What happened to this clutch?

My friend bought a car with "a bad clutch", and wouldn't turn the motor even though the starter ran. So today we pulled the engine and trans. Split them apart and this is how the clutch looked:



Pulled the pressure part and this what was inside:



The ring where the starter grab the flywheel (don't know the name of it in english) just spun on the flywheel itself, possibly because of overheating? The ball bearing in the crank was stuck.

The previous owner said he was doing about 70 mph down the highway when the car quit on him.

Now to the question, what the heck happened here? How do we prevent it from happening again? Has anyone else seen this type of shredding damage before?

PS.
The car is OT (late 80's Volvo), but i thought it might be interesting to know what happened, as the type of clutch has been used for a long time!

/CheapSheep

 

Operator error.

 

that's it, replace the driver.

 

It is usually the nut behind the wheel.

 

From the looks of the fingers on pressure plate,the Throw-out bearing siezed to begin with..why the clutch disc come apart could be from several reasons,from your explanation of all the other problems uncovered,I would suspect heat caused all the carnage(ring gear slipping on flywheel,disc explosion,pilot bushing ruined)

 

After the little accident we replaced the driver, from a local drunk to my friend. So the main reason is already fixed!

I agree with wbrw32, the reason is probably overheating. I think it overheated because of the drivers inability to use a clutch, as he was kind of an idiot. He left 12 beers and about a pint of moonshine i the trunk too!

 

Looks like someone never took his/her foot off the clutch pedal.

 

First thing you do, ya drink the beer and moonshine, things will look much better then!
The guy was probably driving with his foot on the clutch pedal, they will do that. When he was going 70, the engine was doin' 100! Slippage is the main cause of clutch failure, and diaphragm clutches are especially fragile.
Never seen one get hot enough to loosen the ring gear! That's one for the books. I've seen the whole flywheel blow up and pieces take the gas pedal right out from under the driver's foot, and blow the radio right out of the dash. Nasty stuff.

 

All of the above coupled with excessive RPM and you have your answer.

Frank

 

using the clutch pedal as a foot rest