rcnitrohead

Hey guys, about 3 weeks ago, I bought HPI racing aluminum upgrade clutch shoes and springs. I have the S25 engine and have had these shoes installed for about 6 runs already. After torturing my car to the max, I took it apart for cleaning. The engine wasnt performing its best so I thought id take a look-see to check out whats up. When I removed the cb, I noticed that my shoes were scratched if not melted on the surface. I wanted to ask if these are signs of normal wear on clutch shoes? Or am I getting premature wear? Im also using the light silver springs on my S25 with a 15 tooth CB. If I am getting too much wear, il be pretty pissed because I spent 35 bucks on this upgrade after I lost a stock spring and my LHS didnt have a replacement[:-] Thanks guys, Tom.

Here are pics of all three shoes, tell me what you think?

LaxerMan21

My Feedback: (1)

nope thats normal wear as far as I can see.

46u

My Feedback: (3)

Been a lot of talk about clutches lately on the form. Yes they look pretty much normal but I have been told the HPI shoes do not hold up well. I ran alloy Nova clutches and they worked great but are about do to be changed as I have around 4 or so gallons on them. The only problem I do not like about alloy shoes is they are high maintenance! I have heard a lot of good from other Savage owners about the XTM sliding clutch and just ordered one and will see how it does.
http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/149596.asp#More

fxrs

Wow, you know with a 56k dial up, while I waited for those pictures
to down load I was able to mow the grass, wash the car
and have fun with the wife.
Anyway those shoes do look normal for alum. I had alum shoes on my
11 year old sons savage for a few races and some bashing and the
maintenance on them became a big pain. When racing on a dirt track
you are on the throttle then off the throttle then back on
and so on. With that said the clutch is engaging and disengaging
the whole race. The clutch works a lot harder racing then bashing.
I ported and polished the S 25 motor along with tuned pipe and a motor
saver air filter. The point is his savage was far from stock
and the aluminum shoes weren't up to the task. I switched to
Mugen Seiki carbine shoes part # C0707 and Mugen 1.1mm springs
and these shoes hook up real good and they lasted the rest
of the racing season last year. I replaced them this year back
in May for the begining of a new race season just to have fresh ones
at the begining of season. The ones I took out still looked good.
I like these shoes so much I put them in My savage LE that I bought
in January. I have worked the motor in My LE along with the same
hop ups that are on my sons savage and the shoes have
plenty of life left. I will probably get the whole summer out of them with
little maintenance. Also before you put those shoes back in you'll need
to file the burrs off of the corners of the shinny or worn areas or they
will start to hang up on you and possibly not disengage well.

rcnitrohead

Hey guys, thanks for the replys but when I removed the shoes, i took pics of them and put them right back on my truck. What do you mean by maintenence for clutch's? All I know is that you should keep it clean and scuff the CB every once in a while.[8D] Thanks, Tom

P.S. After putting my shoes back on, I tried out my Savage and it was almost doing wheelies on the grass! I didnt scuff my cb though, maybe that could have made the difference. But I think my S 25 will hopefully be able to do some wheelies soon. It does look like it has the potential, btw the engine has about a gallon and a quarter on it right now. It should be getting there right?

46u

My Feedback: (3)

You need to debur them where they are rolling over the edges.

fxrs

You know I just looked at those pictures again
and I think your clutch bell is shimmed out to far
away from flywheel. Look at the right hand edge of
each shoe and you'll see a knife edge that could be caused
by the clutch bell shimmed out to far and exposing just the edge
of the clutch shoes. You may want to look at your set up and see
if you can see the edge of shoes with clutch bell installed.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

What are you, stuck in the 90s? people NOWADAYS have a MISTRESS[&:]

HA, I bet you thought I was gonna make a 56k joke didn't ya?

Seriously, though, that looks like normal wear to me. knock down where the shoes are mushroomed out with a file and sand the inside of your CB with course sandpaper (do the same with the wear surface of the clutch shoes) and fire 'er back up and go have fun

And be kind to your RC brethren next time and resize your pictures...I'm on cable so I didn't have any wait when loading the pictures, but it was a real PITA to scroll AAAAAAAALLL the way over to get a good look at the entire picture.

rcnitrohead

LOL sorry, I had no idea that they would come out that huge, it is only my third time posting camera pics so Im a noob at that. Thanks guys, and yes, I can slightly see the shoes with my clutch installed, will that be a problem for me? TY, Tom[>:][X(]

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

I can see the rear edge of mine with my clutchbell installed, haven't run into a problem yet...

I won't worry about it until it starts messin stuff up:P

Chronic

Put a nice little bevel on the edge of the shoes. It slightly reduces the surface area, but it prolongs maintenance intervals and reduces the chance of the burr getting hung up on the flywheel. Works better for the softer shoes like the Mugen and HPI.
You might as well bevel that whole edge where it sticks out of the bell, if you can't get it shimmed properly. Otherwise it might lay over when it gets bigger and then it could grab the flywheel.

I hate dealing with these damn clutches. If it's not a bearing crapping out, it's a spring breaking, or having to tear it down for deburring... I am sooo ready to ditch the three shoe setup in my LST2 and find a good slider. I'm going to give the XTM slider a try in that truck but if it does not work out, I might break down and pony up the dough for a Werks or VR6 clutch and a sleeved clutchbell.

rcnitrohead

Bevel? I need some clarification[8D]

Chronic

Grind the square edge down to where it is angled, like 60 degrees from the face.