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I am wondering what the experts know about facing material used on clutch disks. As you can see from the attached photo, the disk I removed from my C2 is shown on the left, and is a GM part from the mid 80's . This older disk was not worn out. It clearly is made out of a different material than the new LUK disk shown on the right. The LUK disk came as part of the 04-021 RepSet kit for GM small blocks like my 67 327. The older disk (and most I have ever seen) is clearly organic and has fibers and metal incorporated into the material. The LUK facing appears and feels like a solid piece of plastic like material, also with some metal particles incorporated. Comments?
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
Old clutch facings like old brake friction materials are asbestos based, which has been illegal since circa 1980.
It's tough to keep track of all the new non-asbestos materials. In the early days of the asbestos ban, they were not very good, but I think they've improved a lot in recent years.
Duke -
Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
I just had my original clutch replaced and still have the original pressure plate and disc. Is it possible to have these "refurbished" ? If so, any place you would recommend ?
'62 327 250hp
Thanks,
DonComment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
fort wayne clutch will re-spring your old pressure plate for about 50 bucks. i run one of them in my 2900lb 450+ hp 57 vette for autox and drag reacing. been in there about 15 years. i prefer the three finger borg and beck to the diaphram sprung pressure plates(which can stick to the floorboard and grenade a clutch assembly at high rpm, disturbing the ankle anatomy.) mikeComment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
forgot to mention that they adver. in Hemmings. mikeComment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
Tim------
As Duke mentioned, the old clutch friction disc uses asbestos compound friction material. Due to government regulations, that material has been replaced in virtually all applications that originally used it for anything automotive. Most of the newer clutch discs use a composite material consisting largely of Kevlar. Is the Kevlar as good as the old materials. Well, it's used in most new cars and has been PRODUCTION-validated. So, that ought to provide some confidence in the newer material. Just in case, though, I keep about a 500 year supply of old-style clutch discs in the collection.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
Don-----
Yes, they can be refurbished. However, they won't be refurbished with original material.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
Is it possible to have these "refurbished"
You bet and some local shops can do a BANG UP job for you at a price that'll make you smile... Here in Denver, the Clutch Exchange does this work using Kevelar as the re-surface component and they work GREAT!Comment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
Joe, you forgot your tagline: Not for sale.. :-)
OK, so my original plate was lined with asbestos. It was purchased in the mid 80's, so it may have been a older piece as I thought they had already phased that out by then.
One interesting note: I had a chatter problem with my clutch as installed last November (see my other threads for details), so I pulled the new LUK hardware out and reinspected everything. After much testing, checking, re-resurfacing the flywheel again, and balancing the assembly, I reassembled everything this past weekend and went for a test drive. This time I put the OLD asbestos disk back in the car with the new LUK pressure plate! I did that because regardless of the chatter issue I didn't like the abrupt engagement tendency that the LUK setup had. It was hard to engage smoothly. The old clutch was EASY to engage smoothly. After the test drive I was quite pleased. The chatter appears to be gone (or greatly minimized) and now smooth engagement is possible. Also, the LUK disk made an audible friction sound during engagement (like the sound you get using sandpaper on a piece of wood). The original clutch is quiet. Yes, I ran the LUK disk for two months trying to get it to "wear in", but it never smoothed out and the chatter was real annoying. Drives like a dream now!! :-)
I may make another post about my overall experiences with my clutch as I think folks might be able to take advantage of some of my experiences (and mistakes)...Comment
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Re: Clutch disk facing material - old vs new
Forgot to mention that the old disk was EXACTLY the same thickness as the new LUK disk. Apparently it had not worn much during the last 20 years with the car sitting in the garage....hardly driven...Comment
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