[DeTomaso] CLUTCH BASICS / Dick Ruzzin

[Ken Green]

I had a 66 Vette with a 425 HP 427 that redlined at 6,750.  I remember going to Lyons Drag Strip in the early 70s and the clutch pedal staying on the floor when I shifted at red line.  People said you could put something under the pedal to limit how far you could depress it, and that would work, but at the time all I could do was shift at a little over 6,000.  I'm sure that under the right conditions (maybe when the spring was new?) it worked, but if it wasn't just right, it didn't.
 
I asked the McLeod tech guy at the SEMA show about it, and he said they had solved the problem years ago, I think by changing the spring shape.
 
Ken

--- On Sun, 11/30/08, Göran Malmberg <hemipanter at hemipanter.se> wrote:

From: Göran Malmberg <hemipanter at hemipanter.se>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso]  CLUTCH BASICS / Dick Ruzzin
To: JDeRyke at aol.com, kenn_green at yahoo.com, detomaso at realbig.com
Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 2:44 AM

I remember those clutches from the late 60:s when I did a lot Dr. High rpm
and there was no engagement. But today diaphragm is what is used in small
diameter road racing cluthes and I newer heard of such problems, Carapi
had diaphragm on his speed trip. He was probabley over 5 grand.
Funny, even throught I experienced these problems I had compleatly
forgot about it.
Goran
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <JDeRyke at aol.com>
To: <kenn_green at yahoo.com>; <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 2:00 AM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso]  CLUTCH BASICS / Dick Ruzzin


In a message dated 11/29/08 12:24:51 PM, kenn_green at yahoo.com writes:

> Several clutch manufactures appear to offer dual friction disks, but
I'm
> not sure if they are the same as the Centerforce. What I thought was 
> really
> different is the weights shown here....
>
Not only do the sliding weights increase holding power, but they may have
cured another problem that wrecked the reputation of the diaphragm clutch as 
a
'performance part'. Back in the mid '60s when GM used them on
'Vettes and 
Z-28s,
they had a horrible reputation as not being shift-able above about 5000 
rpms.
If you revved up a straight-finger, weight-less diaphragm clutch and stepped
on the pedal to do a shift, the clutch over-centered and the clutch pedal
stayed on the floor until the revs dropped significantly! Needless to say, 
no one
used GM diaphragm clutches in drag racing or for much of anything else
performance-wise after that was discovered. Centerforce did   good things 
with their
modifications IMHO- J DeRyke



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