Alright, I have a used act clutch for sale. I guy came into my FS thread and said that the clutch is worthless b/c I touched it. Here is what he said and his reasoning:

"you have touched the clutch pads... the clutch is no good now because of the oil on your fingers will make it slip and it doesnt matter if u cleaned it.."

"ok.. i have a friend, his name is john and he owns toyspeed in tulsa. he has a 72 toyota corolla and he put a comp clutch stage 5 springless in his car. when he put it in he touched it.. he didnt think it would hurt it but when he took the car for a test drive he ruind the clutch.. and the way he expland it to me was.. even though u thouched it a few times.. when that clutch ingages that oil is spred all around the fly wheel.. there for you have oil all over the pads that will keep it from gripping.. i dont why only a little oil could cause that to happin but it just does.. just like you cannot touch brake pads.. any liquid will ruin a clutch. the only way to clean it is to buff out the whole cluch dry.. you cant buff out just one spot because then it will be uneven and ruined to"

"ok dont belive me.. sell ur shitty clutch to some one... not my problem. but any one with any since about cars would know.."


Will the minimal amount of oil on my fingers cause detrimental affects on the clutch and cause it to slip and fail like he stated?

 

The reasoning make sense, but I've yet to see it happen. We always clean up the the friction disc before we align it on the flywheel though. I can see this happening if you dropped the disc in a bucket of oil and not clean it up, but min. amount from touching, I highly doubt it.

Just take some carb cleaner to it. I've touched my comp clutch twin disc's many many times without problems. Never slipped even after lots of passes down the track and dyno time.

 

It's not the clutch you cant touch, it's the pressure plate. The clutch material is super grippy and the small amount of skin oil you'll get on it by touching it wont make a difference. Even if it did, the part of the friction material you touch will wear off eventually so it shouldnt be a problem.

I've handled my clutch like it wasnt anything special when i put mine in but made sure not to touch the pressure plate. No problems at all, going on 4k miles.

 

Thats what I figured. I think he buddy didn't know how to drive with a stage 5 clutch and blew it up.

I handled the clutch in my truck numerous, with greasy fingers and never had a problem with it at all.

 

Absolute, 100% bullshit.

You can handle brake pads all you want, as well as clutch discs. He's full of ****, end of story.

 

Being a mechanic, I think its safe to say..

I always wear latex gloves, to protect my hands and to protect any parts I install from grease from other parts and so forth. I handle brake pads all day, I started wearing gloves to protect from Aspestous?(sp?? I'm a mechanic for a reason)

One thing that is true about the oils from your fingers is that it damages head light light bulbs, weakens them over a shorter period of time, as for brakes, I HIGHLY doubt finger oils can prevent stopping simply because of the friction, once you step on the brakes, they heat up and over time a thin layer of the brake pad material comes free. When water and oil heats up...it burns off. So I think it'd be safe to assume that that would be the same for your clutch if you were to get finger oils on it. I wouldn't worry about it, I'm sure the guy was just being a tool. Hope this was helpful.

 

lol brakepads.. really this guy must be crazy.. the inner part of the caliper/rotor are somewhat accessible, if this was truely the case.. couldnt just rub their hands on other people's rotors and then everyone's brakes slip? ROFL

oh and i believe it is spelled "asbestos"

 

damn...! I knew there was a better way to *off* the ex.

 

thats the stupidest s@#t ive ever heard of it does not matter if you touch the clutch or pressure plat and if you have oil from you skin on the clutch it would burn off as soon as you drove it