355 Clutch Q & A's?

I have a new flywheel in the box and its perfectly flat. The one in my car I removed has 1/2 that much slope. 348 but same system.

 

Yes until it wears. Flat gets the optimal bite on the clutch plates. The outside edge flexes more than the inside so the closer to the center the more pressure, hence the slope in the wear, or that's how I understand it. What you have there is not that bad, Id say defiantly usable, I don't like machining the surfaces all the gaps and tolerances and spacings get thrown off plus with less material they get hot and warp/wear faster.

 

The picture below shows dish/dome measurements of my twin clutch (348). It was when it had done ~12k miles and I could still see the the factory machining marks on the surfaces so the dish/domes were not due to wear but, it seems, that is how they were manufactured. This could be to enable smoother transition (more gradual increase of "bite") during engagement and, perhaps, to avoid clutch shudder. I had to do the work on the clutch so early because I had clutch slipping due to gearbox oil leak into it (the triple seals). The clutch discs had only slight wear but I had to replace them as they were well soaked in oil.

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No. Use a big ass impact wrench.

 

That concave surface is normal after use and is the fallacy of not resurfacing a flywheel when installing a new clutch. As the flywheel distorts the clutch disc wears to the shape. Installing a new clutch that is flat will nor work properly because is has so little contact area. On a manual trans sometimes you can get away with it, your brain adapts instantly to how it engages. An F1 cannot adapt and a huge number of F1 equipped cars are just not working well because of it.

 

Mark the point on the nut and a spot on the axle where it fits. Put the whole assembly flywheel down on top of a small 4x4 piece of wood, blast away on the impact wrench.

On the way back, use the impact wrench to spin it to where the old mark is and you are back where you came from. Perfect? no. Best compromise, yes.

That is the best way to do that short of a factory way to hold the flywheel in place.

 

Not condoning this method, but they do taste different…

 

While they may taste different, if you have never tasted any fluid before, how would tasting it now give you any clue? What is your frame of reference? And Carmellini is right, he really should not taste that paste mixed in with clutch dust.

 

If it were I, I would just open the box and solve the mystery. Really, all this guessing ... is for what?

 

Not that I have set out to try them all, but getting flicked with brake fluid from the springy steel lines when separated from the calliper seems to be a unique design feature of the braking system when removing callipers in a tight spot, or oily hands touching lips and then licking them. Another good one is an oil drain plug buried in the engine bay that is awkward to remove and then sprays oil in random directions with bonus points for it being hot as well. The good old days where people used their mouth to start the siphon for fuel, always funny to see someone not pull the hose out of their mouth fast enough, diesel is the worst.

Either I am sloppy or unlucky, but have inadvertently tasted a few organic fluids, still doesn’t stop me doing mechanical stuff, try harder now to avoid it, but there is something about being awkwardly under a car, sweating away and stuff falling on your face that seems to add to the satisfaction of fixing something, or at least not getting beaten by it. Disclosure, Cars are a hobby not a profession for me.

 

The only fluid I have ever tasted is coolant when they spray all over my face. Knowing that it is poisonous, I spit it out, rinse my mouth, and never even try to remember the taste. I certainly do not taste oil, brake fluid, gear box fluid or any other car fluid. If I really need to know where the leak is and I am up a creek, I use UV dye.