Clutch Caught On fire While Racing??????
 

So here is the deal. Something caused this to happen. I cant figure it out.

Clutch springs are fine and not broken.
Both clutch bearings are still in working order.
Engine bearings are fine.
Drive train is smooth. Just serviced all Diffs yesterday.

The aluminum shoes are nearly gone and the composites were not to far away. Just yesterday they looked new.

I was running in rather thick mud but nothing too crazy. The whole clutch caught on fire and was sparking for a couple of seconds.

What caused this.

holy chit bat man :eek::batman:

what that is very odd never seen that happen.

you got a rock stuck in between your clutch bell and spur gear and your shoes got so hot from grinding against your bell it ignited...Welcome to the wonderful world of off road Nitro.

The Sparking was caused by the springs rubbing inside of CB.. I've seen that before on mine.. Only way it might have caught fire is if some fuel got to it.. then the spark ignited it.. The exsseive wear has to be from the mud, even if it didn't seem too deep it obviously put mor stress on the Clutch than you thought. And, I would assume you weren't just blasting through it either.. Prolly slow runs then WOT!!! That causes alot of wear on clutches even on flat dry ground..

Fire had to be from fuel.. Double check your front bearing on motor to make sure the rubber seal is still there and in good shape..

Let me guess, hard compound aluminum shoes combined with carbon shoes, right?

That's cool! May have made a too heavy spring choice causing excessive slipping or just mud caused it. Big tires in mud create huge load too. Nice pic!

2 aluminum 2 composites

2 gold 2 green springs.

Yes heaving blips a few times to get out of the crap never WOT throttle though. Mostly everyone was having to do this though with the exceptions of the very skilled.

There were a lot of loose rocks everywhere. My tires had stones sticking the wheels when coming off. It seriously could have a been a rock that lodge in between the fly wheel.

Here are 2 more pics. As you can see on the air filter hose it turned gray from the silt of the quick fire. All along the case of the engine is covered as well.

My air filter has small burn holes all over due to the hot aluminum shoe shavings.

That's awesome! Never seen anything like it.. I've seen clutches melt down but.......

i got a rock stuck in my spur the other day. Gouged out a hole all the way around in my center diff cup:lol:

It's caused from running in the mud. The worse the mud is, the more strain the clutch is under (it's the only thing in drivetrain that will slip/give in mud) and it slips too much resulting in what you experienced. So don't run in bad mud.

what does that have to do with anything Brad ?


Dish

the shoes May have looked good the other day....but more then likely they were on the edge of failure...what was the measurement on the shoes ?

shoes on there last legs + thick mud = Clutch failure.

when you feel what you felt when you realized something was wrong is something you should In Grain in your brain...poor performance = something wrong and you should stop immediately and investigate what's going on or further damage will ensue.

Hmm...too much punch? Maybe try a black spring with the composites? Are you goosing it alot and are you giving it some good amount of throttle to fully engage the clutch? When i first started racing i goosed the shit out of it because everyone was too, then i found out that was bad. Over greasing/oiling you bearings? Fuel/oil contaminant? But dam man i've never seen an rc clutch burn up?:sweat:

i got one to top this failure....these were some early production shoes that obviously didn't have the right composition...couple sets did this actually. :lol:




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