Hilliard Fire Clutch Wear

M

Meahal19

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How long should these shoes last? They seem to only last a couple months and I start to smell them and they are worn pretty thin. Son races in Jr. LO 206and we use black and white springs. Can I use the Flame shoes as well that are half the price?
 
Not sure about life. I got a Full season on my sons and it was used when we bought it. The fire has a larger drum so you need the flame shoes and drum.
 
Thats one thing about fiber shoes , although shoes are an expendable item .
2 months on a road course might not be bad .
On an oval your slipping too much .
Or to many caution laps at almost engaged .
 
I have been using the Fire clutch for 2 seasons now. About 20 weekends per season, 3 races per weekend. The fiber shoes last the whole season no problem, they are pretty low when the season is done. Make sure they wear evenly.
 
Hi. My son and I are rookies here so please forgive the dumb questions. This is my first post but have learned so much so far from this board. My son races JR LO206 and has been running a Fire clutch since the beginning of the season. We have the shoes setup in the leading post position with 2 weights per shoe and 2 Black and 2 White springs. The clutch seems to be working well but I feel like I’m going through a lot of shoes. We are probably getting 400-500 laps before the fiber layer is down to about 1/16”. We are on the track at least 2 days a week and if I get 4 weeks out of them I feel like I’m doing well. I try to clean his clutch about every 20 laps max - brake cleaner on the drum and lightly sand the shoes until I can see the brown pretty uniformly. Anyhow, any advice on how we can extend the life would be great. Driving habits or am i doing something wrong?
Sorry. Should have added that this is asphalt spring racing.
 
That seems reasonable to me for a sprint track .
Clutch engagment adjustment could help if its slipping too much .
Reducing the work the clutch does is about it .
A differnt clutch with steel shoes .
 
Tell me if I'm wrong, but don't shoes wear down? When they wear down, they get lighter, they need weaker springs to maintain the same "stall" RPM!! With your set up, as the shoes wear, they get lighter and slip more, (i.e. at a higher RPM) this causes heat, that causes the smell you described.

At home, After a race, check the stall RPM, if it goes up, change the springs, recheck the stall RPM.
 
Al. I can't imagine the weight change of the shoe is even measurable. You could argue the spring weaken over time and these cancel out.
 
Brianf60 said:
Al. I can't imagine the weight change of the shoe is even measurable. You could argue the spring weaken over time and these cancel out.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with you, if your assumptions are correct. I wonder if the person has a tachometer? Actually, If you're right, what's causing the extra heat, if there really is extra heat.
 
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We ours until they are thin enough that I worry about them damaging the drum before the next service. There may be an advantage to changing earlier but not enough that it will be noticeable for us. We gave enough other areas to work on that will yield a better return for now...
 
I forgot to mention, there's a worksheet that matches this set-up sheet that you can fill in by hand at the track. The spaces are all bigger for handwritten notes. I envision planning it out on both sides of one piece of paper. My thought was; there's a lot of information on that page, and it's nice to know that you don't "have to" remember all the things you "want to" remember. We all want to "think" that we can remember everything we did at the track, right, but it's not always that way! Unless you have a photographic memory, I don't, it's nice to know we wrote it down.
 
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