I was rumaging through my stash of bellhousings,and I came to realize I have nothing that is going to be up to the task of my recent project. I also realized how expensive a good scatterproof bellhousing is, (it's been a couple years!!). Got me to thinking..... Does anyone have any good bellhousing explosion stories. Or even better yet some pics?????
A few years ago I bought an early Lakewood bellhousing, with the 55-57 ears, for $15. It was at the local non-automotive swap meet.
Damn got a better deal by $25 than I did. Could not pass it up cuz that alum. one I was running made my toes curl. Some where here on the HAMB was a nasty pic of a Five Five that exploded a clutch.
Fixed it, here it is found it.....http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2001977&postcount=1
Years ago when B&M was building the Hydro-Stick they ran an add in most of the Mag's with a photo of the interior if a Tri-Five that looked like an IED had gone off in it. It was damm scarry.
My brother had a 67 Mustang with a straight axle and a 289 with a stick, he wanted to show me he could pull the front wheels, so he started to romp on the gas back and forth until it was hopping real good then he hammered it and shifted to second, blew a hole in the asphalt big as a football about 3 inches deep when that thing let loose. Man was that cool to a 15 year old.
I lifted this from an earlier similar thread. I still have the scars. "I was riding in a very nice flathead powered 32 roadster in 1954 when the owner decided he needed to show me how fast he could shift. At around 5500 when he missed the shift the flywheel exploded. We both got shrapnel in the bottoms of our feet but the car body got the worst. It was almost cut in half. We did save the 59A block later by brazing a new bell housing on it."
In the '60s I was racing a C/Gas, B/Gas 55 Chevy. When I built the car the two safety equipment purchases were a Lakewood scatter shield and a Roll bar. Power shifting at 8500 I didn't want a grenade blowing me and the car apart. Safety is a worthwhile investment.
A friend had a kinda wicked small block street 55 in the 80s, dropped the muncie onto the dragstrip when the clutch exploded and disintegrated the stock bellhousing. No injuries, but there was a neat dent in the dash to remind him why he put a scattershield in afterwards.
I love that 55 or 56 chev that was in the early 60's mags where the dash was buckled from a piece of shrapnel!!!!
I was about 20 and I saw an aluminum one that had grenaded in a '67 Chevelle. Dents in the floor pan, broken Muncie.. nasty. From then on for me it was steel bellhousings all the way. Bob
Back in the 60s a friend was racing on V st in Wash DC when his flywheel on his 62 Corvette exploded. A piece came out through the cove on the fender. He was not hurt.
A long time ago, I had an off topic car (Sunbeam Tiger) with a stock bellhousing in it. I was racing out in the country one night when the pressure plate broke in half at about 6500 rpms. We towed the car home that night and the next day I had to go back to the scene of the crime to pick up parts. I found my cluch slave cylinder laying on the side of the road and pieces of carnage scattered down the road. I didn't see a piece of bellhousing that was any bigger than a quarter. When I got around to pulling the engine, I didn't have to take any bellhousing bolts out and both exhaust pipes were cut in two. It still didn't dawn on me how lucky I was until I looked at the transmission tunnel and saw daylight through it from about 100 tiny holes that were punched in it. One pretty good sized one was right beside the gas pedal. I've never had a car with a clutch without an aftermarket bellhousing on it since. Most were Lakewoods, but the Anglia had an old Ansen on it that I was always a little leary off. Larry T
So. when did chevy start using aluminum bellhousings behind a small block??? weren't they made out of cast iron at one time???
They were iron in the 50s, aluminum started around the early 60s, but I dont' know for sure when. Shrapnel goes thru cast iron about as easily as it goes thru cast aluminum
My buddy used to race Camaro stock cars and one of his fleet has a 3" wide by about 15" long slice thru the top of the trans tunnel and another matching one thru the cowl. Straight thru the top of the car. Missed his leg by inches.
We raced an AHRA 67 Chevelle with a 339 in the early to mid 70's The guy that owned the car, Hippy, beat on it for 2 years, we raced at the old Lawerence Kansas drag strip when the flywheel or PP let loose, the Lakewood did its job but was balloned out so badly we couldn't get the top bellhousing to block bolts out of block There was nothing left inside no flywheel PP clutch even took the flywheel flange and input shaft off, shifted at 8000 and sometimes left a little higher than that. You had to pull the lever pretty quickly since it was a 6:17 gear. I've never ran anything but a scattershield on any car with a stick since them, it could have been really ugly!
In 1974 I had a 57 Chevy panel truck with a stout 327 in it. 202 heads, Engle solid lifter cam and 12.5 Jahns pistons with two fours on an early Corvette intake backed by the stock three speed. During a bit of a lunch time stoplight exuberance and tangle with a newer Mercedes 500sl I was pulling hard and when I went to second I dumped the whole clutch in the street along with several large chunks of the bellhousing and the input shaft off the trans. One of my bosses saw it happen and sent the dealerships wrecker after me. I put a new input shaft on the trans, new clutch, pressure plate throwout bearing and fork and drove it home that night after having to pay myself to work on it in my stall at the shop. Yes we pushed it in my stall, I worked on it, and then I paid the bill and turned in my time for working on it and got paid for the time I worked on it. But it beat working on it for a week of lunch hours out in the back lot or having to have it towed home and pay for that. When I first got that panel it only had the driver's seat and still had the rods for the dry cleaners that originally owned it to hang clothes on. I had a big green overstuffed chair in the passenger side that hit the back door when I nailed it with a couple of different Central Texas friends riding in the chair.
I would have to guess, I know they had them by 1962. I've seen cast iron passenger car ones from 1958-1959 and they looked the same as the truck ones, less the frame-mount pads. Bob
This video has made the rounds of the interwebs, but it is a good depiction how violent an exploding flywheel can be. Boss 429 on the dyno. <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vq5cjNhN_po" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Actually got to watch a fellow blow his clutch out at the first annual Billetproof Hot ROd Eruption drags... damn lucky he did get hurt!
my brother in law was putting a new 350 short block in a 69 camero. He was installing the clutch pressure plate on the flywheel. he was using just any 3/8 bolts he had. I tried to inform him that he needed to get the correct bolts. I showed him one that was correct. He was too smart to learn anything from me. A week later he wound it out in third let off the gas and touched the clutch pedal. five of those bolts let go the correct one held. Floor pan dash pedals ect all tore up. damaged his foot to boot. Never did like that asshole anyway. OldWolf
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