the currently available kits. The descriptions have been updated to reflect fitting the 03-08 350Z's.
. You do realize that with the added buffer spring you are feathering the clutch and prematurely wearing it out which leads to THOUSANDS in parts/labor. Get this bracket and feel connected to the clutch/transmission and rediscover driving the G....this is how the Original G35 should have been from factory....OGwww.rjmperformance.com
Latest News:
Expected Release Late May 2012.
07' - 08' G35 Sedan 6MT A.F.P. System
08' - 12' G37 Coupe 6MT A.F.P. System
09' - 12' G37 Sedan 6MT A.F.P. System
09' - 12' 370Z 6MT A.F.P. System.
February 5th, 2011
NEW- The 07'-08' HR 350Z's have now been confirmed to use the currently available kits. The descriptions have been updated to reflect fitting the 03-08 350Z's.
#7
05-12-2012, 08:39 AM
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#8
05-12-2012, 08:10 PM
#9
05-12-2012, 08:28 PM
Go through the trouble shooting in the manual and you might be engaging the clutch even when it is out. Like slightly riding the clutch at all times. You might need to tweak the engagement point by adjusting the clutch pedal rod and thread it out some along with tweaking the Adjustable fulcrum point. Recheck your work and tweak the setting to you are making sure you are not engaging the clutch. Hit up Ryan via PM on G35 or My350z and he can help as well.
#10
05-12-2012, 08:32 PM
#11
05-12-2012, 08:39 PM
Check the instructions i think i set the fulcrum at 3/4 which is what i remember it said and clutch pedal rod thread showed 2.5 or less threads. I would tweak the AFP to 3/4 and see how that is and if not that back out the rod away from you.
http://www.2shared.com/document/T9Ug...-Rev2-Clu.html
Here I'll explain the theory of the AFP a little better.
When I say to initially setup the AFP at 75% what I'm referring to is the percent of total travel the sliderhas from the bottom of the slot if viewed as it would be installed in the car.0%= Slider Bottomed out. (Stock fulcrum length. Same as the factory setup)50%= Slider ~centered half way up from the bottom. This is also the Minimum recommended setting fortuning.75%= Recommended Initial setting from the manual. Slider ~ 3/4 of the way up from the bottom. Justeye ball it.80-100% is NOT recommended for anyone with a stock type clutch as full disengagement becomesdifficult without raising the pedal height well above the brake pedal. This extra adjustment travel exists forpeople running aftermarket clutches that came with or require a Stop Plate to shorten the factory pedaltravel. People with these clutches can safely use this extra range as their clutches disengage in a muchshorter stroke then the factory or factory replacement types. (Act, JWT, etc)As you can see small changes of fulcrum length make big changes to the system. The sliders total travel isonly ½” so for every 1/8” you move the slider up its equal to 25%. It’s also better to start out a tad lowerand move up later then starting out too high.
http://www.2shared.com/document/T9Ug...-Rev2-Clu.html
Here I'll explain the theory of the AFP a little better.
When I say to initially setup the AFP at 75% what I'm referring to is the percent of total travel the sliderhas from the bottom of the slot if viewed as it would be installed in the car.0%= Slider Bottomed out. (Stock fulcrum length. Same as the factory setup)50%= Slider ~centered half way up from the bottom. This is also the Minimum recommended setting fortuning.75%= Recommended Initial setting from the manual. Slider ~ 3/4 of the way up from the bottom. Justeye ball it.80-100% is NOT recommended for anyone with a stock type clutch as full disengagement becomesdifficult without raising the pedal height well above the brake pedal. This extra adjustment travel exists forpeople running aftermarket clutches that came with or require a Stop Plate to shorten the factory pedaltravel. People with these clutches can safely use this extra range as their clutches disengage in a muchshorter stroke then the factory or factory replacement types. (Act, JWT, etc)As you can see small changes of fulcrum length make big changes to the system. The sliders total travel isonly ½” so for every 1/8” you move the slider up its equal to 25%. It’s also better to start out a tad lowerand move up later then starting out too high.
Last edited by faiz23; 05-13-2012 at 09:56 PM.
#13
05-13-2012, 10:33 PM
#15
06-24-2012, 08:06 PM
