what was the cause of most clutch explosions back in the day?

yeah scheifer had those 10,000 rpm racing clutches for a long time. i was gonna use a factory style flywheel with a blowproof shifting at 7

 

55-57 small block chevys. before them nothing turned enough rpms to blow up anything.

 

Mcloed has modular bellhousings now that fit pretty much anything.

I have a hydroformed lakewood ****tershield in my off topic four speed car. I like my feet.

 

well, theres not ****tershields that i know of for y-blocks yet. & what about the early olds engines where the flywheel & clutch ***embly is all contained in the block. i like my feet too, i run a lakewood in my ranchero.

 

Some guys still have to fabricate shields for NHRA compe***ion,
because none are available in the aftermarket.

 

I have an old cast iron bellhousing in the garage that is marked "NHRA Approved", in raised cast lettters on the back of it. It looks like the old '55-57 Chevy or truck type.

I'd have to take a closer look at the construction of it, but its a neat piece to have around even on the shelf.

Bob

 

Everytime I read about clutch explosions, this picture always comes to mind.



HOLY **** !

i NEVER SAW THAT BEFORE.........

I knew it could cause some damage .......

HOLY **** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Scheifer may had said that their stuff would not blow,,,,but I blew one big time back in the early 60's. It was a direct drive, triple disc set up on an aluminum flywheel on a MEL engine. I was on the starting line, the flag man pointed at me, I nailed the throttle, waited one second, then dumped the clutch. The standard way of launching back then. That baby came apart big time. Pieces knocked the window out of the timing tower, one hit the other car and ****ed up his finned M/T valve covers, one hit the flagman and sent him to the hospital and one piece hit one of my crew members, but didn't hurt him bad. Scared the **** outta me. Pieces flying evrywhere and me ducking my *** off.

 

Actually the first Chevy V-8s forced the first use of ****tershields in the STOCK cl***es; they were already in use on the racers. I believe the first rule there required shields on all Chevy V8 stockers with solid lifters and stick trans. I wonder if the car pictured above was the genesis of the rule...

 

bobss396<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_3290188", true); </SCRIPT> I got a cast iron Ansen bellhousing with NHRA approved on it. I'm going to use it but not going to race the car it will be in. I wonder if these were tested before the SFI days.

 

Clutch pressure plates not started with 3 smallest bolt holes first will cause runout which in turn causes vibration. Small hair line cracks in flywheel and misbalanced plate or disc will cause explosion at hi-rpm.