Ram cinterd iron clutch help

[Stick Racing]

Jeff,

<< Why does a Jerico use less pressure than a G-Force?

Because McLeod's directions say so! I will assume it is because of less rotating mass. Several of our Pro Stick guys have the Ram/Jerico set up and will run 400# base with no counter weight. WORKS!
Lenco/Jeffco guys seem to use slightly more. Usually around 700#.

<< Soft is fast?

You bet. Less breakage, too. If you have too much base, it bogs the motor on the starting line. Too much counter and it drags the rpms down between shifts, not to mention it makes the car jump around. I believe a better word for soft would be smooth. Huge wheelstands and grabing air between gears looks good to the spectators, but it's not the fastest way down the track!

The Ram pressure plates come in 350# and 700# bases. (700 is too much). The older ones had 5 turns in them. 120# per turn. Just this week, I had 2 people tell me they had pp with only 4 turns total. Something new?

Andy Stone

[Rory McNeil]

I have no experiance at all with the Ram stuff, but I have 2 cars with McLeod Soft Lok/Jerico combinations, my 85 Mustang 302 M/Stocker, (12.3`s@107mph, mid 1.6 60 foots)and a 428FE powered 78 Fairmont bracket car.(10.0`s@132, 1.29-1.33 60 foots) On both cars I launch and shift at virtually the same RPM (6200), and because of that, I tend to only use static pressure, since any counterweight I put in, would be in effect on the launch anyways. Plus I don`t need to worry about dropping small nuts and bolts inside the bellhousing! With everything fresh, my base pressure is 280 lbs, and my pressure plates have 9 turns of adjustment, but I normally run between 3 to 4 turns over the base.The 428 uses the aluminum flywheel, but I find the little 302 likes a bit heavier steel flywheel. Can anybody explain in my situation, how adding counterweight would do anything for me, that simply addng static won`t?

[Stick Racing]

Counterweight works best with cars that have big motors with small tires.
The idea is to use low base to slip the clutch and get the car rolling off the starting line without blowing the tires off.
As the rpms increase, the counterweight adds more pressure to lock up the clutch..
Big block stockers with a 9 inch tire and a high horsepower 10.5 tire car are good candidates
for counterweight pressure plates.

If you have a car that leaves the starting line close to or the same rpm as your shifting rpm,
chances are you do not need any counterweight.

[Cam]

Andy:
Do you use a data collector or two channel tach to monitor clutch slippage?
Cam
NHRA 6067
B/FI

[Stick Racing]

Playback tach. No electronic gadgets for me.

I'm a grass roots guy that don't want electronics driving my car. Two step for the starting line and a playback tack so I don't have to have my eyes glued to the tach all the way down the track.

The tach will show how far the rpms drop at gear changes and how long it stays there. That will tell me how much slippage. Granted, it's not as good as a data collector but it leads you in the right direction.

Andy Stone B/S 1102