clutch disc 1 3/8" x 10 spline 12"
 

About eight years ago I failed to keep up with the clutch adjustments. The throw out bearing froze up and damaged my pressure plate fingers. I have a McLeod alluminum flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate, Old school 11 1/2" (now 12") clutch disc for a Ford Toploader 4spd trans 1 3/8" x 10 spline input shaft. I had the flywheel machined for and had the 12" heatsheild installed. I bought a new clutch disc and as I remember it was their 800 series dual performance clutch disc. The problem is McLeod says they had problems with and discontinued this series of clutch discs.
This cobra replica's engine combination doesn't do slow well . Normal traffic starts, driveways, parking garages, and such, cause the clutch to wear and thusly needing frequent adjustment to insure proper free travel. I'm planning on replacing the clutch disc this winter. I hope some other clutch manufactures have made some technilogical discoveries I want reasons why one brand and or series and part number is the right choice for me. I'am planning on trying some things to get the best state of tune on the engine to increase my low end for better starts. I'll take part of the blame, It appears I slip the clutch a little too much. I don't need lessons as I drive an Old 84 Toyota Landcruiser to and from work everyday. Please help.

Rear End Ratio
 

Just out of curiosity, what is your rear end ratio?

See about having your present disc refaced with new disc material. Check your local area for clutch and brake refacing facilities. Ask them, what facing material they would recommend for the type of driving you are doing. See if, you can get from McLeod what the thickness of the disc should be as it will be helpful for the the selection of the new facing.

I had a racing three plate Borg and Beck clutch that lastest 2,000 miles on the street. It was either in or out, period! We refaced the discs with the facings from a VW and it was still going strong after 12,000 street miles.

Just a suggestion.

Billk

Michael, this is my specialty. I've helped lots of Club Cobra guys with clutch kits.

Shoot me an email with all of your specs and I can help you out.

I sell RAM and McLeod. I consider those the best on the market. Don't fall into the Centerforce hype. I can help you decide on which style pressure plate to go with, clutch disc material, etc.

McLeod sells two different types of pressure plates, Long & Diaphragm. There are also two subcategories under that, which dictate how much clamping force they have. RAM pretty much does it the same way.

For discs, the materials give different characteristics. However, sometimes you have to give a little to get a little.

Let me know how much horsepower you're making, what your driving characteristics are....if you can handle a little chatter, etc. We can go over each series disc and each style pressure plate and custom design a specific kit for you.

Brent, if his rear ratio is down in the two's and his engine doesn't behave too well on the low end, and his car is predominantly street driven with a lot of stop-and-go... you might consider selling him a new ring & pinion for whatever rear he's got. ;)

LOL, good point...

A steel flywheel would definitely help out some. Depending on what kind of power he's making, a clutch that doesn't chatter or grab instantly would also make driving much easier.

If he's running an 800 series clutch disc, it might be more prone to chattering because of the Kevlar pucks. When they get hot, they tend to chatter. However, if you have 600 hp, there's not much you can do in the way of holding the power and making it feel like a VW. You either go to a McLeod twin disc, go with an organic disc and wait for it to slip, or just deal with it and play with the big boys. ;)

The good thing about hydraulic clutches is that you fine tune them a little bit. If you could get away with using a less radical disc paired with a high clamping force pressure plate, then you could swap clutch master cylinders to get the pedal effort down. There's lots of ways of getting around things.

