Kevlar Clutch........What's your view?

[FELIX]

Here is an up-date.I am at the 900 mile mark,on Saturday I had it slip when it was hot while cruising in 3rd gear at 2500 rpm while I hammered the throttle and it slipped for 50-100 rpm for a split second.I drove it for a bit on Sunday and tried the same acceleration test,No problem all day,or any on my way to work this morning.Time to really test this clutch on the trail,it has finished it's "burnished" stage.eace:

Any clutch that is slipping after 900 miles , is going to continue to slip. Get it out on a close to home trail with plenty of support to get it home.

Rob $.02

 

[markaboo929]

The meaterial this is made out of needs to be burnished in like performance brake pads,it WILL slip till the fibers have settled in,and they have-no more slippage.belive me I was worried too till I had the product designer/engineer actually drive my Jeep to get his view,thats when he told me it "feels" like it is almost broken in,he drove it at the 500 mile mark.I followed his recomendations and it did the trick.Again the slippage has stopped,I tried to make it do it,It wont even slip when I side step the clutch.It's ready

 

[markaboo929]

Don't forget this company designs and manufactures RACING clutches,which take a lot more HP that we could ever dream of having.They are the supplier for the Richard Petty driving school,so you can be sure it gets abused heavily.I had some mixed thoughts about the slippage ,simply because I never had to break in a clutch,and thats probably why you posted what you did.have you ever driven a Kevlar clutch before?Niether have I and was told of the driving caracteristics till it is broken in.Seeing is believing and there is no slippage what so ever.

 

[markaboo929]

Any clutch that is slipping after 900 miles , is going to continue to slip. Get it out on a close to home trail with plenty of support to get it home.

Rob $.02

you can check this info out here--->http://www.zoomclutch.com/tech_support.html

 

[FELIX]

Don't forget this company designs and manufactures RACING clutches,which take a lot more HP that we could ever dream of having.They are the supplier for the Richard Petty driving school,so you can be sure it gets abused heavily.I had some mixed thoughts about the slippage ,simply because I never had to break in a clutch,and thats probably why you posted what you did.have you ever driven a Kevlar clutch before?Niether have I and was told of the driving caracteristics till it is broken in.Seeing is believing and there is no slippage what so ever.

Hey, you don't have to sell me on it, it's not in my Jeep Anyway, maybe your not putting out enough HP to benefit from it and be able to get it to break in completely :dunno: What I do know is OEM did fine by me & now my Luk Gold is doing a stellar job. Neither of them slipped. I have had other clutches in other vehicles that have needed a small amount of break in, but 900 miles seems more than a little excessive. No I have not had a Kevlar clutch nor felt I would ever need one. I figure if an 813 5ton didn't need it, either does anything I will ever drive. Anyways best of luck with the testing hope it turn out to work great for you. Keep us posted.

Rob

 

[JJacobs]

I'm just not seeing this as an upgrade. 900 miles and it still slips, with only 300 ft/lbs? Sorry but I expect to go when the throttle's pushed, not drive through the clutch and have to back out of it. Sounds like you need to hit them up for Version 2.

 

[markaboo929]

A LOT of you are not understanding it NEEDS to be broken in.The info is right there for you to read and I stated that it is NOT slipping anymore at 900 miles,Hasn't for 790 miles.I only posted here at the 900 mile mark.Again here click---->http://www.zoomclutch.com/tech_support.html
Plus you can look at centerforces website for breakin info as well.They recomend at LEAST 500 miles,and I was actually not slipping it enough after reading centerforce procedures.Since I slipped it more than I had been at take off ,it stopped.Also to add the july issue of offroadadventure magazine has an article on clutches,the info is there as well on the 500 mile or MORE breakin.:read:
I know it's not a centerforce unit,but,people do purchase centerforce for there jeeps,and ZOOM has entered the 4x4 world too.

