Here is the pressure plate. Notice how the drive straps for the pressure ring have more of a bend to them.
You can see how the pressure ring is held off the diaphragm spring a little bit which allows it to touch down first and to spread out the engagement travel, making the clutch smoother from the start.
The whole clutch can be assembled with the alignment tool to keep everything lined up and to make insertion of the transmission input shaft easier.
As a test for this clutches streetabilty, we installed it into a BMW E46 M3 with an SMG semi-automatic transmission. The SMG is basically a regular 6-speed manual transmission with a computer-controlled shifter and clutch. The way the clutch engages when taking off and shifting is controlled by a pre-programmed computer. The computer will have problems if something drastically different is installed in place of the OEM clutch. So the SMG is a good test for how streetable the MagForce is, a lightswitch grabby engagement would give the computer fits. Not only were we changing the clutch but adding a light flywheel also makes the engine easier to stall.
We installed the clutch as after resetting the system we found that the MagForce SE did not cause the computer of the SMG system to freak out. The engagement was a bit harsher and more jerky but not excessively so and the up and downshifting was fine. We were a little surprised that it worked ok. Being a high-performance clutch, the Magforce was, of course, a little noisier as well, we feel that this was more of a function of the lighter flywheel not damping out transmission vibrations and noise as well but this is typical of what you get with light flywheels.
A while back we did an evaluation of this clutch on a regular standard E46 M3 and was very pleased about how streetable it was. Now that we have run it on the computer-controlled SMG with success, that is a pretty powerful statement on how well this clutch works. If you have an SMG-equipped M3 with big plans for power upgrades, this is your clutch!
7 comments
Great article Mike. What do you think of this clutch compared to the X-Clutch twin-disk you spotlighted for the Project STI update a few months back?
Both seem to offer some pretty clever solutions to eliminate noise and offer a smooth street driving experience.
The X= Clutch is slightly smoother and this clutch is more heat resistant
Awesome, thanks for the info!
clutch noob question. Can someone explain the straps to me? whats the point of having a strap vs ditching the straps and connecting directly with a bolt or through shaft?
Straps = less noise/rattle and generally smoother engagement.
I mean I know that part, but I wanna know how and why, what about the straps makes it smoother vs no straps. I mean its still a direct connection them being metal straps… or are they like spring steel so they have give vs a bolted connection?
This