Clutch Housing Explosion (and Calatoral Damage)

[PLYNX]

Ran a Lakewood scattershield on one of my high reving manual small block chevs a few years ago. They dont go over the bell housing they ARE the bell housing. Made of about 4-5mm pressed steel plate and theres a simmilar flat engine plate that goes up against the block. When or if a flywheel/clutch lets go it sort of holds it in place. A very good investment on hard turning engines.

[MrStabby]

So JB knows he had a bad batch of plates, but hasnt contacted his customers who's clutches came from the bad batch to warn them? Can anyone confirm if this is the situation or not?

If its true, i consider it irresponsible and unethical, considering the potential to loose limbs.

[Gts-t]

Noel,

Ive always had good experience with Direct Clutch in brisbane. For the rb30 im building i dont know if ill go a nismo/orc or go back and speak to Direct.

Tough choice, the clutch of theirs i have now has copped it hard for over 5 years and is still going strong. Was also strong enought to wear out the rb20 box

cheers, mic

Edited September 13, 2008 by Gts30t

[FineLine]

Well heres the damge bill from that nano second of shit and disaster

Gearbox...chopped

clutch pressure plate andflywheel....Chopped

Engine.....chopped due to a chunk being blasted from the back of the block

dump.....choppped

starter motor.....chopped

clutch slave......chopped

bellhousing spacer plate....chopped

Braided clutch line....chopped

turbo water line.....chopped

Tore down the engine on the weekend so we can get the crank and jun pump xrayed. I dont anticipate any props but i am not taking any chances.

Now the madness begins all over again.

Oh happy Days!

Edited September 14, 2008 by FineLine

[johnbarry88]

hey man ill give you a call tonight to have a chat, I cant think to image the pain you are going threw atm...

[rb26s13]

Well heres the damge bill from that nano second of shit and disaster

Gearbox...chopped

clutch pressure plate andflywheel....Chopped

Engine.....chopped due to a chunk being blasted from the back of the block

dump.....choppped

starter motor.....chopped

clutch slave......chopped

bellhousing spacer plate....chopped

Braided clutch line....chopped

turbo water line.....chopped

Tore down the engine on the weekend so we can get the crank and jun pump xrayed. I dont anticipate any props but i am not taking any chances.

Now the madness begins all over again.

Oh happy Days!

not good to hear at all mate... that box is here if you need it

[SilverECR33]

oh man. i would have shed a tear. not good at all mate...I really feel for ya. ..

..

.

.. WTS... JIM BERRY CLUTCH..

[Swiper the Fox]

Some facts...The 3 clutches that have exited for differing reasons....one was a fractured flywheel one was a pressure plate and one was a clutch cover.

The flywheel one was a STD flywheel that had been fractured long before a Jim Berry clutch was fitted.

The other two im unable to give an accurate comment on.

For the record i no longer use Jim Berry clutches but would recommend that if anyone use them that they have the flywheel and pressure plate X-rayed before sending it to Jim. That way you can be confident that the product you recieve back will be up to the task and give both yourself and Jim piece of mind that your not sending him inferior materials to begin with.

Glad no injuries were sustained in this incident.

[Raysboostin]

sorry to bring up an old thread but im wondering how this all panned out??

[JMW]

Holy Crap! You are really lucky it was just the cover and not the flywheel aswell! Almost looks as if the cover was out of balance and threw its self apart.

Really sorry to hear about it, and not good news for a clutch builder either!

[ZENNON]

good one ray - see what you did now!

[JMW]

^ I know, old thread

Any update on the outcome with Mr. Berry?

[CrankyGTS11]

I'd be interested to know too.. i have a JB sitting in the shed waiting for me to put it in......................

How much horsepower was involved in this???

[Raysboostin]

good one ray - see what you did now!

sorry, i got a bad habit of doing that. i just stuble across threads like these while searching and its amazing how many of them never have a posted conclusion.

[Guilt-Toy]

I'd be interested to know too.. i have a JB sitting in the shed waiting for me to put it in......................

How much horsepower was involved in this???

Jim's clutches are second to none, 99% of these failures are because of external reasons and not fault of the clutch.

Be sure to

1: use proper nissan genuine clutch and flywheel bolts and washers

2: use the correct amount of dowel locating pins on the pressure plate

3: make sure your clutch & flywheel is crack free (x raying is the way to go)

4: if possible use a billet steel crome molley flywheel (ask jim to supply)

i cant remember what else but this will give you an idea. they are rated to high horse power applications, anthony martook uses them in his drag cars

[The Dan]

I'd be interested to know too.. i have a JB sitting in the shed waiting for me to put it in......................

How much horsepower was involved in this???

Approx 480hp at wheels

Jim's clutches are second to none, 99% of these failures are because of external reasons and not fault of the clutch.

Be sure to

1: use proper nissan genuine clutch and flywheel bolts and washers

2: use the correct amount of dowel locating pins on the pressure plate

3: make sure your clutch & flywheel is crack free (x raying is the way to go)

4: if possible use a billet steel crome molley flywheel (ask jim to supply)

i cant remember what else but this will give you an idea. they are rated to high horse power applications, anthony martook uses them in his drag cars

1: Done

2: Done

3: You'd have to ask Jim about that as HE supplied the clutch and it was a standard SECO cover that he modified.

4: Done

You can be absolutely certain the clutch in Anthony's car is not the same as this one.

I'd just like to touch back on point 3. The SECO cover he used has a pressure plate made of cast iron. Every pressure plate made after the mid to late 90's is made from a Ductile cast iron.

Xraying it will tell you this but you would assume he doesn't use inferior parts that were practically banned from this type of clutch for this very reason. Cast iron is riddled with cracks. It's in the nature of casting it. He uses second hand normal cast iron pressure plates in all of the full monty's he makes. They are ALL ticking time bombs.

[Swiper the Fox]

Approx 480hp at wheels

1: Done

2: Done

3: You'd have to ask Jim about that as HE supplied the clutch and it was a standard SECO cover that he modified.

4: Done

You can be absolutely certain the clutch in Anthony's car is not the same as this one.

I'd just like to touch back on point 3. The SECO cover he used has a pressure plate made of cast iron. Every pressure plate made after the mid to late 90's is made from a Ductile cast iron.

Xraying it will tell you this but you would assume he doesn't use inferior parts that were practically banned from this type of clutch for this very reason. Cast iron is riddled with cracks. It's in the nature of casting it. He uses second hand normal cast iron pressure plates in all of the full monty's he makes. They are ALL ticking time bombs.

Id like you to touch back on point 2 please.

[The Dan]

Id like you to touch back on point 2 please.

2. Done

[The Dan]

jks of course.

There are 3 locating dowels. All were used. All cover bolts used.

[The Dan]

Unless, of course, you were also joking, then I would like to reaffirm:

2. Done