My Ckutch, is it Good, Bad or Ugly?

[Shalka04]

So as I get closer to throwing the engine back in my attention has turned at the moment to the clutch.
I took the disk, pressure plate and flywheel apart so I could figure out what my options are.

The cutch plate it self looks ok, I dare say from the looks of it that it's brand new.



It's the pressure plate and flywheel in particular that worry me the most.  There's a bunch of rust on one side of one face of the flywheel which if I have that sand blasted off I'm wondering if it will throw the thing off balance enough to be an issue.





Any thoughts on what if anything I should replace?

Thanks,
-John

[p3ferris]

In my opinion it is good to go.  You can sand blast it off but I would take a wire wheel to it. The clutch plate looks like it has a lot of depth to it yet.  If in doubt look at a new one and see how deep the rivits are  and compare.  

[rocketeer]

I agree, wire brush it. The clutch itself looks fine. If anything I might take a little emery cloth just to the areas that overlap the disk contact area on the flywheel. If you are really concerned you could take the flywheel to a shop and have the front refaced.

Larry

[F Bill]

For the price , I would definitely get the friction surface resurfaced as you may experience chattering if you use that the way it is with just wire wheeling. I can't tell from your picture, but how is the ring gear?  As far as the balance issue unless you are balancing your crank and rotating assembly anyway, don't worry about it.

If you have access to a blaster that would get the rust flaking off quicker.. but a coarse twisted knotted wire wheel cup brush  on an angle grinder should make short work of the rust. You might want to get a coat of paint on it  everywhere but the clutch surface and the part that contacts the crank.

[Carls_jeep]

Clean the metal parts of the clutch disc up with a wire hand brush and check the springs in the center to be sure they are tight. If they are loose they will cause a chatter when you take off and possibly a rattle while driving. Other than that the clutch disc looks ok.

The pressure plate should be ok but I would sand blast it and clean it with compressed air to get all the grit out of it. As suggested, emery cloth the clutch surface to get it nice and clean using about 180 grit. Use a sanding block to keep the surface flat. You will need to lube the pivot points of the pressure plate fingers also but very lightly.

I would sand blast the flywheel and inspect the ring gear for damaged teeth. The pilot bushing probably needs to be replaced. The clutch surface looks to be ok but use the emery cloth and sanding block to clean it up after the sandblasting.

Nothing you will do cleaning the parts should affect the balance so don't worry about that.