Clutch/flywheel explosions...let's hear some stories.

Driven off the back of the cam, which is how most non-cable driven pump sprint cars are set up now.

 

I have 68 camaro, and i blew a disc up real bad but never a flywheel. my dad made me put a scatter shield on it wehn I first got it because he had seen them blow up, so i did thankfully. it really happens!! i was taking a friend for a ride too, aint that how it always works?

 

Wow. That is one scary/amazing photo.

 

a related story drag race Gene Snow had plenty of funds to race with and would warm up his top fuel car on nitro instead of alcohol. one time he reached over to blip the throttle while tuning the motor and the nitro spit a piston out the side of the block and blew off part of his foot. also i seen more than one hood with a blade off the fan sticking through it.

 

What are those AN looking hoses going to the crank hub area?

 

I blew mine up a while back. Gotta watch these hemis. ;-)

Here's the post.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36919

I put it back together pretty much the same except made a scattershield of sorts and used a much better pressure plate and disk. If there is a next time I want to prevent some of the colateral damage.

 

Distributor driven Hilborn pump - see page 1.

 

i had a 55 chevy with a 421 poncho back in the sixties not having much $$ for scattershield clutch etc or even a decent trans was running the 6 cyl 3 speed my buddy and me just got done installing dual quads and wanted to show off. drove in front off local car hop idled off stop lite and nailed it quads sounded awsome!! when i went to shift to second the quads locked wide open. not wanting to pulverize the 3 speed i kept the clutch down and reached to turn the key off. kaboom!! the clutch expolded cutting the exhaust pipes in half the trans fell down and was bouncing on the pavement the clutch bent up the right floor pan but worst of all the fiber dust from the rugs underlayment got in my eyes making it very difficult to see so i rattled scrapted my way down the road pulling in to a gas station that was the last ride for the " baron" the next day we went back to survey the scene there were pieces of bell housing clutch plate embedded in the road the car was trashed back then 55 chevy 2 dr sedan bodies were only 75-150 bucks guess we got eveyones attentsion that nite

 

How'd the driver turn out in that exploding slingshot?

Looks like his foot is blow off, but could very well be anything.

Man thats scary...

 

Originally Posted by Kiwi Kev
In this box are the remains of DE SOTO's pressure plate that let go in his 6x2 De Soto Hemi powered sport coupe. Happened in front of his house and shrapnel punctured the enclosed trailer sitting on his neighbors driveway! Check the second pic closely and you can see some of the damage done to the cowl. I'm hoping Rick will get on here and tell us the rest of the story.


I think all of the major clutch manufacturers should use Rick as the test guy.. Anybody that knows him will agree. I think there is still about a half a mile of rubber on the south bound 101 north of the Cuesta Grade from about 5 years ago. And that was from his Poncho pwered F-100.. Remember that, Rick???

 

The reason you see Rick limping is his right foot is made of lead!!

 

that first picture looks very much like a friends 56 chevy just after his clutch and preasure plate exited through his floor board at about 7000 rpm his left rear tranny mount broke which bound his throttle linkage.. he nearly lost his foot in the process...by the way he has never ran a hi perf stick equipped car without a good scatter sheild since that day .i might add that i have seen some bad damage done at the drags when automatic trannys exploded too!!

 

I think that is the distributor mounted Hilborn pump.

 

It was a tranny explosion that took part of Don Garlts' foot off. That is one of the bands circled.

 

Yeah, thanks.

That one got solved already...



Some really amazing pics on this Thread.

Something to think about....

 

I had one pop on me and my son that was 6 years old at the time. when it blew it pushed the trans and motor apart. ripped holes through the floor, hood, radiator and every place else you can think of as pieces of the bellhousing, clutch and preasure plate blew apart. as I was trying to get the thing stopped(from rolling) first thing you do is stick it in gear and let out on the clutch.duh there's nothing there to stop you. when I did get it stopped my boy was screaming. he made it out of his seat belt and out of the car. as I walked around the back to get to him he sprayed about a 5' shot of blood at me from the inside of his arm. I got to him and was going to use my thumb as preasure to slow the bleeding but my thumb went inside the hole in his arm. I palmed the hole and we was close enough to another car and 10 minutes from the hospital. I think we made a new land speed record on the way there. lol.. he was lucky it only nipped a main vain and didn't cut it in two. he still carries the scare. they had to stretch his skin to cover up the hole. it ripped a chunk out in the shape of a triangle. mine didn't look like some of the pics on this thread but it was so bad that I junked it. it ripped the threads out of the block where the trans bolts on and pushed the engine forward and the trans back.. I didn't think I got hit at all but the next day my legs felt like someone took a bat to them.

