Hey all, my trans exploded in my Rex so I removed it and upon removing the stock clutch I noticed this ...



Could someone tell me what the purpose of doing this is? I've never seen anything like it before and it puzzles me as to what the reason behind it would be.

Thanks.

PS...Sorry the picture is probably taking up your entire monitor...Droid cam ... Idk.

 

welded fingers on the PP, new one to me!

 

that's new to me also....no idea what that would accomplish....i would look into buying a whole new clutch kit.

 

I plan to don't worry. I was just trying to figure out what on earth the point of welding the pp fingers was. I've never seen anything like it or heard of anyone else doing it so I figured I'd turn here. Hope someone can come up with an explanation for this.

On another side note, anyone know the easiest way to get stubborn flywheel bolts broken loose? They're short top bolts so I can't get my socket to hold on to it. I don't know if they make a special socket for em but I've just been trying to use my twelve point socket. Just every time I put any sort of force on em the socket pops right off. Annoying. But yea if anyone has any useful tips it'd be appreciated.

 

I have a 17mm 12 point socket I turned on a metal lathe, I cut the rounded edge of so it grabs better, makes a big difference. Also, an impact gun will normally take those bolts right out.

 

I unfortunately don't have an air compressor or an impact gun, but more and more projects are motivating me to invest in one. I'm half tempted to take my 12 point socket and grind the face of it down so that the tapered entrance of it is non existent. I think that may help. I have plenty of time to figure out what I want to do to get it off, so thanks for the input.

I still wanna know wtf is up with this clutch.

 

Anybody got any ideas?

 

kinda late on this but oh well. I have some special suckets that have little teeth in them. they're used for stripped bolts. Work wonders i tell ya. the bolt could be almost rounded off and it wont even slip. And they also work great on with short top bolts!

 

Where'd ya get em?

 

O'Reilly's auto parts. it was just a small set of standard sockets. i dont remember how much they cost

 

Hmm, this might explain something: http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/ar...p/t-82793.html

 

That's really interesting, and makes some sense. Also sort of explains that what I thought about my car in general may have been incorrect. Learn something new every day.

Now being the car is n/a right now as opposed to the boosted cars in that saab forum, I could understand now why he welded the fingers, whereas in terms of a boosted car, doing this would only provide a marginal increase in the clutch's ability to hold that kind of power.

So to conclude, welding the fingers like that actually is an idea, for someone who has a Honda (in this case) that has been boosted and isn't making phenomenal power. It's cheaper than buying a new clutch and can still hold more power than a stock clutch. The fingers are welded in spots so as to not add extra weight which can actually rob power. But it makes the fingers wider in a sense, making them stiffer and causing them to apply more pressure to the friction disc and thus handling more power. Apparently my rex used to be boosted, so this mod answers more of my suspicions. Again, for someone with a low budget that has a stock motor with either lots of bolt ons or a low boost turbo kit, this mod is actually a sound idea to save you some money until you can afford a new clutch.

That thread helped a lot, I really appreciate it.

 

^ That was the thought, I don't think it actually works though. And like someone on that Saab forum mentioned welding on the fingers will destroy the temper of the metal.

 

Idk...being that this was actually in my car, and it was boosted ... I'm actually thinking that they pulled it off. Only because it was in a rex though. There's no weight to resist the movement of the wheels so you don't have to use such a strong clutch. So possibly they only had a dinky little turbo kit running like 7psi, that's what I believe. The trans also had a welded differential, which was also never removed before the car was stockified.

I ran the car at the track like this, before the trans blew out, and even a full throttle dump with that trans on sticky tires it hooked and took off, no clutch slip or anything. I mean stock motor yea but it ran a 14 dead on a stock clutch so I mean maybe in this rare instance it might have worked. Oh well, getting an lsd trans and staged clutch to play it safe. Glad you found that article, helped answer a lot of questions, thanks much.

 

I also think that welding the fingers together reduces vibration and clutch chattering in between shifts.
I'd never do this to my car though.