It would be hard to see by pic but where the clutch plate sits in the pp I literally had to pull it hard to get it out and when I try to put it in the pp I have to push it in its like the pp needs shaved on the inner ringing that makes sence

 

weird.

 

Almost like the cheap clutch wasn't made correctly - imagine that.

We only sell ACTs for a reason.

 

I'm ordering either a spec clutch or act I'm just waiting to hear back from my gay at my local shop

 

Any one had good experience with spec at all?

 

Well just got an ACT clutch hopefully I get to drive the miata Friday

 

which did you buy?

 

ACT ZM1-XTSS this is the one I bought

 

No, none. They are made just up the road from me and I have seen their shop quite a few times. I used to be friends with a few of those guys, and they used to make better products. But now, I wouldn't with a Spec clutch on my worst enemy. Go ACT all the way. Spec will give you nothing but trouble, no matter what series you go with. They are all junk.

n/m, I see you chose correctly. Any ACT > Any Spec

I hope your hydraulics can handle the stiffer PP. I know out slave cylinders tend to not like upgraded, stiff clutches. I might have gone with the next step down in PP, unless you intend to make some pretty serious power.

 

About Spec clutches:

I will NOT buy another one. Period.

This is after less than 10K miles of non-abusive driving on a Spec stage 2.5.
Clutch was installed with a machined flywheel, and break in procedure was followed religiously.

 

good job.

 

So it did turn out your cheap clutch did not work. I am not against "cheaping" out on some things. Clutches are just one of those things though where the amount of work to fix it if it does not work the first time is a PITA. There are only 3 brands of clutches that I will ever recommend or install on a miata. Those are ACT, FM, and 949 Twin-Disks. I will berate anyone that buys any other clutch because of being cheap.

 

For the record, that Spec I had bought was not cheap at all. Just crappy.

 

It was made with CF pucks...so what did you expect?

 

CF side looked OK. It was the CM side that had gone **** up.

 

that's not what I'm seeing from the pics. Those teeny tiny CF pucks are completely worn to the rivets, where the ceramic/organic side (whtaever it is) looks new.

 

The 6 puck setup you see in the third pic is the CF side, Scott..

 

no it's not. that the normal clutch material side, the otherside is the CF material.


I'm pretty sure the "full-faced" kevlar goes on the flywheel for "smooth" engagement, and the pucked organic side is PP for maximum grip. But I could be wrong, but I dont think I am.

I've had a CF Dual Friction clutch before, it also sucked. Where the CF side was pucked as well, it engaged great but slipped like hell when cold.

 

hopefully once i get the clutch in i can start to drive around the block and get some tuning going untill it break's in