clutch balancing
Turbo Mini Forums

Minispares sell a lightweight steel flywheel they say it improves clamping , does anyone know anything about these.

We used to stock them as balanced assemblies until they stopped producing them https://minispares.com/product/Classic/Clut...121af.aspx|Back to search, we now sell the kit with our steel flywheels.

What I find most intereting about this question is the crank end adapter.

I haven't seen any "kit" that includes it.

Maybe Colin is right about the original Leyland stuff but, to quote from Minispares discontinued item "This kit does not include the centre boss to keep costs down but is available as DAM5921"

Now, to me, that bit is the most fundamental to the overall balance.

Any original one will be fucked from the way some morons take of flywheels (unless you have owned it from start of life yourself of course) and will provide the biggest run-out in the balance equation.

So unless any of the reputable companies do the balancing with your own centre boss (I presume MED do) then forget it.

No "kit" without the centre boss can be properly balanced to suit your centre boss.

The boss itself is very unique, if anyone has looked closely, not just bolt pitch, but it's integral balance relative to the verto assembly.

So, as per Colin, if you want it done right, do the TOTAL assembly and only use someone who has a very good Mini crank (or dummy crank) on their balancing machine.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

The issue with all tghese Min clutches is the diahragm/spring section is made by pressing metal parts out. The press tools are not especially accurate. Invariably the diaphragm/pressure plate/cober - whatever you want to call it - is not at all well balanced. This goes for Pre-verto and Verto type. I balance every assembly I fit. I have seen the (ofetn dramatic) damage a non-balanced assembly can cause.

The thing with which gives the highest claming pressure - not many know/consider that that is a dramatic drop-off in clamping capability as parts wear, or non originally dimensioned components are used. AP have said that once there is a 0.020" change in the assembly from as new, the clamping pressure starts to sdrop off rapidly. So swapping parts aroud from various manufacturers may be helping or hindering clamping performance.

in my experiments , i have found that the clamping pressure ,(if the diaphragm spring is correctly distanced from the flywheel) ,actually increases as wear occurs, up to a point ,then decreases gradually as wear continues .graphing out the spring characteristics will show this .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

interesting about the clamping force changing so much with ware and or set up caricaturists

be nice to "test" the assembly and see where the peak clamp is then shim the cover to be just over the hump so to speak making the thing gets a little stronger then drops off after a decant bit of abuse

most of us use lightend wheels and spacers to get the diafram to be flat or near it when bolted up so be intersting to see if this flat possition is actualy where peak clamp is of it its just assumed to be

well finally got a clutch,the 190 paddle is discontinued but rang minispares and they said there was one showing in stock at harrigate so rang them up and ordered it.so stripped car down, it tuck 5 days to get flywheel off, dinted me wing in the process,new wing ,new paint so was not happy,got in there to find oil seal had leaked oil onto clutch, i think thats why it slipped when hot.went to put new turbo 20%uprated pressure plate and paddle but paddle is only 180mm part number on box is the write one for 190. carnt get a 190 anyway so put it in,need to ring minispares up as 180 is cheaper and waited ages for a part that dont exist,any way got it all back together the fucker vibrates not much but its there and it wasnt before so when i get the motivation il have to get it balanced.