Clutch Question

What do the springs do around the splines on the friction disc?

 

Reduce shock and stress at the moment of engagement, I assume.

 

Yes it lessens the torque shock.

 

Lessens torque shock as mentioned and helps dampen torsional firing pulses from the engine.

 

Is it bad when they are starting to fall out? My brand new clutch in my TDI swapped jeep is having problems with those.

I think I'll be doing a clutch swap in the near future... I'm thinking its a junk clutch from the overseas suppliers.

 

Yes, it is.
They are captured in the clutch disc and should be secure.
That needs to back in the box and returned to the point of purchase for a full refund.

 

As near in the future as you can manage would be my advice. A clutch explosion is not a pretty thing.

 

For sure! I saw one when I was kid. It sprayed metal all over the place, and one piece hit my brother. Fortunately, it hit him on the chest, not the face, and it hit flat-side, not edge-side. It left an impressive bruise.

 

A clutch explosion prompted Big Daddy Don Garlits to build a rear engine rail.

 

As a teenager I saw a car that had a clutch explosion. Some guys drag racing over on the highway and one of them had a wreck, we went over to see what happened. The car, a 64 ford, had his clutch explode mid race. The explosion destroyed the bell housing and broke the steering shaft causing total loss of steering, The car took out about 50 yards of pasture fence and several small trees before stopping. there were big holes thru the hood from the pieces.

 

This is reaching back aways to one of my highschool friends. I think this happened about the second year of college. He had a 58 Corvette with the fuel injected 283 and blew up the clutch. He was lucky he still had legs. Destroyed the floor/dash and actually broke off part of the block. That guy worked part time as the parts man for the Chevy/Buick dealer and I don't recall him ever looking up a part number twice.

 

I think the broken springs have a lot to do with the torque pulses of a diesel. Look at the springs (if there are any, maybe rubber biscuits?) original to the TDI clutch disc. I’ll bet the TDI springs are far more stout than a CJ’s disc.
-Donny

 

The ‘58 Vette/283 used a cast iron bellhousing, plenty strong to contain a clutch. Your example sounds like a flywheel exploding. All bets are off when this happens. Thats why there are scatter shields.
-Donny

 

Reminds me of a customer at the Jeep dealership that "blew up" his clutch. He had a J-truck with a T-18. Had it in low range and 1st gear, driving along a trail. Came to an easy downhill spot, pushed the clutch in and rolled down the hill. Spun the lining right off of the disk - the mechanic said it looked like rock wool insulation in the bell housing.

 

I had a slight misalignment issue. I have since resolved it.

 

Would you mind sharing what caused the misalignment? I’m replacing mine and would be curious as to how to avoid that.

 

Use a proper clutch alignment tool

 

Thanks. Was just curious if there was something else I needed to look out for

 

You can use the input shaft of your transmission, if you have an extra or it's apart.