Originally posted by pole120:
Originally posted by pole120:
does the Spec kit come wit ha ford T.O. bearing??

I will be ordering soon ,and would like to know.







I asked that same question a couple of months ago before I ordered my SPEC Stage One. A manager at SPEC said that the Slave Cylinder/Throw-Out Bearing is indeed the Ford OEM part.

When comparing the component to the 10-year old factory one, it looked identical (except for a green dust cover instead of an orange dust cover).

Most installation instructions won't tell you this (besides the torque stuff), but do the following when installing the part:

- Put a thin bead of Permatex Anaerobic Gasket Maker around the rubber seal at the base of the Slave Cylinder.
- Put a thin layer of Gasket Maker (I used the Permatex 'Ultra Black' stuff) on the flat base of the Slave Cylinder.
- Torque the bolts to the specified torque setting

If the Slave Cylinder is going to leak, it'll do it fairly soon after installation. Several CEGer's have had the misfortune of having it spring a leak -- it's a lot of work to tear it back apart to fix it again. In some cases the error was that they had not lubed the rubber seal at the base of the Slave Cylinder. If you don't use a (slippery before it dries) gasket maker on that seal, at a minimum use a little bit of ATF fluid to help the seal slide into place.

My Stage One is almost "broken in." The first 100 miles were tough, as engagement was abrupt and a little unpredictable. By 250 miles it started to engage more smoothly. Now at 400+ miles, engagement is getting very close to OEM, although it can bite harder than the stock clutch ever did. Breaking in a new Torsen at the same time has made for a NOISY break-in period, but even that is quieting down.

1996 Ford Contour SE (Mine): V-6 MTX/DMD/MSDS/K&N3530/Torsen/Spec-1/Split-Exhaust/Walbro/Syncromax..119K 2003 GMC Yukon XL SLT (Hers): 285HP/Stock..93K