Diesel350 Glad to hear it Enjoy!

Ryan

 

"... the effort it takes to drive this car makes it one of the most exhausting cars I have ever come across." - Jeremy Clarkson

I agree with his assessment. After a day trip in the 350z my foot would be worn out, and the shifting becomes a chore. I made it a habit to skip gears, just to avoid having to let out that clutch pedal as often. The RJM adjustable bracket solves this problem completely. I think if the Top Gear host had driven the Z with only this one modification, he would have rated it much higher.

 

Ok, now I am getting a weird clutch noise in the mornings when I depress the clutch similar to this guy; https://my350z.com/forum/maintenance...tch-noise.html

Any idea of what it could be?

 

The sound in the other guys thread is most likely a throw out bearing making noise once it’s loaded against the clutch diaphragm.

My 09' G37 has made the same noise only not as loud since I picked it up bone stock back in the spring and is mostly gone once warmed up. The sound remained exactly the same when stock as it did after a pedal install which was to be expected.

Is your's as loud as the video and did it come on suddenly or just started getting more noticeable now that its getting colder in the mornings?

 

Wow.....I got to page 8 of this thread, stopped reading and ordered one of these for my 05. I'm really looking forward to getting this in for the same reasons everybody else posted.

 

To the members with possible failing throw out bearings: if you don't calibrate the pedal exactly right (whether stock or RJM) you can easily trash your throw out bearing due to always being slightly engaged. With stock pedal theres a spring to hold it up tight against the stopper, but with springless RJM you have to leave some slop in it. If the RJM pedal is pushing against the upper stop at rest, you're stressing the throwout bearing and also preventing your clutch from self-bleeding which will make the matter worse.

 

So there is never any spring in the RJM?

 

Yes mine is as loud as the one in the video. It just came on suddenly. I did not hear the noise prior to the install.

 

No- The RJM Brackets completely eliminates the factory dual mode- Return/Assist Spring Mechanism that has caused many people trouble over the years. Long before there ever was an RJM bracket it was a very common and well documented clutch mod to simply remove the troublesome spring mechanism from the factory pedal assembly.

In fact that was one of my own initial mods which I did pretty much the same day I picked up my car and I drove it that way for over 20k miles without any issues from having removed it. Since I still wasn't happy with the clutch feel of our cars I developed the first prototype of the RJM brackets for my own personal use. It was only after I'd put another 5k-6k miles on my car with the no-spring prototype installed before I even considered asking if anyone else would be interested in such a mod if I was to produce them in small numbers... shortly after the first group buy happened and RJM Performance came into existence. When I sold my car last spring it had almost 70k miles on the factory clutch and about 30k of those miles were all put on with no additional springs. I know the guy who purchased my car from the dealership and its still going strong 6 months later and with the original RJM prototype still installed.



Now Per My Installation Guide and just as Djamps has stated above proper adjustment of the pedal during installation is key.

Please note the highlighted sections of my Install Guide as all of the above items are fully covered during installation.

"Once you’re satisfied with the initial position of the clutch pedal go back and adjust the upper switch so that it too gets just depressed by the pedal while fully at rest but does not bottom out the switch and hold the clutch pedal from returning all the way up. If everything is good the pedal should have a smooth motion going down and coming up with no binding, rough spots or squeaking.

The first ¼ to ½ inch of pedal travel when pushing down should feel easy and then you should feel the pressure increase as the TOB starts to push the clutch diaphragm. This is important as it means the TOB is getting fully retracted from the diaphragm spring when the pedal is up and not causing excess TOB wear.

There is a return spring in the Slave cylinder at the transmission which retracts the TOB from the clutch face and second return spring inside the Master Cylinder which returns the MC and pedal to the fully up position. The spring within the MC holds the weight of the pedal up and has enough force to depress the cruise switch so there is never any force on the TOB or clutch diaphragm when the pedal is resting fully up just as it was in stock form."

As well the last page of guide goes over critical tests that must pass and the adjustments that must be made before driving the car if these tests don't pass first go around.

If the installation guide's testing & adjustment instructions are correctly followed there is no danger to any of your clutch system and transmission components. However like any other performance product if not installed correctly or the critical testing instructions are not followed then damage can occur.

In the case of the RJM brackets setting the friction point too low is the most common issue of concern and will cause the shifter to feel stiff or notch into 1st or reverse. If its severely low it may be difficult to get into gear at all. If not corrected this could cause transmission damage but not in the short term unless you start forcing it and would certainly be correctly quickly through a simple adjustment when following the install guide.


