Uprated clutch anyone know of any?

[Guest Troy Halliday]

I seem to have a small problem.

The car is run in now and I have been able to give it a bit of lead foot treatment but the clutch just spins when the power starts to come in.

As you may know I have a HC engine which is ported and polished. The flywheel has been lightened and balanced along with the crank. I have two 104 cams and have ram aired the induction system usinfg a BMC carbon air filter and a custom made airbox/collector box.

I can pull away in every gear, but when the power comes into to full swing at about 4000rpm the clutch starts to spin/slip. I have a standard S3 clutch and presure plate both are brand new.

Any advice on this would be helpfull. I am taking her to the rolling road hopefully this coming Saturday (22nd) so I will know then what sort of BHP and Torque I have. But my tuner suggest I should have easily over 200bhp. But that is estimated at the moment. Ultimate performance heads manage about 240bhp so I have no idea what to expect.

Any information would be helpfull.

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

What about the Clutch from an S3 era Turbo?

That will take the 210-220 fairly stock cars (just air and zorst mods etc ) produce and presumably there will be a certain amount of 'margin for error' / 'over-engineering', involved there

HTH

[WayneB]

I would see if Sachs or AP Racing has a stronger cover and uprated disc first.

The pedal effort would rise, but you will be able to keep your existing flywheel.

I used to get my clutchs from Aldon Automotive in Brierly Hill.

Did you use a new clutch cover? (they weaken after a few years)

You do have free movement on the release arm? (not bound up due to missajustment)

Edited April 17, 2006 by WayneB

[lrg_machine]

If the clutch is slipping, is there any point in putting her on the rolling road !

You'll never get a true reading.

[AJay]

Hi troy

The stock clutch shouldn't have much trouble with that sort of power with the exception of standing starts.

Its the torque that will cause problems under normal road conditions. My S3 Turbo is producing 260 lb/ ft and will wheel spin in 3rd on a wet road under hard acceleration.

The normal clutch has no problem at all.

Have you double checked the adjustment as per the manual and are you sure there is no oil on the plate after the rebuild?

someone might advise better but i would squirt brake cleaner on to the plate to try and degrease it first, and if you plan on changing it anyway you don't have a lot to lose!!

[tbeggan]

Troy,

I had a similar clutch slip problem in my 87 Turbo when my clutch and pressure plate were both new, and it only happened at full power.

Here's the note I wrote to myself in my service records:

-----Feels like a mild clutch slip at high rpm. Manual says there should be 5mm play at top of clutch throw. There was none. Moved clutch push-shaft to lower hole (it was on upper) and adjusted shaft 7-full rotations longer. This increased the required foot pressure and elongated the throw. It doesn't bottom out on the floor so I know the bottom comes from the master cylinder (Just as it did before.) And, it now has room at the top of the throw to allow the clutch to completely disengage. (Before it was pressed hard up against the stop at the top of the throw, indicating that the clutch was not being given enough travel to disengage.)-----

Best way to see if you're suffering from the same issue is to see if you've got any play at the top of the clutch throw. When the clutch pedal is fully released, check to see if you can pull it up any farther (5mm recommended). If you have no upward play there, chances are very good that your clutch is not fully disengaging.

By the way, the "holes" I'm talking about up there are actually holes on the clutch lever itself. There are multiple holes where you can attach the thrust shaft to the clutch lever. Obviously, the higher the hole's position on the lever, the shorter the travel and the lesser the foot force required to push the clutch. In my case, I needed to increase shaft travel (use a lower hole) and I got the added benefit of creating a harder clutch pedal in the process. (I prefer it that way.)

I hope this helps,

Tom Beggan

87 HCi

New Hampshire USA

[hilly]

Come to think of it, I had a similar problem with my S3 when I fitted a new clutch and that was again down to the release adjustment being wrong.

When I rebuilt my car I found that the slave cylinder adjustment screw wasn't long enough so I made a new longer one but didn't get the 5mm free-play adjustment right first of all so it slipped a bit.

The return spring is quite stiff so trying to check the 5mm free play can be tricky.

After adjusting mine it was OK

Andy

1981 S3

[Guest Troy Halliday]

Thanks ony I will give that a try. I have tried all the other suggestions posted but nothing seems to make any difference. I will be out there in a minute to have a play and give it a drive when the trafic calms down.

I bought a three piece kit. I always do just seems futile to change one component onlt to find another is faulty and then strip it all apart. The clutch slave and master are also new and I upgraded to the braided hose at the same time.

I am also going to check and see if the rae brakes are dragging a bit you never know the combonation of all the little things could be doing it.

Fingers crossed I'll get all these agravating things sorted before the summer hits us. The suspension has still not settled and I am less than happy about that the car rides far to high. Looks like I will be back on to SJ's. I am sure the springs are to long. I have followed all the tightening instructions for the front and rear suspension and it still has not dropped. Steve at SJ said drive it about with the suspension loose and tighten it when it drops. 150 miles like that and nothing happened. NOT A HAPPY BUNNY. If I had wanted an off roader I would have bought a Land Rover

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

If I had wanted an off roader I would have bought a Land Rover 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Whatchoo talking about?!?!

* Sorry Jon! Had to be done!

[Guest Troy Halliday]

Well I had a visit today from a friend of a friend who has been a Lotus mechanic for the past 35 years. He had a good look over my car and had a good look at the clutch setup. We adjusted everything again although it was correst. And guess what ..................... it's still slipping. Oh well I did manage to get a Turbo flywheel from him so I supose I wil be looking at a new Turbo 3 piece clutch kit which should handle 220 ftlb of torque let see if the bugger slips then. The Turbo uses a 9 1/2 inch clutch as apposed to the N/A 8 1/2 inch clutch in case you were wondering.

He did give me a tip on the suspension he basicaly said if I can use of a 4/2 poster ramp then I should lift it up on that and and pull the car down to the right height and then nip it up. So it looks like I will be making a few phone calls to see if I can borrow one for half an hour.