D Appleby Flywheel & Sintered Twin Plate Clutch exp.

[x31james]

Current underside of car with everything out

[x31james]

Flywheel installed

[x31james]

New clutch installed on top

[x31james]

old bearing


New bearing

[x31james]

Neil1300r said:

x31james said:

I asked James at DAE, In answer to your question the flywheel is a custom design by DAE,the clutch is from the AML range as used on bigger engined graziano gearbox cars as you mentioned. in total there are 4 flywheel options designed to fit with the different clutch options...Hope this helps. After to talking to James he suggested the organic clutch over sintered as it might be a bit harsh in London traffic as you said on/off characteristics

Edited by x31james on Wednesday 15th April 12:30

So as your car was at an Aston dealer what's the advantage of the DAE clutch - if the DAE clutch is an AML one? Will the flywheel make any difference or is it just a price issue?

Its not the same AML clutch but a twin plate AML clutch used in the more powerful cars. DAE can do the same clutch for 1005 + VAT according to there website but i thought id be better off going for a different clutch seeing though it only lasted 21k. Aston Martin wanted to charge me 3k to replace the standard one so to spend another 500 for a harder wearing one and the other DAE bits sounded like a better deal. Ill let you know if it does when i get it back Neil

[x31james]

AMDBSNick said:

Neil1300r said:

Wonder why AM dealers don't offer it as its the weak point of the V8.

They do

Is it something you looked into when you had your V8 Nick?

[x31james]

DAE have finished the car so will be picking it up tomorrow or friday well let you know how it is!

[x31james]

JohnG1 Twin plate organic clutch AML part, custom lightweight flywheel DAE designed, new clutch release bearing and custom release bearing spacer DAE designed. Not sure who manufactures the part with ask today when I pick the car up

[x31james]

JohnG1 said:

Have you got these photos the right way around?

The "new" clutch release bearing looks more like a V8 part (single plate clutch) rather than a V12 (twin plate clutch) part. So it's a different shape - the V12 part is more rounded to push the fingers more and the V8 part is flatter.

davidexige is correct travel is adjusted t make sure its correct. DAE said the slight angle difference where it meets the clutch fingers doesn't seem to cause issue its been done like this on sintered version for years on the race cars with no issues... hope this helps

[x31james]

Ken Figenus said:

>I just love the fact you are under your car seeing what's going on and how it is coming together and how it all works<

That wasn't me, it was James from DAE, part of the service! Still a good insight though

Edited by x31james on Thursday 16th April 16:17

Edited by x31james on Thursday 16th April 16:19

[x31james]

So got on the train to DAE this morning was picked up from the station and was shown around the DAE facilities. Quite a lot of different projects on the go including a rally AMV8 and a hill climb spec V8! The David Appleby family are a great bunch and seemed to have a lot of pride in what they do! Everything was in stock so was hard to not go mad and have the clear rear lights and all the carbon bits and bobs. Did go for an on/off switch for exhaust rather than removal of fuse 22, discovered it had already been removed by a previous owner and the exhaust value had seized up so sorted that and then James took me out for a drive in the car before it was my turn.

The DAE clutch: went to push in the clutch first time and nearly put my foot threw the bottom of the floor as i was still expecting the usual leg press of the old one. I had a mini cooper (10 plate) before the aston and id say it was softer than that. Another thing i noticed on the 80 mile journey back to London was that is picks up revs a lot quicker then it used to, changing from 6th to 4th the revs picked up maybe 50 to 100% quicker than before the new bits, the engine seems a lot more free. Still getting used to the bite of the new one but seems a lot cleaner than the standard clutch so very happy so far with the purchase! Note that i haven't driven a new AM V8 manual car, got the car from 17k (now 21k) so thats what I'm comparing it too.

[x31james]

I have spoken to DAE about this and they said that they arnt concerned however if i felt concerned then they are more than happy to change the bearing FOC, Would you recommend this then Bamford Mike??? Also i dont think "hope this helps" is particularly helpful, i was just passing on what id been told, im not an expert i was just passing on my experience.

