I'd been autocross my Miata for a year with a really nice close pattern on the trans. Went to go road racing with an ITC Fiesta with a wide sloppy gate. Near the end of my race school I'm entering the main straight at Waterford hills and go to shift from 3rd to 4th as I used to in my Miata. Instead of getting 4th I got 2nd and revved it to about 9k+ rpm. Unfortunately the clutch didn't fail. Instead I sheared the flywheel bolts off wrecking the flywheel, crank and bearings etc
Knurled wrote: In reply to JohnyHachi6: How in the world did you get that centered well enough to get the trans back in, let alone run seven hours without urping anything?
We got really lucky in that the clutch disk hub fit pretty perfectly into the p-plate friction surface. There wasn't more than 10 or 15 thou of side-to-side motion possible, so centering it wasn't too hard.
All the drivers, myself included had to get used to shifting with no clutch, but it worked out. Biggest issue was pit-lane starts. I pulled out the clutch safety switch and jumpered it. Done with the driver change? Toss it in first, mash the gas and hit the starter. Worked better than I could have possibly hoped.
The flywheel and clutch kit was replaced after the race and the trans is still working fine, no grinds, not even any notchiness in the shifts.
More about that, and the whole build for the car is here (scroll down for clutch stuff): http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/chumpcar-1992-lexus-sc300/75586/page7/
I had a 81 dodge omni 024, clutch cable broke. I called my dad, he said drive it home. I said how? He said drive it home. Had to start it in gear of course. Drop in neutral at lights then shut it off. Got it home surprising myself and my dad.
We also had a service truck at work, a one ton 1980 Chevy with mechanics boxes on the rear. Once my boss accidentally down shifted to first at a high rate of speed. Boom! His foot hit the bottom of the dash. The clutch exploded, ripped through the bell housing and floor, shearing the gas pedal off the firewall. Lucky he didn't lose his foot or some toes. The mechanic and I, to this day, are still trying to figure out how he got it from 3 or 4 down to 1.
The clutch pads in my CJ came apart and wedged so that I had no release. Still drove OK. A little tricky getting home.
I felt lucky , since I had been doing a little off roading earlier. could have been a long walk.
I got my Samurai's clutch smoky and stinky about a year ago, trying to basically reverse up a wall. Still works great though.
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