Diesel350
Now all of that said and re-reading your previous posts I don't see any evidence that you were ever riding your throw-out bearing with the RJM pedal during the time you were driving it without having corrected your low friction point. The symptoms you posted would indicate a complete fail of the tests laid out in the guide in regards to resistance into gear when shifting from neutral but at the same time would not have done any damage to your TOB set that way. The only way the TOB could be damaged is if you had adjusted the clutch rod out for a really high friction point and were forcing the pedal against the upper switch or stop bolt which could cause the TOB to stay spinning all the time and prevent normal function of the master cylinders balance port. This would eventually lead to TOB failure over several weeks or months. However you indicated you were not forcing the pedal against the upper stop when I questioned it.

While I'm sorry to hear your TOB is now making noise I'd have to say its simply coincidence that its started now and is likely the culmination of 6-7 years of wear and tear rather then a few weeks with your pedal not properly adjusted for friction point. Clutch Failure, TOB Failure, Ball Stud Failure, Slave Cylinder Failure, Master Cylinder Failure and Synchro failure are all extemly common and well documented in the 350Z's history from day 1 and all long before my product was ever conceived of.
Fortunately the TOB is only a $37.00 part to replace but will require dropping the tranny to get to it.

 

Thanks for the info, Ryan, i still not sure whether i need this still, but there sure are a lot of people here singing the assembly's praise.

I'm not sure if my clutch action changes due to heat, or if it has a problem or what, all i know is in consistency with engagement between gears (which is helped when the throttle response is 'fixed' in the tune)

 

I got to page 3 and placed an order! LOL I'm going to have to back and read everything! Between my new CD009, TWM short shifter, Carbonetic twin disc and now this... I'm going to have a whole new shifting experience! Hell damn near everything is new/modded on my car now! LOL

 

Ok thanks for your help, my Z does have 90,000 miles on it so I'm sure I will need to be replacing clutch components soon.

 

^if you need a new TOB let me know, i have 1 BNIP. It is oem nissan.

 

You're welcome. Yeah I'd say at 90K you've gotten a good life out of that OE clutch! I've seen many people around the forums kill their factory clutches with under 60k on them so 90K is pretty exceptional.

 

Firstly if your clutch action is inconsistent simply with heat I'd do a full clutch fluid flush and refill with new DOT4 fluid. Old dirty fluid with a degraded boiling point can cause many problems with inconsistency in pedal feel.

As for needing my product here is how a customer in the 370Z forum put it... No one needs a new clutch pedal in order to drive their car the way it came from the factory. Just like no one needs more horsepower & torque. People WANT better shifting, clutch feel & consistency... they want more horsepower, better brakes, etc. It’s a quest for improvement over stock... not a necessity.

My product solely exists as a driver input mod. It changes the driver’s whole experience with the car. Making the car easier to drive well makes it more pleasurable & fun to drive. Especially when you can launch and click through the gears without worrying if the next shift is going to be rough and inconstant.

It takes the pressure and concentration off you to get the shift timing exactly right, the throttle input just right, etc. Once you do that driving the car is more relaxed and shifting becomes more fun again.

Anyone can learn to drive these cars well. Like playing a musical instrument it takes time, effort, concentration and lots of practice. Some instruments are much easier to play well then others... Adding my clutch pedal product simply makes the 350Z easier to play well if you get what I mean

 

Hmm, interesting.

Everytime you change something on a car, each time you mod, it's always a compromise, you want more power, you're probably going to get higher fuel usage, noise etc etc. What's the compromise here?

 

None that I've found in the past 2 years and 30k miles other then having to contort yourself under the dash to install.

Also not needing revs to get rolling smoothly with less clutch chatter should aid in reducing clutch wear and extending life. By not shocking the driveline with jerky or inconsistant shifts it should help reduce wear and tear on the transmission, driveline bushings, rear diff and u-joints as well.

If anyone else who's installed my product wants to chime in as to what they've compromised for by installing then I'd like to know as well.

 

I'm listening...

 

I just did a clutch install and I told the local guy to get the bracket from you so I installed yet another one.

I like the small updates done to the bracket. I was one of the first 100 on the cars in the beta phase so all the small add ons made this even easier to install now.

Customer was very happy.

 

Jeff, I'm happy to hear you had another successful install Those small tweaks I've made in the past 8 months are subtle but they sure do help. I think the biggest thing is I used to get about 10 emails a week about properly setting the AFP, now I maybe get 1 a month