It's me again. I have 3.56 Jag rear gear, Ford toploader 4spd. McLeod aluminum flywheel now with 12" heatsheild installed. I have the three fingered long style pressure plate. I have a 427 FE sideoiler engine with a Comp Cams solid lifter cam 262° .610" lift. Shell lifters and tubular pushrods. Dove rolller rockers. Dove alluminum Canadain Super CobraJet heads. Dove 2 x4 alluminum tunnel wedge intake manifold with 2- 600 cfm Holley carbruetors. 11 1/2 comp ratio bestpump, gas 92 octane and an additive. I' haven't noticed any slipping once in gear and under way. My problem is the normal starting from a stop and negotiating things where you go slow and perhaps uphill. I don't turn the throttle up that much or that often. I also Have Mallory HyFire VI boxs rev limiter programed for 6,000 rpm limit. I beleive I can exced that 450 hp mark if I raise the rev limit and remove the S&H aircleaners. Parking garage ramps are a killer. Heck! I park in in my garage at home, I have to get up a two inch difference to get into my garage, through a narrow door and then I pull the front tires up on a pair of wooden ramps and stop before rolling off the far side. This stuff is killing this clutch. I'm not Launching a missle. I haven"t been on a dyno yet, no drag strip passes and no track time. I can't remember ever being into the throttle enough that I felt the secondaries open . It's trying to drive as a normal person . I don't spin the tires as a rule (I'm buying them myself). I don't need any unwanted attention from authotities. I expect the slipping the clutch to wear the clutch disk but not this much.
I had everything adjusted sitting in the garage last weekend . We decided to drive to Ocean Shores Saturday morning and spend the night. I pretty much was a good boy. No driving off the road or anything like that. No racing from light to light and only turned it up a little while out in the open. Once home and cooled down, I checked and the free travel and it was inpreceivable, but not tight against the forks but no rattle either.

McLeods Tech reccamendation was their 100 series They show eight torsional isolator springs but not reccamend it for over 450 hp. The getting it to replace is the main thing. What ever I do, It will have to have longevity. It's not as simple as most clutches to get to.. the order of parts goes drive line remove, shifter handle remove, disconnect transmission but can't remove it just stuff it over cross member and as far to rear as possible, and start removing bottom of scattersheild. I have to remove throw out fork and bearing. If just replacing clutch disc I may be able to leave the major part of the scattersheild and remove the presure plate and clutch disc out the bottom verry time consuming.

Well you can ignore my advice about the rear end ratio. 262 degrees at .050 with .610 lift, solid lifters, is quite a bit for a stop-and-go street cam. You might put a "cam swap" in the back of your mind.

Yeah, WAY too much cam for that motor. If you don't even get into the secondaries with it, you're not spinning it high enough to take advantage of it.

I would put a cam at the high end of the list....

A 100 series clutch disc is not going to last with that engine. You need at least a 500 series, which shouldn't be too bad at all, but may have a tendency to chatter. You could pair it up with a diaphragm pressure plate and have a nice driving ride.

If it is a possibility, I'll have this disc rebuilt and kept as a spare. I had a time back when things went bad in, I'm guessing, 2001. The local club had arranged for performance driving instruction up at Pacific Raceway. I paid and as the date approached my clutch went out and the car was up on stands when it was time. This time I'd ike to have the anticapated parts in hand brfore I start. It's allmost a rulefor me, that any project gets more involved once underway and a month has dissappeared again. And as an added note, I'll not tear a running car appart when it's driving season. I get so much crap about that from my wife.

This is the basic engine combination that I bought.. If I were starting from scratch I would have made other decisions like single four barrel carb and manifold or multiport EFI. Like I learned years ago was to have parts designed to perform at the same rpm range, I had miss matched parts then and never really saw their potential then. These are all top end rpm parts, chosen for hill climb competion. It does make a beautifull sound at rpm, almost a song.

A thought , Late last year I changed out the carbruetor primary metering blocks. I had new primary metering blocks prepared by Stallion Racing Componets. I wonder if leaning out the idle has caused it to be necessary to slip the clutch more than I use to? I'd think that I'd be above the idle circuit when trying to leave a traffic light.
Anyway I'd like to continue this thread some more . I'd like brands and part numbers of 11 1/2" or 12" clutch discs with 1 3/8"x10 spline single clutch discs. When going to sites like Jeggs and Summit, a search brings up the normal items but if you allready know a part number you can access other parts that wern't shown before. I'd be ready to bet most coventional single clutch discs are demensionally the same as OEM. Am I wrong?
I'm watching a new disc on ebay . The picture shows it with a torsion isolater with six springs. I requested a catalog but for now the pictures fron McLeods website are what I'm going by. The ebay offering is listed as a #260163 which is supposed to be a 100 series. The website shows the 100 series with eight isolator springs. The Ebay item looks like a 500 or 800 series . Heck! I don't know. That's why I'm bothering you guys.

