Derrick2k2SE

iTrader: (3)

I'm putting a clutch in soon and was considering going with the JWT 15 pound flywheel while I'm at it. I haven't heard much about it but it looks good and the pride is right.

Right now I'm considering the SPEC stage 2 clutch kit to go with it. It seems like the clutch options are kind of limited for the 3.5.

Any feedback on either of these products?

mjg

stop... Don't do it. Unless you don't mind replacing your starter, having a sloppy mesh sound like a 1982 toyota, and have this jakoff jimwolf not cover or standby his product and laugh in your face when your transmission falls apart.


Yea, and if you want pictures of what the flywheel ended up looking like i can glady post, oh yea i forgot to mention, that the magnetic dust from my starter was getting all over my crank sensor causing my car to throw codes and stall out all over the place before we tried to modify the starter so it would fit.

Put it this way, jim wolf is a jerk, his maxima parts are total trash, and you are bound to have your car not work due to them and his over priced crap. The guy ben is a total liar who works for him, i had jim wolf himself on the phone with jeff from maximum tuning trying to cover his ***, not handle my situation properly. He screwed me over, and i'm talking over 2 grand worth of parts, labor, and problems... Probablly close to 3 grand after considering the new starter and tranny stuff (removing the damn thing and goign back stock).


If you must, consider clutch master products, which cattman stands by and says is good stuff. Not much info on these other then the fact they are now available.

I hope i scared you off enough from goign with jim wolf, man please don't waste your time money and energy on that trash.

Tommy Boy

mjg,
What exactly happened to the flywheel? It sounds like a bad starter ruined your new flywheel ring gear? Was this the origional starter or aftermarket? If aftermarket, did it require any type of spacers or shimming to maintain proper tooth engagement/clearance? I feel your pain about poor customer sevice after the sale, but we need more info about what happened. I was also considering this upgrade and want to know exactly what went wrong with yours.

mjg

The starter was fine, it had 25k miles on it at the time, no issues, the onset of the issues was when we put in the jim wolf flywheel.

Look: The flywheel is not the right part, it is not to spec, it's not made properly. The mesh is wrong. The engagement is not supposed to make noises like that, if you ask around, the few members amongst myself who had/have this part all had this problem. A member, phxblue, if your familar with the guy he had nearly the same setup i did, even warned me about the grindings collecting on his crank sensor. I thought i wouldnt face the problem... oh but i did.

What we did try to do, to fix the grinding problem was drill holes in the starter and change the angle. Though it did appear to make the mesh not as loud, it still sounded sloppy, and there was play afterwards until when the starter wore down to the point where all you heard was air spooling, no mesh whatsoever.

A long story short is that, the part was colisted with an altima part, and jim wolf had claimed to sell many of these, though not particularly to maxima customers, which is a lie. He never personally tested the part, and is full of lies and cover up tactics whenever approached about the problem.

The fool Ben who has alot of answered, reads them out of his documentation and has zero hands on experience working or designing these kinds of parts.

All i can tell you, is that the part is absolutely wrong, and though the clutch is OK, the flywheel aint worth it.

Oh yea, and let me just add this in. Now that im back to stock flywheel, i gotta admit the, the effect of the lightened flywheel isn't really all that much, its noticable, but not a major change. The car revs quicker sure, but not that much quicker. This isn't a true racing flywheel, nothing like the tilden setups the 350z guys have. The decceleration on the other hand, was not any different.


Just avoid Jim Wolf man. And really avoid the aftermarket flyhwheels by them.
THe last place you want to be, was where i was 3 weeks ago with this. It was a total nightmare.


If you want anymore specifec info, contact jeff at maximum tuning and ask him about my specifec problems.

You can also talk to other members here, feel free to contact him jim wolf himself, quote anything i've said here, and ask him what he does when parts don't work.

I gotta go out of my way to talk you guys out of this, it's the least i can do.

Tommy Boy

Wow, that really sucks if they are selling parts that they haven't done their homework on! Absolutely no excuse for that!!! Thanks for sharing your ordeal. Looks like I will be finding another source for an Aluminum flywheel.... Did they at least offer to refund your purchase price?

mjg

No, they said they'd look into it, only if i took it out and sent them pictures, meanwhile even then he wasn't paying for me to pull the part out, and he was so stubborn that he wouldn't even consider an advance refund, he gave me the run around. Even getting the guys attention was really complicated, the guy does alot of really advanced work on some cars, and knows his stuff, but he is a doesn't care about maximas i guess. They explained once the part is installed, it's the installers fault if it doesn't work, and just blew us off.
Nice policy right?

This was all after the part was installed, now that it ruined my starter about 8 m onths later, i'm not even going to bother with them. It aint worth my time and grief.

If you want to look into flywheels, i think you should look into the clutch master stuff, but you might end up being a guinea pig with that, unless anyone else installed one.

Derrick2k2SE

iTrader: (3)

Wow, thanks for the heads up. I think I'll just go with something else. It really sucks you had to go through that.

Did you use his clutch with it or a different brand?

I'm still on the fence about the flywheel but I need to decide about the clutch soon.

SR20DEN

iTrader: (7)

You don't have to use JWT garbage. Any 350Z flywheel can be used with two minor modifications.

Derrick2k2SE

iTrader: (3)

OK, what are the modifications and can they be done easily?

Also, It looks like you have some powerful cars there. What type of clutch would you recomend. I'm not boosted and have most of the boltons and computer tuning. My last dyno has me at 235 torque at the wheels. I run at the track with drag radials a few times a month. I think that's what killed the stock clutch.

SR20DEN

iTrader: (7)

The OE clutch is pretty strong on these cars. I would rate them as high as 400 lb. ft. of torque at the crank. The earlier Maximas had nothing even close to that. But with anything else they will slip and or break if overly abused. I did break one once but only after it held a few dozen 5krpm hard launches with big slicks and alot of other abuse.



There are only two real things that need to be done to use a 350Z flywheel. One is reset the clock, or the TDC of the flywheel (timing ring for crank trigger) in relation to the crankshaft. IIRC this is off by exactly one mounting bolt hole where the flywheel bolts to the crankshaft. Second, the crank sensor will need to be moved horizontally 6.5mm further from the engine. The will require using a die grinder to remove material from the access hole on the bellhousing.


Or you could just bring your car into the shop and let me worry about these two issues.

www.p1auto.com