Does Diff Fluid affect Clutch Perormance?

[Plaidfish]

I might be grasping at straws here but,
would thinner oils on big block engines cause clutch wear to be excessive?????

How woudl changing the diff fluid affect my clutch engagement?

 

[dougc]

I dont think it could but it would make since... no diff oil would mean when one tire is off the ground all the power would go to that wheel thus making it his really high rpms. but i dont see how it would cause your clutch to wear faster.

You clutch can waer from many differnt things like bigger tires or brake drag... i think.
To get a different clutch engament you would need to change your shoes or springs, or both.

If i am wrong please correct me.

 

[Plaidfish]

yeah that sounds right right to me...but I'm still not sure if the less slip from heavier diff oils will cause clutch shoes to drag more or bite more, causing the engine to use more torque to keep it engaged.....I'm having a bitch of a time w/ my clutch setups on my truggy.....I need info for gear ratios available for 7.5 diff gears as well if anyone has this info I'd appreciate it...specifically what ratios are available for that style diff set.....I think I have the trophy class diff cases w/ their 7.5 diff set in them which is like 2.8:1 or somewhere in that range vs. the standard 3.3:1 for buggys......anyone with more insight on this please help as this project is becoming the biggest money pit I've undertaken to date.......

 

[vbgagnon]

in all honesty man, your having all kinds of troubles with your clutch shoes, go aluminum it will be worth the few extra bucks, and you won't be burning up the shoes all the time! Just my .02

 

[Plaidfish]

O.K. I was told the Carbon Shoes bite better into the clutch bell...My issue seems to be the shoes not grabbing hard enough and they just slip constantly, even while it seems to be engaged it still must be slipping a little....I went back to another .27 engine because I figured the RG i had was not enough to pull the gear ratio I had in it....55/13t.....no I am still getting wclutch wear but this time I fries a clutch bell bearing set in 3 tanks.....I went to start up the 4th tank and the thing locked up right away...which tells me I'm getting too hot at my CB and that would be a result of dragging shoes creating friction....right?......tell me if I'm off base on this please cause I'm geting really Pissed off on this now.....HCR should have designed their upper deck on this thing to accomodate a larger Spur gear.....and my issues would be gone...

 

[vbgagnon]

First off, make sure there is absolutly no drag ie breakes. then read up on this from avidrc http://www.avidrc.com/help/#eat this will help you with your bearing problem. This might even help your shoe problem. They say to blow the greese out of your bearings before useing them, otherwise they will get into your cb causing your shoes to slip and heat up.

Try this then get back to us!

 

[Plaidfish]

Done that...I run the bearings for 1 tank with a beater set of shoes then clean the clutch bell out and replace the shoes w/ the ones I intend to run.......Corrado gave me similar advice a few weeks ago and I've been doing it every time I put new bearings in......I think I'm really in the realm of a poorly designed product and I'm getting fed up with doing a big companies R & D for them......the reality of this seems to be that I need to be able to put a lower gearing ratio on this thing and the only way to do this is hacking up a titanium frame that cost's a freakin fortune to begin with......can anyone definately answer my initial question about the diff fluids affecting clutch engagement? or if you have any other suggestions VB I'd appreciate them......btw are you close to portland? I'm probably gonna be there in march

and there is definatly NO brake drag.....I can kick it across the street and it rolls like buttah and stops on a dime.....

 

[vbgagnon]

I'm about 6 hours north of portland. The most northern point in the continental U.S. Have you tried a 12 tooth cb? if you could find a spacer you could raise your diff, then you could put a bigger spur gear in there. if that doesn't work...you got me!

 

[Plaidfish]

yeah I am running a 12t.....I can't raise the center diff cause A: the top plate is too close to the 55t gear now.....B: the upper deck of the chassis is too close to the side of the center spur now.....and C: the brakes run right over the top of the Spur so close I'd have to make a custom brake cam to raise them too.....D: for the cost of these things I shouldn't have to do any of this poop and I e-mailed Hardcore just now w/ a request for their help on this wonderfully designed product.....I'd like to see the results of their R & D on the Mutant Maxx.....cause I can't see how it could be any different than what i'm doing......I hope they have some kind of answer other than F*#K OFF!!!....I should be getting paid for the time and energy I've put into R&D on a released product like this.....first time I've ever had issue with HCR products and it's a big one......I'm about $800 into this thing and I can't even run it for more than 10/15 mins at a time......that wouldn't even last a main.....I should have tried the JT kit first....Oh Well live n learn.....