weeee, what a fun hobby! (help with clutch shoe springs)

[clockworks]

I bought and built a Savage SS. I've only really played with it twice: breaking it in, and then I took it to a dirt track. Other than that, I've shown it to my coworkers (wasn't running right) and shown it to a friend (wasn't running right either). Here is a list of trials and tribulations in (or due to) the small amount of time that I've actually gotten to enjoy the toy...

* ate two spur gears. once from a bad spill knocking the engine out of place, and the other time from using blue locktite instead of red.

* sliced a 3mm deep cut on the back of my thumb by accidentally touching the spur gear while it was moving.

* completely lost the piece that secures the end of the exhaust pipe to the chassis. I assume it flew off on a hard landing.

* out of the blue, the thing wouldn't idle right. I pulled off the clutch bell and found two broken clutch shoe springs.

So now I need new springs for the clutch shoes. Any suggestions so that doesn't happen again? Any ideas about why it happened? I've only really played with my truck once (3 hours at the dirt track), I'm kind of upset that things are breaking so soon. I would expect at least a month or so before parts started to wear out...

Thanks for the help.

 

[ImBroken]

First off, NEVER use RED Loctite... Blue works just fine...
As far as a replacement clutch setup, I would upgrade to the Werks clutch.
http://www.rushrc.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10422
You'll never need to mess with those little springs again..

 

[clockworks]

Ouch...pricey. I'm not seeing where the gears are on that thing...?

 

[ImBroken]

Ouch...pricey. I'm not seeing where the gears are on that thing...?

There are no gears on it... It is a Flywheel with an adjustable clutch. This gets mounted on the engine shaft, and the clutchbell (the teeth) slides over the shoes.
It is pricey, but worth every penny IMO..

 

[beason]

what do the springs look like happend to them? they normaly dont just break. there has to be a reason. where did they break?

 

[olds97_lss]

I run the typical savage 3 shoe clutch without problems... for many many gallons. It sounds like you may have installed the shoes improperly in the first place.

 

[beason]

or the flywheel is loose, when mine came loose it would let the springs spin around on the nut and wore them thin on the short arms, untill they broke.

 

[bustedgears]

Never broken a clutch spring here. Something had to be wrong.