 

To this day, I pick and choose where I'm going to stand/spectate at the drags..the side thats away from the rotating assembly of an engine..seen alot of metal parts,blower belts and tire chunks go flying around..still use my old trusty Ansen scatter shields too....

 

Back in the mid 60s at the 2nd dirt strip outside of town, Louie, the guy who stood off to the side of the starting line to line up the cars for the next race, took 1/2 of a disc in the chest! When the guy dumped the clutch it let go, bounced off the ground and, amazingly, hit Louie flat. Knocked him down and bruised him but, no blood!
That was a tap on the shoulder from God, I think!

 

Opa Locka Fl drag strip in the early 60's a 55 Chevy gasser blew one and killed a lady in the stands. Buddy lost one in a 427 60 Ford street racing and it took the whole dash, master cyl and steering column out of it. Some how he escaped with no leg or feet damage. I have personally blown the back of a 428 Cobrajet engine with a scatter shield on it

 

my dad has a nice scar across his face from a race in the 60s. His Charger against a 55 Chevy gasser. The chevy blew the clutch apart and a piece bounced across the track, through the passenger side window and caught him across the cheek and nose. He always said he was thankful that he had a bad light that race. Another 4" forward would have put that piece right through the side of his helmet and into his skull.

 

How well do modern trany blankets work?

 

My dad used to have a '57 that he raced and street drove every now and then that pitched the flywheel through the floorboard. That was in the late 60's or early 70's. It was a typical gasser with straight axel, tilt front clip, and over the frame headers with a hot sbc and a 4 speed. I think I may be able to find a picture with the flywheel halfway through the floorboard. It was a beautiful car, he sold it to two brothers in high school and they lost control of it one night street racing and hit a pillar that held up a overpass and was killed. What a shame..........

 

Think about this, when those pictures were taken, the parts were not 42 years old, they were near new. If your feet look good hooked on your legs, a scattershield is not out of the question. Be safe.

 

I watched a competitor of Garlits explode a clutch in Seattle in the mid-80's, sending lots of shrapnel into the stands, people to the hospital, and all of Don's crew praying on the hood of their Dodge crewcab in turnaround. I went to look at a 32 Chev coupe one day that had been running a 428 Ford with a 4 speed that was being offered for $300. The clutch had exploded and bent the frame, left big holes and twists in the cowl, and twisted the whole body so the doors wouldn't work (I passed on it). A couple of years ago a friend bought a 32 3-window body that had been through a clutch explosion with similar damage, really tearing up everything forward of the windshield. If you are going to run the car hard, build it to stand up to it; it's tough to put legs back on once they're gone.

 

Wow...

 

kustomkat said=
I think all of the major clutch manufacturers should use Rick as the test guy.. Anybody that knows him will agree. I think there is still about a half a mile of rubber on the south bound 101 north of the Cuesta Grade from about 5 years ago. And that was from his Poncho pwered F-100.. Remember that, Rick???[/QUOTE]

I don't know to many guys like Rick.... one of a kind. Ask him about the street race he got into a few years ago after a Zombie show up in the bay area with that same Poncho powered F100 when he cleaned that Chevelle's clock... whites walls and all.

 

These pics and stories are freaking me out! I have a cast iron bellhousing. Thought is was safe, but starting to wonder.

I did blow a clutch out of it last summer. The metal clutch housing actually tore apart into many pieces and blew all the springs and pieces out of it during a 7000 rpm 1-2 shift. One pie shaped piece of metal on one side was torn clear down to the very center splined hub. The torn pieces and fragments were kind of impressive, and I didn't mind getting the car up in the air and replacing parts, but now I am wondering what COULD happen...

Any idea on the safety of an iron bellhousing versus a scattershield versus a factory aluminum bellhousing as used on a 69 small block Muncie combo???

 

In 1969, I lost the clutch in my '68 Z-28. It shifted funny under load and went into 1st instead of 3rd at over 90. It sheared all the facing off the clutch disc when the tach passed 10 grand. Turns out the shifters were mounted to the cross member instead of the trans. They had a rod from the bellhousing back to the shifter to keep it lined up (like an anti-chatter rod) and held in place by the shifter cross bolt. Mine had the rod laying on the cross member instead of attached. After I got it back, I stuck in an Ansen scattershield (and a Scintilla Vertex mag). Funny thing was all the performance cars were coming into the dealership with deliberate things wrong about that time: no fluid in the trans, no lube in the rear, loose drain plugs, etc.