Hey everyone,

Just completed the last step of my clutch upgrade (FM Happy meal kit). The master/slave and clutch lines were also replaced and bled.

My question is, can I check if everything is working well without starting the car? I'm still halfway through my turbo install and would like to verify that everything was put together right.

What I've noticed so far:

• Clutch pedal feels good, doesn't feel any different to stock.
• I can shift into each gear (with or without pressing the clutch).
• Having a friend push the clutch pedal, I can see the slave actuate the fork (travel seems normal)

Ideally there is some test I can do to check the friction point, and make sure that clutch pedal in = clutch disengaged, clutch pedal out = clutch engaged.

 

I wouldn't sweat it man. If you're confident you torqued everything to spec, there isn't much else to do.
FM includes some instructions on adjusting the clutch rod, make sure you do those or you may not be able to get the car into gear (it wont disengage far enough). But you'll need the engine running to even test that.

 

Have your friend spin the rear tires and see where the friction point is.....Although this isn't going to add a whole lot of value. You're overthinking this, just wait till you fire it up.

 

Yeah, I know I'm overthinking it. It's just that I'm towing the car to the tuner for some minor fabrication work and then dyno tuning, so I'd really love the peace of mind that the drivetrain is all set for the tuner

 

This is why you fire it up and even tune the idle cruise portions of the tune yourself. Otherwise you're paying top dollar for someone to work out the bugs for you. It's also a good idea to get the clutch broken in before you strap it to a dyno and try to tune WOT.

 

Can't "fire it up" and tune it myself since the shop is building an elbow for my turbo, doing my intercooler piping, and building a custom mount for my wastegate actuator. Trust me, if I could start the car and get a base tune going myself I would.

As for the break in, the shop is going to bed the clutch/flywheel and break it in before doing WOT pulls.

 

Clutch break in is a myth. It either transfers or it doesn't.

Also with the FM clutch: Make sure the tuner is aware that it may require adjustment outside of factory parameters, per FM's procedure.

 

I respectfully disagree, my spec stg. 3 wouldn't hold 6psi when I first installed it. After ~500 miles it's holding 12psi fine. Flywheel, pressure plate and disk aren't perfectly flat and even. Break in allows the clutch disk to conform to these irregularities.

 

That's not how things work. IF your flywheel and pressure plate weren't perfectly flat and even, any conformation that your clutch disc makes would be null and void each and every time the clutch was disengaged.

There are some clutch materials that may require a break in, but the FM clutch isn't using them.

 

Just sharing my observations, I've seen this now with the spec and with the stock replacement exedy. I will say the break in period was less than 100 miles for the exedy so I get that organic clutches are less prone to issues.