How 'bout 13"? Centerforce has a very nice Dual Friction setup. Part# DF935023. You can even pick it up off Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Centerforce-DF.../dp/B000CISSO0

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

13" would require a change of the flywheel & pressure plate. and what about the 1 3/8" x 10 spline center? What do they meen dual friction ? Is there a choice of discs or do you use both discs and it has an intermedate plate like a dual disc unit?

Yes, it has a 1 3/8 x 10 -- I just happened to stumble on it.. A lot of us have DF clutches from Centerforce, but you need to call them up and talk with them. They are happy to "mix and match" with you, but you can't really do that on your own from the catalog. For instance, if you have the TKO (like me) behind an FE you have to have a Chevy spline but a PP that bolts up to your Ford flywheel. That's easy to do over the phone, but you can't do it on their site or by mixing and matching their DF stuff via the catalog. If you call them though and say "I need a 12 inch 1 3/8 x 10 that bolts to my Ford flywheel" they'll fix you right up... but they aren't cheapest folks in town (don't even ask me what I paid for my aluminum flywheel from them:eek:).

EDIT -- If you do go with Centerforce, most of us remove the goofy little weights they put on the fingers -- they're generally regarded as a gimmick that has tended to cause more problems than they've fixed.

Again, don't go with the Centerforce hype.

Make this easy on yourself and give me a call. I'll beat Jegs and Summit's price and I can tell you exactly what you'll need.

Shoot me an email and I'll give you my cell number.

I'd go with Brent. I got good stuff with Centerforce, but I probably paid twice as much as I needed to.:o

Mike, email sent back to you.

Hi Mike,
If you have a stock 1 3/8" toploader you have a 2.32:1 1 gear x 3.56 rearend you're at best the very minimum of 8.25:1 overall 1st gear ratio.
The 262 @ .050 is a BIG cam not to even thing of lobe sepataion. Unless you are roadracing your cam specs are a bit much in my thoughts.
All that said the clutch will have to be slipped some to get moving. The right clutch will make all the difference in the length of life to expect.

I adjusted the clutch last weekend and it had a lot of free travel. I was expecting it to last untill winter. iI drovre it down town. I had to get the car out of the garage and through the yard to the alley. I killed it once at a stop light early in the trip. I had to get it rolling once from a stop on a hill. I took all the ramps in the parking garage at a roll. The clutch felt as if it had worn a bunch as the free travel felt allmost nill. I got in a panic and arranged for a tow. When my help arrived, after everything had cooled down, it felt as if their was some free travel but less noticable then when I started this trip, as if the return spring had fallen off. The clutch throwout arm spring is still in place. At any rate I was concerned about the throwout bearing running continuesly and seizing up and taking out the pressure plate fingers. I would like to take the cheap way out and just replace the clutch disc and throwout bearing. If possible soon.
I thought I had an 11 1/2" clutch, as I had a Ford 11 1/2" clutch on a 406 in 1968. But I find McLeod only makes 10", 10 1/2", 11", and 12". Back in 2001 or 2002 I did request that McLeod remove my old worn heat sheild from my McLeod alluminum flywheel and machine for and install a 12' heatsheild. I thought I had replaced the disc at that time with a McLeod Dual Performance disc. They apparently do not make that clutch disc any longer. As I remember the pressure plate is the Mcleod Borg & Beck long Style as I remember the holes in the cover near the bolt holes. I had McLeod repair my McLeod repair my damaged presure plate. So I want a the best clutch disc for my car. Would other brand clutch discs be interchangeable with maybe better lining material?

OK, do I read that as essentially saying "I only want to replace my TOB and disc, but I'm not really positive what size disc I have." If that's true, then you're going to have to take your clutch apart and measure it. I don't know how you could tell what sort of disc you have in there without looking at it.