Clutch Maintenance Help
 

Can some of you more experienced nitro guys give me a little help. How often should clutch bearings be changed? And in general, how long should a set of aluminum shoes last?

I change my clutch bearings every 2 race days. One time I waited and had a bearing come part on me, ruined my clutch and scratched my crank a little bit. Ever since then I try to change them every 2 race days.

On clutch shoe life... I run carbon and teflon shoes so I cant testify on what the length should be on alum shoes.

the clutch bearings in my revo are about 18 tanks old and still fine

the clutch bearring in my rc10gt are about 4 years old and fine so idk it just depends

Honestly there is no right or wrong answer. CB bearings life is dependent on proper shim of CB (no more than a shims amount of play) + Mesh + engine square (straight alingment of engine with mesh) = CB bearing life. It does not matter if you use $1 bearings or $5 bearings. If you get any of the before mentioned wrong bearings will wear quickly. Clutch shoe life is dependent on track surface and style of driving. are you a blipper (power on power off) smooth (reckognizes there are throttle positions between WOT & idle) type of springs you use soft, med or hard.

The best thing to do is to find out what you are. Anyone giving you advise will not be wrong because what they do is right for there style of driving and maintenance. You really need to find your style and develop your maintenance routine you will be a better driver for it.

Best answer I've read in a long time.
: )

I blow out my clutch bearings with compressed air to get all the bearing grease out of them, then I use a couple drops of marvels mystery oil. I have had clutch bearings last a couple of gallons if not more.

I must also!!!:nod:

As far as aluminum shoe life, I've seen 5-6 race weekends out of a set before I feel they're worn enough to change. Probably could be run longer but I don't bother with it, I just change them. I pull mine every 2 racedays and file off the burrs, they mushroom over pretty well.

As was said shoe life is going to depend on your driving style, clutch spring tension and weight of the vehicle as well as traction. Best thing is to just test and find out for yourself how long the components will last.

Vladconnery has the right idea. Great answer.

There are a lot of variables. All i can say is check them often. Personally, I put new bearings in each race day, for the most part. It is not worth risking a failed bearing on race day, since they are a cheap to replace.

As far as alum shoes, again, check them often until you get a feel for how long they last "you". These are both "wear" items, and should be part of the maintenance process.

How do you actually know that they are gone? Do you have a photo of a used up clutch shoe?

Check them often, check everything often:lol: This cars are like newborns:lol:

Thanks for the responses. The reason I asked was because I just went through the clutch and the bearings were totally shot and the clutch shoes were worn down to the point that the springs were getting ate up.

It's definitely not my driving style, I try to be smooth and stay in control. The alignment was good, the mesh might have been very slightly loose but certainly not enough to hurt the teeth on either gear. If I had a problem mechanically, it was front to rear play. It needed more shims and I never got around to adding any.

I probably ran the car for three months before I took it apart and found the clutch in such sorry shape. So obviously, that's too long!

LOL, The 1st part of fixing a mistake is admitting you made one. So now you know 3 months is to long to go without maintenance. Properly shimming your CB is very important. Keep in mind everything that goes wrong on one of these puppys can lead to another problem. If your CB is not right that means shimmed, meshed and squared. It can cause your engine to run hot. What TeamX151 said about blowing the grease out of your Cb bearings is also true. bearings are packed with grease. You should blow some of it out especially on the inner bearing. If the grease spins out which it usually will. It will coat the inside of your CB and make the clutch slip.