Mark,
You are partly right! Along the lines of what you have said, the auto
manufacturers did address the problem by creating an automatic
transmission. A sort of bliss for the masses...The fact still remains
that a manual dry clutch assembly should not fail...That is...If the
parts are properly designed.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Mark Hooper
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 3:51 PM
To: 'Jim Swarthout'; 6pack@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: TRF magic clutch kit
Jim:
Clutches! That touches a sensitive point. Who hasn't spent a session or
two
anxiously lying on their back peering at the underside of the car
wondering
how they were going to get home. And then to realise that they would
have to
practically disassemble the car to fix this $30 part.
<rant mode on>
I would say that the entire dry clutch design was not the automotive
industry's "finest hour". It comes from the dawn of time when parts were
expensive and everybody either had a chauffeur (1%)or did it
themselves(99%). Paying a mechanic at madison avenue lawyer rates is a
recent innovation that has forced manufacturers to develop disposable
cars
that work perfectly for a while under warranty but then must be scrapped
because they cost more to fix than to replace. It was once very common
to
reline your own clutch friction plates. Now the mechanic fees make such
a
course unthinkable. You replace the entire mechanism just in case since
it
would cost the entire amount again if the first attempt failed to fix
the
problem.
It is absolutely outrageous that in 2002 we are using this 120-year old
idiocy. And in case anyone feels that it is a period design that
shouldn't
have been updated, most motorcyles of the time had the "wet packed disc"
setup that allows the clutch to be removed and reinstalled in 30
minutes,
with most of the time spent cleaning the crankcase up all without ever
touching a hair on the installation or connection of the transmission or
engine. Almost any number of designs were doable with a wet clutch and
were
commonly deployed in other machines. It is only the desire to save $2 at
the
expense of the motorist that has kept this anachronistic abomination on
the
road to this day. A wet clutch is smoother, simple to repair and doesn't
smell or rust shut have worn through finger springs.
It seems that even today, the car manufacturers aren't interested in
fixing
the design. The newest cars are not much changed in this area from their
ancestors of 4 generations past. Better materials applied to a concept
that
was old before it ever saw the light of day in the 1800s.
<rant mode off>
Mark
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