07 350z, 58k original miles.

1 month ago, put in comp stage 3 clutch kit(Comes with new pilot bearing), lightweight flywheel, new master cylinder, zspeed hd slave.

Last week the clutch started to make a loud grinding noise when the clutch pedal is all the way down, clutch is disengaged. (See Video Below; Makes almost the exact same under the same conditions)

Another friend ordered a stage 2 and swapped the same things I did. This weekend he took his trans apart, replaced the pilot bushing and the noise went away.

Do you think this is just a bad batch of pilot bushings by competitionclutch? or the effect of a lightweight flywheel and just extra noise?

 

Did the kit come with a pilot bushing or pilot bearing?

 

I believe a bearing. I might've actually found the answer to my problem. It seems like in a perfect world, the bearing would be a good idea. But if there is even a slight misalignment or play, the bearings will fail quick. Whereas a bushing will be able to take it. I am guessing off of just some searching. If you have better information or right, please feel free

 

Not even that, under perfect operating conditions the needle bearing will live a short life... Those are intended for race use; where the clutch will not last much more than a few track days.

The "needle" rollers themselves need to spin extremely fast to keep up with the difference in RPM between the crankshaft and input shaft sometimes. They just can't take that for too long. If there was enough room (and demand) to fit a ball bearing in there, I would say go for it!

 

problem fixed for now.. swapped pilot bushing. The one that came with the competition clutch kit was 0.2mm larger in diameter on both sides than the new one I put in from NAPA... that's out of the allowable tolerance range for a pilot bushing.