Blow up the clutch!!!

I just want to share my weekend experience!!! I was riding off road on saturday and at the end of the day i wanted to go down a high slope on hard sand surface. Put the tranny on low (t18 a 6.32) with the t-case on low and start going down. My mistake is there i wanted to let the jeep go down by itself so i push the clutch pedal to the floor all the way down but i took too much speed and at the end of the slope i was going to much fast and with the centerforce the clutch blow out. Result no more clucht at all need to replace the whole thing.

Conclusion: Never go down a slope with a t18 un first speed with you're feet holding the pedal clutch on the floor....jeep toss

 

Yes. Seen that before. You spin the friction material right off of the disk.

 

Im not sure I understand correctly. So you went down a slope with the transmission in first gear BUT you had the clutch pedal pushed in and that caused your clutch to go out? Or am I missing something...

EDIT: Or is it because with the clutch disengaged and not being held by the engine and while in first gear, the wheel speed will end up multiplying back through the drivetrain to the clutch and literally spin the material off of the disk. Is that what happens?

 

Think clutch rpm's FAR in excess of what would normally blow the engine. Something one should avoid and if you are still using the stock clutch, pieces could be coming through the floor. When a pressure plate does come apart, it is really impressive-but probably not something you want to see.

 

Exactly what happen on saturday....i can't tell at the moment if it's the clutch or the pressure plate, only thing i know i was still able the switch speed withou using the clutch and nothing pass tru the floor

 

Thats what I was saying about the clutch RPMs. If going down through the drive train reduces the RPMs down as much as it does, I can only imagine how many RPMs that clutch would be spinning with all the speed being fed back up through the drivetrain.

 

Think 10000 RPM. The clutch disk blows up. It throws the lining right off of the disk.

I've seen the end result - it's like stringy mineral wool.

Gears in 1st, low range, downhill, clutch in. 20 mph is enough to blow up the clutch disk.

 

Hum i will take some picture for sure of the desaster between the engine and transmission. One thing is sure i won't ever go down a slope the way i did it this weekend!!!!

 

Exactly, the flywheel and pressure plate stay at idle RPM, but the clutch disk is spinning like a dervish on drugs. Centrifugal force literally throws the friction material off the metal center plate.

Did this to my old Datsun pickup once, demonstrating how smoothly it could downshift.................

 

but the weird thing now is, if the friction material is going off the clutch why i was still able to still run the jeep, shift speed without using my clutch? If there is no more friction matérial how can it trac on the flywhell and the pressure plate?

 

Once you get moving it seems shifting is pretty much a none issue. I rarely use the clutch on my dirt bike when shifting. Just let off the gas and shift. I blew the clutch on my girlfriends Mustang years ago. drove a long ways home w/o a clutch..

 

it's not a big deaf if you don't have red light to cross.....was funny this week end, two jeep to escort me tru the stop and red light.

 

Typically the friction material bunches up between the flywheel and pressure plate and won't allow it to release. That's why the disc and transmission input shaft was still driven. Any worse and you'd have no drive to the transmission.

Edit: should have said between disc and flywheel or disc and pressure plate.

 

Ok well changed the clutch last night picture to come tomorow or this week end. I can tell you that on the side of the pressure plate there is no more friction material and on the side of the flywheel it seem in perfect shape.

 

hum i can't tell where it come but when we have a stop and you don't stop you're car totaly we call it an "american stop" ...i've been driving in Moroco, Usa, Mexico, British Colombia and i can tell that there is weird driver whatever you're coming from!!!

 

I've always called it a California stop.

 

no cop....no stop.

 

This is good to know, I never knew that coasting with the clutch "in" in low gear could be so bad!

 

That makes 2 of us, never heard of it before but makes sense.