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clutch slipping?

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P

pee wee

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Today me and my five year old when to the track and after about 2-1/2 tanks of constant running something started to slip. I gave everything a look over and could not see any problems. So we let it cool down for about 20 min. and went back at it and then it was fine .Is this the clutch slipping ? I do have almost 4 gallons on it. If it is slipping what can I do? Or should I get a new clutch? How long do they usually last? Thanks for your time!
 
There could be two places that things are slipping. You hit the clutch button. The other button is the wheel hexes.

The clutch, can last a good while if you set things up well. That means the slipper isn't too tight, there isn't any oil and/or water on the clutch shoes, and your gear mesh is set correctly. Others might tell you that the stock clutch is crap, but I have been running the stock clutch on my Hyper 8 port and have not seen any signs that it is having problems. Now, I only have a gallon and some change through this clutch so I can only address it from that point of view. You have quite a bit more through it.

If you truly feel the clutch is toast, remove the engine and take the clutch bell off. You can replace the clutch shoes fairly inexpensively. While you are doing that, you could consider upgrading to a better clutch (I will have to let those with a "better" clutch make those recommendations).

The other area you might want to look at (especially with so much fuel through the truck) would be an engine rebuild. As things get worn and expand (especially under high heat), you tend to see some compression issues that could look like slippage. For instance, you rev the engine and get no movement...why because you are getting no real rpms due to no real compression/combustion.

The final thing that I mentioned was the wheel hexes. Just take off the wheels and make sure you have not cored the hub of the wheel. If the hexes are free spinning, you can very easily run at max rpms and get no movement from the truck as the wheels are not really spinning...just the axles are.

Hope this helps.
 
When you say something started to slip, do you mean that it no longer would get-up-and-go and seemed sluggish? After a run see if the clutch bell is hot, if it is it's sliping. This is how my T-Maxx is, so I ordered an aluminum clutch. I am waiting to see how different it is.
 
Sky, the hexs better not be stripped I just put new rpm rims on with new locking hexs and new lock nuts 5 tanks ago!! The rims are the biggest problem I've had with the savage so far. I do think something else is slipping. Yes DarthRacer it seems to have lost it's zip but after I let it cool down it was fine. Does anyone know of a great clutch other then the stock one. I'm one of them guys that don't waste my time on the cheap stuff, better to buy it once than twice even if it is twice the price! Thanks for replies
 
As for worn clutches, I had (notice the past tense) relatively new shoes on when I went to Va Beach, a-hem. Me, Sky and Pirata bashed in some sand all weekend. When I pulled the engine for a general tear down and cleaning, I found sand in the clutch bell. The shoes had sand imbedded in them and the inside of the bell was nearly polished. Point is, you might have some crud in the bell that may be making the bell heat up and develope fading (like brakes do when ya ride them too hard).

Worn engines and compression, what does the compression feel like cold, after a long run, and when it's cooled a bit? I've yanked some really worn engines and even when they're dead cold they have no compression at TDC (kind of like when ya don't have the plug in).

One last thing, and Sky touched on this, the slipper clutch (on the back of the spur gear). When was the last time you pulled the spur and checked the condition of the slipper pad? Even though my spur is fine, the pad is almost gone. I read somewhere, and I think it was HPI, that the slipper adjustment nut is supposed to be tightened all the way, then backed off 1/8th to 1/4 turn. This leaves the slipper pretty tight, but it's really only there to smooth out the jarring effect of landing jumps. Just a thought, but you might want to check the slipper. Oh yeah, if it's too loose you'll end up getting crappy acceleration, and at worst melting the inside of the spur and fusing the slipper so that it never slips (I know because it happened to the guy I got my first savage from, and Pirata is running that spur now, though I did fix it somewhat).

And lastly, if you loose your happy thought, your truck will run like crap.

Whitt...
 
Thanks error I have never had the spur gear off, but I'm going to now! The only thing I noticed with the spur gear is that from day one it has had a little wobble to it .I don't know if this is normal or if the shaft in the tranny is bent some
 
NP. My spur has a slight wobble, but it's not too bad. One hop-up I did to my spur was to replace the stupid bushing with a bearing. I had one that was the right size, and I couldn't get the bushing out of the first spur, so I used the bearing. My logic was, if somehow the slipper got loose (either from a blown pad, or the nut backed off), and the spur got to spinning, it wouldn't cause the bushing to heat up and melt the spur. But like I said, I had the bearing to begin with. If anyone else has melted a spur, they haven't said anything about it cause I haven't read anywahere about that happening. But the pads do wear out, mine is close to it now.
 
I almost took my T-Maxx back (before I even ran it) to the LHS where it was purchased because the spur gear did not spin on a perfect plane. I mean big-time visible wobble.

That out-of-plane spin can be attributed to the slipper clutch pegs not being evenly worn/broken in. After a few jumps and hard accelerations following break-in the spur gear has a run-out of only a couple thousanths. (guesstimation on the thousanths)
 
My spur still wobbles a bit, but I think that the gear mesh has worn in and it sounds great when I spin it backwards. Too bad though, it's almost time to replace it. But then again, I'm a big believer in stress till failure bashing....
 

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