95's With aftermarket flywheel, please chime in
 

I am looking at replacing my clutch and flywheel soon. I have a 12/94 production date 95 maxima, and I have read that early model 95's have 9 ring gear bolts instead of 8. I know I can get a stillen flywheel, but have heard these don't even come with a ring gear. Since I would have to re-use the factory ring gear, would it be too much trouble to just use a ring gear from a 96, and get a less-expensive fidanza flywheel instead? Please anyone with experience/suggestions on this chime in. I need to purchase a clutch/flywheel very soon.

i have a 95 with a 94 production date i used the fidanza with the oem ring gear and have no problems i dont know about the bolts being 8 or 9 but besides that good results

Did you do the install yourself? What's the production date on your drivers side door? I might chance it and go with the fidanza, and simply return it if it doesn't fit. I just hate to lose the money on shipping if I have one of the rare few cars. Many sites correctly list the fidanza flywheel as being for 96-00.

I'm beginning to think this problem might only be with cars that are 4/94 prod date.

I just talked to Jason at Stillen. He is going to try and figure out the distinguising factor for me. I told him this may help drive more business over to Stillen. Hopefully we can get a definitive answer once and for all.

On the phone with Unorthodox Racing, who is also trying to figure this out.

Fidanza = Busy Signal. Gotta love that. Unorthodox confirmed that their flywheels are manufactured by AASCO. Stillen seems to be much more secretive. I somehow doubt Stillen will even call me back.

Unothodox actually seems determined to help me solve this problem. They have told me that stillen does make their own version (NON-AASCO) of the flywheels, that is intermixed inventory with the AASCO flywheels.

I will attempt to document all of this information as it is unfolded to me.

Okay so here is what we came up with. Stillen a while back made a bad batch of flywheels. Fidanza is known for making flywheels, using another companies flywheel as a 'mold' <--perhaps not the correct term. If early on when stillen made their own flywheels (non-aasco) and Fidanza may have made a batch of their flywheels based on these. The guy at unorthodox told me that all 3 companies, AASCO, Stillen, and Unorthodox have a tendency to collaborate, with Fidanza often following in the footsteps. If so, fidanza may have a bad batch of flywheels made from the Stillen batch of non-AASCO flywheels that were incorrect. They might be trying to get rid of these.

The one hole in this story is post-95 maximas. This would not show why many post-95 maximas have bought the Fidanza flywheel and noone has had the same fitment issue. This problem may very well go unsolved, until someone can actually compare a ring-gear plate from one of these 'rare' 95's with a ring gear from a 96-00.

Unothodox AND AASCO have assured me that the part number is the same for ALL maxima's from 95 up until the 3.5 was made. They have NEVER had any problems or heard of ANY problems of fitment.

I think that maybe it is more likely that Nissan made a bad batch of ring gears in 95, and corrected it. :-\

thanks for this info. Did you get the feeling you were talking to yourself after a while. I'm in need of a new clutch. What brand clutch are you buying? And Why? I was thinking of going with ACT Street clutch.

Spec Stage 2 /With lightweight option

The groupdeal with ImportCarParts just changed their Fidanza to 96-01.

"Okay so here is what we came up with. Stillen a while back made a bad batch of flywheels. Fidanza is known for making flywheels, using another companies flywheel as a 'mold' <--perhaps not the correct term. If early on when stillen made their own flywheels (non-aasco) and Fidanza may have made a batch of their flywheels based on these. The guy at unorthodox told me that all 3 companies, AASCO, Stillen, and Unorthodox have a tendency to collaborate, with Fidanza often following in the footsteps. If so, fidanza may have a bad batch of flywheels made from the Stillen batch of non-AASCO flywheels that were incorrect. They might be trying to get rid of these."

I'm pretty sure this was a false assumption by the unorthodox guy. Stillen probably made a "DIFFERENT" batch of flywheels in order to solve the 95 fitment problem. Yet stillen is unwilling to tell me what manufacture date or vin number difference they use to ship out the 'different' flywheels.

I know I was talking to myself, I'm more trying to get my thoughts all down in writing at this point than anything. And this way it's open to anyone to share.

Reluctantly, I ordered a flywheel from stillen today.

All of stillen's customer service reps want is to sell. They seem unwilling to help me with this. The guy said that the part number is the same from 95-01. He refused to help me or give me any useful information. Sadly because of this 'salesman' service I have experienced from all of the reps at stillen, I can not recommend that anyone buy from them.

call these guys - # is on the website www.clutchexpress.com

argh too late i already bought a clutch/flywheel from stillen and the group deal here on the org.

I have an 11/94 production 1995 Max SE with an ACT street stage 1 and a Stillen lightened flywheel and had absolutely no problems at all. I love the way it revs and shifts also. BTW my OEM flywheel had 9 bolts...I'm looking at it right now.

As I am about to take my car to get my clutch replaced and I have a Stillen, AASCO version, flywheel with 9 holes, I am concerned that I don't have the correct ring gear on my car. Mine is a 4/95 production model, and when I went to the dealer to get replacement flywheel bolts, they told me only 8 were needed. Now I am sure the holes won't align on the ring gear if it is 8 vs. 9, so if anyone has solved this please let me know as I may have to see if I can find a ring gear with 9 holes.

good luck with that GarthG. It appears that the very rare 95's have 9 bolts. It's hard enough to find a ring gear from a 96-01. You looking for a 95 ring gear is like finding a needle in a haystack. I'll let you know what stillen sends me. I'll be doing this install on friday/saturday. Wish me luck!

Update: I got the new flywheel from stillen. It's also aasco. It has 9 boltholes. Pictures to come!