Hi all!
As the owner of Tristan, who has an alloy bellhousing and subsequent
foot shield, and being the recipient of stories about what has happened
to whom (read: no personal experience... :), what I have heard is that
the flywheel disintegrates and spallates outward usually in the plane of
the wheel. Here comes the problem for your tootsies, however, in that
when it meets the bellhousing and breaks through it, pieces are
deflected and no longer follow the plane of the wheel. They can scatter
and spray the footwell in many directions, usually with the bulk of the
wheel still escaping in the previous plane, but with fragmented housing
going forward and back as well.
I am doubly glad for my scatter shield, since when I opened the trans
last year to replace the clutch, I found something had already gone
south in the housing and basically chewed the inside of the housing and
the throwout arm up (way before I got the car). Looks like shot peening
gone bad -- like with marbles instead of tiny shot. So it is weakened,
and if the wheel goes south, the shield will help protect my feet.
Since I will only be autocrossing Tristan this year, I am not horribly
worried about it, but I will be in the market for another alloy housing
for a Spit, definitely before getting back on the track. Any ideas?
Hope this helps!
Keep Triumphing,
Susan :)
Barr, Scott wrote:
>
> Ok, now that we're on the topic, when a flywheel comes apart, where does
> it generally go? Does the flywheel shrapnel move outward in the plane
> of the flywheel's orientation, as my limited knowledge of physics tells
> me it should? If the flywheel is forward of the driver's feet is the
> risk less? or are we worried about chunks of flywheel, bellhousing, etc.
> moving in different directions?
>
> Better safe than sorry, of course, but ...
>
> Scott
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark J Bradakis [SMTP:mjb@cs.utah.edu]
> > Sent: Monday, March 08, 1999 1:13 PM
> > To: FOT@autox.team.net
> > Subject: Re: GT6 suspension uprights
> >
> >
> > I'm only a little worried about the alloy bellhousing. Given that it
> > is for
> > an autocross only car, with a rather modest rev limit (6200?) the
> > chances of
> > the clutch or flywheel or whatever coming apart are slim. More than
> > zero, I
> > will admit, but pretty small. A sheidl of some sort may be in order,
> > though,
> > hmm...
> >
> > mjb.
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