 

[markaboo929]

Funny you should mention version 2-I was informed they are comming out with a higher clamp load pressure plate for stroker mods,supercharger,and turbo Jeep 4.0's.:eeks1: HMM....gives me an idea.............:smoker:

 

[vetteboy]

Vetteboy when I typed "strapped to the block" it was YOUR reply in quotes see your reply.

Yeah, I know. Which is why I made a half-assed sarcastic reply to it. Point still stands though.

Plus the flywheel absorbs a lot of the heat from the block/crankshaft and most of the heat that gets transfered to the clutch hub is by way of the clutch material and the metal section that is between the center hub.

Yes, I realize this too. Even more support for why I'm saying that engine and ambient temperatures have very little effect on the high temperature that a clutch will see when being used improperly (excessive slippage).

If you notice in the stock clutch picture there are small sections where the center hub is joined to the outter section that the material is rivited to,and the kevlar replacement is actually solid,with that being said the stock clutch disc is blue from heat transfer and that is where the kevlar one comes in to play absorbing most of the heat that normally would go to the hub center and the inputshaft of the trans

The reason those small sections turned blue is because they're so small. Small mass + close proximity to heat source = greater temperature increase. Once it gets past those small pieces it'll in turn heat the much larger center hub, however much more slowly because of the additional mass and also because it's a larger distance for the heat to propagate to.

In this sense the larger solid hub of the kevlar one has an advantage...but it also wasn't necessarily a problem in your case to begin with. FWIW I don't think I've ever pulled a clutch disc out of my rig that had bluing to the extent that yours did...but then again at the beginning of this thread you mention constant slippage in rocks, which might have something to do with it.

And obviously the disc turned blue from heat transfer, I didn't think you painted it that way.

which was made in usa by the way and the clutch release bearing is a Mopar unit.:laugh3: And I learned that this is actually a GM/Chevrolet set up,direct bolt on, ment for racing which lives behind chevy small block v8's that have been modified,so clamp pressure is more than adequite for the 4.0.

Not sure what you're getting at here... :helpme: I'm sure the clamp pressure is fine, because the OEM clamping pressure is typically fine for an OEM motor, and you've got an upgraded package. Mopar doesn't make bearings either, but plenty of people make them for Mopar.

I stated that it is NOT slipping anymore at 900 miles,Hasn't for 790 miles.I only posted here at the 900 mile mark.

Here is an up-date.I am at the 900 mile mark,on Saturday I had it slip when it was hot while cruising in 3rd gear at 2500 rpm while I hammered the throttle and it slipped for 50-100 rpm for a split second.

You drove for 790 miles between Saturday and yesterday? Ouch, man. Unless I'm confusing something here.

*****

I'll say it again. I'm sure this is a top-quality product. I'm sure it does many things better than an OEM-style clutch. I'm sure you can slip this one a lot more and get away with it, and not smell that burning-asbestosy smell or risk warping things. I'm sure the purple pressure plate housing gets da ladies. But in direct response to your thread title - "what's your view" - my view is that I've got no reason so far to switch to this new thing, and in fact I feel from what I've read so far that there would be other things on my rig that would be more worth spending the extra money on.

YMMV.

 

[markaboo929]

Actually I drove for the 110 miles(900-790=110) between saturday after work and till sunday night i ment to type it hasn't since the 790 mile mark.I appreciate your responces and your views,which is what I wanted in the first place.In your case you wont feel/have the need for one of this material.I was really looking for a better than stock ,cause we upgrade everything else on our jeeps,one from the fact that mine had oil,clutch fluid,and trans fluid leak onto it when i moved from the hot climate of south fl to the cooler one here in NC so everything was turnin to crap-even the window channel rubber.so I wanted to replace it when i took the trans out-I stumbled upon this one and - hey free is free right?I do not slip my clutch hardly in fact i just started to wheel here in nc not too long ago and most of the driving i did in fl was street and mud occasionally.I do however feel that some ambient temp,density,humidity,does have some extent of an effect on operating temps.