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McCleod Clutch and Steel Flywheel Questions

72Sport

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
2,954
Anyone used a McCleod clutch in their Bronco? How well did it work?
I went to their shop to see about an adapter and they said their clutches were the best out there. :-X

What is the advantage of a steel versus a cast flywheel on a stock 302? I still have machine marks in my cast flywheel about 2/3 of the way around. The other third has a few burn marks with one surface crack.

I know the popular clutches here are Centerforce II and Dual Friction, also Luk. I was leaning toward a Centerforce before I visited the McCleod shop.
 
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bmc69

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 11, 2004
Messages
11,852
Not in a Bronco..but in a Mustang. McLeod makes a great clutch IMO.
 

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
I went to their shop to see about an adapter and they said their clutches were the best out there. :-X

What is the advantage of a steel versus a cast flywheel on a stock 302?
Yeah, but did they say the best at what?

Drag racers like McLeod clutches. They have a bunch of different styles. Drag racers play with things like flywheel weights (steel flywheels weighing less than cast) to have less rotating mass, the spring rates on the pressure plates, surface area of the clutch disk and also the disk facing material. All this to get a good launch off the line vs a good grab on the shifts.

Did they have a clutch they said was specifically designed for off-road?
 
OP
OP
7

72Sport

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
2,954
Yeah, but did they say the best at what?

Drag racers like McLeod clutches. They have a bunch of different styles. Drag racers play with things like flywheel weights (steel flywheels weighing less than cast) to have less rotating mass, the spring rates on the pressure plates, surface area of the clutch disk and also the disk facing material. All this to get a good launch off the line vs a good grab on the shifts.

Did they have a clutch they said was specifically designed for off-road?

I didn't ask about off road clutches at the time. I did notice they had a picture of an Early Bronco in their catalog.;D They have sections in their catalog for just about everything. I was more interested in the adapter at the time. They seemed to have transmission adapters and clutches for most everything 2 wheel drive from flatheads to current Mustangs. A Bronco clutch was an after thought.

I will have to weigh my flywheel and see what it weighs. The steel replacement weighs 28#.
 

DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
47,355
Have one in mine, with about 70k miles on it and it's worked perfectly. Much better grip than my original and much easier to take off on an uphill grade/trail.
Nothing wrong with the others you mentioned, and Luk actually makes the clutches for a lot of the aftermarket companies, so actual quality is probably at least consistent, if not exactly the same. Hayes is a good brand also.

The McLeod model I used was a direct replacement, with the "Long" style (3-finger) pressure plate. The diaphragm style that Centerforce and many others use is generally accepted to have a lighter pedal for a given amount of clamping force.
That last characteristic might come in handy when sitting in an off-camber, side-hill, backward-rolling, pucker-inducing situation someday. ;D

I'm sure others will have opinions on the different ones. Lots of replaced clutches running around here. Lots of Luk brand if I'm not mistaken.

Regarding the cast or steel, there's probably nothing wrong with cast in our situations, but I'm guessing that the steel they're talking about is billet and rated to pass all SFI mandates and racing rules. Aluminum would be used for lightweight applications, and steel for heavier needs. Cast might be even heavier, but not sure about that. Might simply depend on the individual application.
Just a guess though.

For general low-speed street and trail use though, the heavier the flywheel the better. Up to a point. Lighter is better at accelerating, but doesn't conserve inertia like a heavier one does, which makes it easier to stall with a lighter flywheel. Especially with a carb.
Like anything though, it all depends...

Paul
 
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