XRAY - Model racing cars

I had plenty of clutch bearing and clutch failure.

Every 40 mins or so, the clutch suffer massive wear or the bearing disintergrated.

Why is it so ?

(1) I leave my clutch bell play about 0.1 -0.2 mm not to tight nor loose.
(2) Could this be a faulty engine ?
(3) Could a over too rich low end could be the source of the problem ?

I uses a WS7 II with a rich low end and compensated with a leaner high end. No engine overheating but the clutch and bearing seems unreliable causing me lots of failure and uncomplete races

what brand bearing you use? i use a well recommended brand by racers, but no good it break very very easy.. i change half way thru race day and the bearing seal come out... i not know why people recommend him...

i break many clutch bell with it... i had 30 bearings and i chuck bearing away..

then i use a local supplier and bearing last over 5 litres use.

so try change clutch bearings

Sangkei - We could use some more details. Which clutch shoes,type of springs and which brand of bearings are you using?

If you could get some pictures of the wear your describing it would be great.

Thanks
Aaron

Man,

I haven't got any pics ! Using 0.9 mm spring Xray and Mugen Composite shoes

In some circumstances, the clutch simply suffer a melt down. It didn't break nor the clutch spring break. The failure would be the distorted clutch jam up the clutch bell. It sorta stuck. ( The bearing is gone too either outside or inside )

Or

The clutch shoes remains ok, some wear of course. But the bearing disintergrated again.

Aaron,

Could be low quality bearing ? Nothing wrong with my engine or clutch spring or shoes combination. ?

The most common cause for clutch bearing failure is bad shiming, but there are 3 other common causes that go unmentioned in the main.

1. Wear on the crank where the inner race of the bearings sit, as this gets worse the bell will rock and speed up squaring of the balls within.

2. High Idle, as the engines idle is set high it is often the case that the brakes are used to hold the buggy still. This heats up the clutch and cooks the bearings. Note the bluey colour when this happens.

3. The bell has worn away around where the bearings sit. Again this will give the bell a rocking motion as in reason 1.

Grahma - Great input..

Are you runing any drag brake? It may be set too much and that could cause some heat in the shoes as well... like its constantly fighting type of thing.

I forgot to add a way of stoping the effects of the 1st and 3rd reasons.

I use a dab of silicone sealant ofn the crank and in the bell. Only a very thin smear is needed as it's only there to stop vibration.

Your bearings should be lasting for more than 40 minutes but clutch bearings just blow up easy on any car over bearings in any other place on the cars. I asked someone from a known bearing company if they could recommend or knew of a bearing that'd be good for high speed/heat/load(clutch bearings) and the dude pretty much was like any bearing there will blow up so just buy the cheapest ones you can find and replace them when get gritty.

Avid racing has some great bearings at only a buck a bearing! These thing are awesome and last a great while.