Do I need anything besides King Cobra clutch?

[AdamantiumKnot]

Tried doing a search. But my clutch somehow bit the dust in 10k miles. I had a new motor and clutch put in under warranty at 50k miles. I find it hard to believe I tore through a clutch when I babied it for the first thousand miles and then haven't beat on it at all since. Not a single burnout. I tend to think they're a waste of rubber. Anyways, I'm looking at the Ford Racing 96-02 Mustang "King Cobra"Clutch,Pressure Plate,TOB. from mustangtuning.com Can I buy just that? It's for my 98 gt convertible. All I have are a magnaflow catted x-pipe and a magnaflow "magnapack" catback. No plans to upgrade anything else for a while, unless something breaks. At the bottom of the description it says: "Requires metric pressure plate bolt N602549-S51M and alignment dowel pins D1FZ-6397-B." What does that mean?

Thanks in advance,
Joe

 

[dollarbill]

Make sure you get the flywheel resurfaced and don't touch clutch area with tyou oily hands. Not sure about other parts.

 

[AdamantiumKnot]

Thanks, I'll be having my mechanic doing all the work.

 

[04DarkShadowGT]

Honestly I would suggest another clutch unless you have buff legs. I bought a 98 GT with the king cobra clutch and it is very stiff. I will be going with either a spec or centerfoce when the time comes for me to get a new one.

 

[AdamantiumKnot]

Hmmm, it says 10% lighter than the stock one. Anyone else have this problem? Oh, and I can leg press about 550 lbs. and i'm 5'6" 125 lbs. Ice hockey. hehehe

talked to my mechanic he said i wouldn't need anything done to the flywheel.

 

[04DarkShadowGT]

Maybe mine isnt a king cobra then, but that is what I was told and it is most definatly ALOT stiffer than OEM.

 

[twogts4us]

Honestly I would suggest another clutch unless you have buff legs. I bought a 98 GT with the king cobra clutch and it is very stiff. I will be going with either a spec or centerfoce when the time comes for me to get a new one.

I completely agree - it is friggin HEAVY!!! 10% lighter than stock - ha...10% lighter than something, but not stock. After getting out of the 01 (with the KC clutch) I almost put my foot thru the floorboard of the 02 (with the OEM clutch). Our plans right now are to put an OEM clutch back in it. The spec2 this KC replaced was a chatter box, so I don't really have much faith in them either. Centerforce DF is raved about...a bit pricey, but hey, you don't want to do this too often.
2ndly, if your mechanic says a flywheel resurface is unnecessary, I'd find another mechanic. A quick way to screw a new clutch is to install it with a ratty flywheel.

 

[Sncbluegt]

Look at your flyweel, if there are no heat spots then don't touch it. A lot of times resurfacing a flywheel can lead to disengagment problems with the pressure plate, b/c your pressure plate is moving farther away from the throw out bearing.

 

[Mindstatic Pro]

This mechanic may be the reason your clutch burnt out in the first place. Putting a new clutch on an old rusty flywheel....hmmmm...yeah that sounds good I would definately have the flywheel cleaned up and you shouldnt need the dowels or bolts. You only need the dowels if your getting a new flywheel and the 6 pressure plate bolts should be reuseable. Resurface your flywheel unless you want another new clutch in 10k....

 

[blackfang]

No issues with my KC kit. Had my flywheel resurfaced as well. I love it and yeah the clutch is a little heavy.

 

[Mike97gt]

the instructions that come with the king cobra suggests a new flywheel. i would at least do a good resurface. but one of the guys at my work needed to throw his car together and reused his flywheel that was already in decent shape and has had no problems.

 

[Green&GoldGT]

You'll probably need a stronger clutch quadrant too because the stock one bends with a high powered clutch. Should be about 30 bucks.

 

[AdamantiumKnot]

This mechanic didn't install my clutch the Ford dealer did when I had my motor replaced. He's also a close friend of mine. I figured the original had 50k miles of abuse on it so I had them check it they said it was worn so I replaced it then to save on the cost of labor. I find it odd a clutch I have barely abused burnt out in 12k miles. Especially when I took 1,000 miles to break it in and haven't been to the track on this one.

Do you guys recommend just the stock oem clutch and where would be the best place to get one? I just want something effective and relatively worry free. If I want to build a performance car I'm going to probably end up buying something that's faster in stock form.

 

[twogts4us]

Id recommend the stock clutch (touch base with Randy Stinchcomb of Liberty Ford and here on StangNet). If you have a bit more to spend, the Centerforce dual friction is popular and able to handle the additional power.
The KC is 10% lighter than the heavy duty, not the OEM clutch. (I made the same mistake and thought they were comparing it to stock...nononono)

 

[Mike97gt]

i have the centerforce DF now and i hate the damm thing. now i dont know if it's impropper install because it was done by the original owner. but the thing sucks. it takes a ton of presure to press down. and it dont hold that well..

i also drove a customers 03 cobra. thing is rock hard. but his grabs better than mine.

 

[GTCharles]

I've got a KC clutch and it was really stiff at first. But when you let it rip it never slips. Plus I dont know if it was just me gettin used to the clutch or it brakin in but after bout 500 or so miles it wasn't nearly as stiff as it was at first. Still stiffer then stock but worth every penny. I'd also recommend upgrading the clutch quadrent at the same time though. The stock plastic ones brake quite easily.