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Clutches - life expectancy????

3K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  kevrmx 
#1 ·
How long do people here expect the clutch in a 5th scale to last. 5 tanks, 10 tanks, 50 tanks etc? Obviously there are many influencing factors and as such life will vary a lot. Lets say average (not too hard) bashing. I recently replaced the clutch in my 5SC SS 26S CY engine and I'd say it lasted about 10 tanks. At about $50 that seems very quick to me. I ran the car yesterday for about 2 hours no problem, then on starting today it had a locked up clutch..kept driving...no idle. Opened clutch housing and broken spring along with worn out shoes.... down to bare metal in middle 50% of shoes. The clutch I purchased was: 1/5 RC Clutch Shoes & Spring 8000 RPM High Response Set from RC Predator on ebay.

Is there a better type of clutch I should be using, or is this the general expected life???
 
#2 ·
Depends on weather your clutch carrier is open and you run in a lot of sandy soil. I only got 1 40min run out of a set of shoes running in sand, got a sealed clutch carrier and have had 8 40 min runs on the same clutch shoes, In another car have had over 20 40min runs on grass

Cheers
 
#3 ·
Thanks for that. Being new to 1/5th I dont know what to expect as yet. Seems my run time is pretty normal, the clutch is enclosed..turtle housing. Darn these things hammer through the clutch shoes. Any ideas on reshoeing (is that a word).
 
#4 ·
If you are running the standard gearing(main drive from engine){I see you are running a CY engine} it is over geared and this will effect the clutch life, my sand runner is geared with a 16/58 primary drive, the speed is still the same(rovan engine) as it is always spinning the rear tyres on sand. My others are fitted with RCMK CR300 engines and are fitted with 19/55 drive gears and have broken a couple of diff housings with the power from these engines.

Cheers
 
#5 ·
I dont know what gear set this is running, I purchased it used. I replaced the spur when I first acquired it as it was shot. I assume it is standard and as you say it does seem to be over geared, but still operates well. Keeping the rear wheels from losing traction is quite a challenge. The clutch that came with it lasted a lot longer the ones I purchased....we need a way to reshoe, cant be that hard. Next time I take it apart I'll check the gearing out.

I got it running again, placed the worn shoes back and used a slack used spring....seems to be running just fine....for now. This CY engine seems to be very reliable, consistent and powerful.
 
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