Ok....just curious...Clutchflites....

[Alan Roehrich]

There is a company that still makes the stuff. The good stuff was made by Winters, I think they sold their tooling to Maverick.

It is in no way shape or form legal for Stock or Super Stock, regardless of whether you claim automatic or manual.

One of the last people to campaign one successfully was the late great Ronnie Duke. The Duke Brothers ran a Clutch Turbo in Super Gas for about 15 years. It eventually kills the input shaft and the forward clutch drum. I built their transmissions until they switched to a Lenco. That car one a ton of races, track championships, and was in the hunt for national championships on a regular basis. But they worked on it constantly.

If you could get someone to make you a steel forward input drum, machined to take the new killer input shaft spline used in the 1000HP automatics, and then get someone to make you an input shaft from 4340 torsional steel, you might get one to last a lot longer.

They are violent, the shifts are absolutely brutal at any speed, at any throttle input. They are tricky to use, maintain, and set up. Aligning the bellhousing is even more critical than the trickest manual box and clutch.

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Yeah, Ive been in contact with them over the years.....no 727 runs though only the TH400 setups and they are a few pieces shy of a full 727 kit from old stock.

Thats excellent, I was told by the seller a friend of my dads, "When you set this thing up give me a call and Ill come over and show you how, its a bitch" Ill take it from your post his fear is not an understatment, he had it on an alky 392 FED.......His card is on my dresser for just that occasion The use in the 49 plymouth will be nifty, straight axle car (now) and with the 60 in the arse should be a lot of fun, kinda like driving a 10 second FexEx truck. But now that I actually after nearly 10 years of TRULY hunting have my hands on 2 good units, Im shy to actually use them for fear of breaking them.

Ive met about 3 other people in person in my life that actually knew , and i mean really knew about them, I started thinking, all the veteran racers here might have some input....thanks !

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

There is a company that still makes the stuff. The good stuff was made by Winters, I think they sold their tooling to Maverick.

It is in no way shape or form legal for Stock or Super Stock, regardless of whether you claim automatic or manual.

One of the last people to campaign one successfully was the late great Ronnie Duke. The Duke Brothers ran a Clutch Turbo in Super Gas for about 15 years. It eventually kills the input shaft and the forward clutch drum. I built their transmissions until they switched to a Lenco. That car one a ton of races, track championships, and was in the hunt for national championships on a regular basis. But they worked on it constantly.

If you could get someone to make you a steel forward input drum, machined to take the new killer input shaft spline used in the 1000HP automatics, and then get someone to make you an input shaft from 4340 torsional steel, you might get one to last a lot longer.

They are violent, the shifts are absolutely brutal at any speed, at any throttle input. They are tricky to use, maintain, and set up. Aligning the bellhousing is even more critical than the trickest manual box and clutch.

[Alan Roehrich]

Again, what breaks is the drum, and the input shaft. You might get Strange or Mark Williams to make you some shafts, if you give them a good one to work from. The drums are just stock drums. The hard part to replace would be the "butterfly" pump drive. You'd have to have a mold made, or get one digitized and CNC it from a billet.

I have a complete Clutch Turbo set up but it is damaged. The adapter has had some threads pulled out, and the input shaft is bent and twisted. I can fix the adapter, but I'd have to buy a shaft. If I ever fool with it, I'll have a drum and shaft made the way I stated in the previous post.

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Yeah Ive got about 4 or 5 broken "pump spiders" ive accumulated over the years to one day do just that have one made, I have 2 good ones now on the trannys I have and 2 spares....but theyre like hens teeth obviously.

What crossed my mind was eliminate the whole spider issue with an external pump.....me an hydraulics are kinda like scooby doo and proper english, but ? Well....Ive heard of people running external pump drives, or my mind wandered as usual and I thought of the EARLY 727's with dual pumps 1 front 1 rear. Didnt know if they could be converted to run rear only hence the spider became a non issue.

Just a thought....to eliminate like you said one of the main weak points....I never even got to the point of thinking of how to keep em from coming unglued, just keep em going...lol....but I could see with some of the newer shafts it might be possible.

On an early 727 with the dual pumps is that feasible to run the rear only ? Youre probably familiar with them.

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Again, what breaks is the drum, and the input shaft. You might get Strange or Mark Williams to make you some shafts, if you give them a good one to work from. The drums are just stock drums. The hard part to replace would be the "butterfly" pump drive. You'd have to have a mold made, or get one digitized and CNC it from a billet.

I have a complete Clutch Turbo set up but it is damaged. The adapter has had some threads pulled out, and the input shaft is bent and twisted. I can fix the adapter, but I'd have to buy a shaft. If I ever fool with it, I'll have a drum and shaft made the way I stated in the previous post.

[Alan Roehrich]

The rear pump only works when the vehicle is moving, so running the rear pump only won't work.

[340Cuda]

I can't remember the guys name that ran it orginally but there was a B/FX car called the RoadRunner. I think it was a 65 Dodge with a 383 Hemi and a ClutchFlite.

I saw the car at Ted DeTar's shop in 1966. If I remember correctly (and that could go either way), the transmission used something like a power steering pump run off the engine in lieu of pumps in the transmission.

Bill

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Thats right, I forgot.....yep....no go there, duh...hmmm oh well, someone else mentioned a PS Pump which I had seen on something else, but I was always unsure of volume and pressure its not exactly like its the intended use.....seemed like a bit of an odd hack even for me, then again it may be just fine, or maybe something industrial/trucking would suffice.

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

The rear pump only works when the vehicle is moving, so running the rear pump only won't work.

[Alan Roehrich]

You need approximately 300 psi to make it really work, because you need to have more than enough pressure to make the pressure regulator work all the time. You do not need a lot of volume, since you are not filling the converter constantly, what you are doing is cooling the internals (but most of the heat comes from the converter, which you no longer have) applying the clutches and bands, and lubricating what moves.

[Rory McNeil]

A buddy of mine used to run a B&M ClutchFlite in his 340 powered 70 Duster. It was formally in a local A/GS 33 Willys with a 392 Hemi. With the sintered iron clutch disc, it was very abrupt, and hard on rearends. As mentioned, getting everything correctly aligned was a royal pain. He eventually sold the ClutchFlite, in favor of a normal 727 Torqueflite with a torque convertor. I think the original attraction of the ClutchFlite faded with the later advent of 4500+ stall speed convertors, and trans brakes.

[Alan Roehrich]

Really it was the Lenco that killed them. They were mostly a Gas, Funny Car, Altered, or even dragster unit. The first ones were "clutch hydros" based on the old hydramatic. Once the Lenco appeared, the clutch automatics began to fade rapidly from the scene.

I remember Ronnie sold one of his to a kid with a "pro street" pick up truck. He brought it in to be freshened up, and wanted the kid to see exactly what he got. Ronnie warned him "let them take the manual valve body and the hard shifting stuff out, you won't be able to stand it". The kid wanted it the other way, "how hard can you make it shift? I want it ALL!". Hehe, he wanted it all alright, for about a week. Then he wanted to put it all back stock except the clutch turbo part.