clutch explosion !

[Ron61]

Warren,

Fortunately for you that the pieces went out instead of up. The 69 Cobra has a heavy duty shield on it and one day when I was just blowing it out, I was in second and giving it the gas hard on a steady pull, the clutch completely exploded. When I got it down to my friends garage and we put it on the rack and took the inspection plate off, you should have seen the springs and crap that fell out of there. But everything stayed inside. I did see a 55 Chevy they hauled in with half the flywheel stuck in the dash once. He did that at a drag race. It was an all out drag car and I don't know how he got it past their inspection with a stock bell housing as the other people that I talked to said they had to have blow proof ones and even those blanket type things they used to use in the higher classes.

Ron

[wetdog]

I used to run jet engines in a test cell and I have seen some incredible carnage , my hesitation was based pretty much on the fact that there many powerful cars produced that dont address this issue...better safe than sorry !

[speed220mph]

If you doubt what damage a flywheel or pressure plate can cause when it comes apart at high rpm, look at the photo. I was called into court several times as an expert witness in cases involving an exploded clutches/flywheels. These ranged from clutch failures in a dump truck to a Top Fueler. One severed foot; the other a floater plate went through a lady's shoulder while she was sitting in the stands. If you're doing any high-horsepower, high-rpm driving, use a scatter shield, especially with a conventional clutch. Tilton and Quarter Master small-diameter clutches aren't nearly as dangerous.