Edited by x31james on Friday 17th April 15:23

[x31james]

Jockman said:

'Hope this Helps' is a friendly way of rounding off a posting. Sometimes abbreviated to HTH.

Nowt sinister about it, James

Well in that case then I apologise what's AMDBSNICK 's excuse??

[x31james]

Bouldermobile said:

Thanks Karl, that explains the pedal movement issue very well.

I note the OP stated that the new pedal action was much easier to use so presumably even with the 'wrong' bearing it is still a vast improvement on the original. Although that then makes Mike's the 'factory knows what it is doing' a slightly moot point given the criticism of AM in general and the V8V clutch in particular. Obviously longevity of the 'wrong' bearing has yet to be proven.

James, did you decide whether to insist upon having the bearings swapped over or not?

I rang them up and they said if I wanted it changed then they were happy to do it FOC, Im going to get it changed to the bull head bearing seeing though that bearing was designed with the v12 clutch, from my understanding of this thread that is.

[x31james]

Rang around a lot of places Friday to ask opinions, none of the independents who don't do this conversion had any comment one way or another and neither do AM themselves or Official AM dealerships, they didn't want to comment.

AHM- Aston Martin Care who are based in Hampshire who also do the same twin plate conversion were very helpful and added that they use the bullhead V12 bearing in their conversions with their customers. Thought id mention them as another alternative to BR and DAE if people were looking to get it done.

Edited by x31james on Tuesday 21st April 18:43

[x31james]

AMDBSNick said:

x31james said:

Rang around a lot of places Friday to ask opinions, none of the independents who don't do this conversion had any comment one way or another and neither do AM themselves or Official AM dealerships, they didn't want to comment.

AHM- Aston Martin Care who are based in Hampshire who also do the same twin plate conversion were very helpful and added that they use the bullhead V12 bearing in their conversions with their customers. Thought id mention them as another alternative to BR and DAE if people were looking to get it done.

Edited by x31james on Tuesday 21st April 18:43

James, I'm not the brightest light here but I do know a little about Astons. Very simple question;why have you paid thousands for DAE to fit an incorrect part to your car????

I didn't know it was the incorrect part hence why it's going back up there on Monday and getting changed, by the time people spotted it on here the car was already back in London.

[x31james]

KarlFranz said:

x31james said:

I didn't know it was the incorrect part hence why it's going back up there on Monday and getting changed, by the time people spotted it on here the car was already back in London.

Maybe I missed it in your story but, it's one thing for you to miss that it was the wrong part; but why did they miss it? Who provided the bearing that was installed, them or you?

They provided the part and they installed it, they believe/believed that it wasn't a concern and was perfectly capable of doing the job. I'm sure DAE will learn from this and fit the V12 bullhead bearings from now on.

[x31james]

Got the car back up to DAE yesterday, took 4 hours to take the car apart replace the bearing and put it back together again which i thought was quite impressive, Drove the car up from London so a good 80 miles or so in the morning the drive back was very similar, the clutch if anything felt very marginally heavier which i liked and it did seem to be a little smoother but again was marginal. Overall my DAE experience was good, excellent customer service and would use them again!

Would i buy an Aston with a single plate clutch again, no in my experience the clutch will always be the weak link, no idea why Aston still put it in their cars. Ill buy a DBS or V12S next time if i wanted to stick to Aston.

[x31james]

Jockman said:

The only thing perpetuating this thread is a desire to have 'last word'.

The thread had died yesterday morning until Stuart (nice bloke) decided to respond some 14 hours later. I appreciate different time zones are in play here.

There are valid points on both sides and I hark back to a thread attacking BR last June whilst I was in Turkey.

My stance remains this - please stop trying to drive a small company out of business. The human casualties are not a pretty sight.

Supporters and detractors will ultimately achieve the same goal

+1

[x31james]

downr said:

more importantly can the OP give us an update in a month or two as to how he's finding the new clutch?

I most certainly can!