I worked on a Mazda RX7 a number of years back, He was sent to me by TWM to try
to sort out the problems with the dual SK sidedraft kit they had sold him.
Anyway I inspected the car pretty closely as it was the first Rotary I'd worked
on. They guy tended to be a street racer type and I told him to get a different
clutch and flywheel. He didn't take my advice and a couple years later there was
this big story on the local nightly news and in the newspaper. It seems a
certain RX7 was driving down a very crowded street with lots of Bistros and
sidewalk cafes etc., when his flywheel and clutch let go. They found part of his
flywheel buried in the back wall of a restaurant, about 150-200 feet from the
car. It was up near the ceiling. It had narrowly missed two people on the street
and four or five in the restaurant. When it failed he wasn't even driving hard,
just hung up in the usual stop-and-go traffic on that street. But the years of
abusing it and never checking it had already done their damage. Weird thing was
no one could figure out what had happened at first and few initially connected
it to the stalled car in the street. The car looked undamaged until you got
underneath it. The parts all flew downward in a spray pattern. Lots of stuff
imbedded in the street. And some of the stuff, like the piece of flywheel in the
restaurant, hit the street at an angle and bounced up off it. Some hit the
underside of the car, and some cleared the car and went off into the
neighborhood. This guy was damn lucky no one was hurt. Especially since I had
written right on the invoice I gave him when I worked on the car that the
clutch/flywheel were unsafe and needed to be replaced. And yes I did send a copy
of that to the police when I heard about the incident.
I also have a couple of friend with pretty serious leg/ankle/foot injuries from
failing flywheel/clutch assemblies. And I know of even more cars damaged by the
same. It isn't common but it can and does happen.
sidney raper wrote:
>
> When a flywheel lets go, it is pretty horriffic. In normal driving, it
> won't happen unless there is a defect and you are winding it up a bit. If
> used hard (ie. racing) the situation changes. If you can find any pics of
> cars that had the flywheel blow apart, they are sobering to see.
>
> Sidney Raper
> 1964 1500
> 1967 SRL311 00060
> 1967 SRL311 00076
> Jacksonville Florida
> http://www.geocities.com/roadsternut/index.html
>
> >From: Gary McCormick <svgkm@halley.ca.essd.northgrum.com>
> >Reply-To: Gary McCormick <svgkm@halley.ca.essd.northgrum.com>
> >To: haugchiro@moscow.com
> >CC: "datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net" <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
> >Subject: Re: What the?!?!?!
> >Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:42:41 -0700
> >
> >Well, I stand corrected - I guess - I would never have figured the actual
> >flywheel for
> >letting go. The clutch incidents I've seen or heard of (among back road
> >drag racers ,
> >back in my high school days) involved the clutch disc and/or pressure
> >plate. I realize
> >that there is a tremendous amount of stress on a flywheel, but that's why
> >they're made of
> >solid steel!
> >
> >You learn something new every day...
> >
> >Gary McCormick
> >San Jose, CA
> >
> >R Haug wrote:
> >
> > > Gary McCormick wrote:
> > >
> > > > When clutches let go it's the disc and/or pressure plate that
> >"explode", not the
> > > > flywheel.
> > > >
> > > > Gary McCormick
> > >
> > > Gary,
> > > I would have to disagree with you here, Usually the disc lets go
> > > but I have seen cars literally cut in half from a flywheel explosion.
> > > That is part of the reason for scatter shields in drag racing or the
> > > transmission flack blankets.
> > > Bob
> > > Moscow
>
> _________________________________________________________________
--
Marc Sayer
82 280ZXT
71 510 2.5 Trans Am vintage racer
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