Friday, December 5, 2014

Pantera clutch pucks

Speaking of the Pantera I never did talk about the new clutch pucks. This is a Comet Duster 94 clutch, its an aftermarket clutch pretty common to these older sleds. Its actually not supposed to be a good match to my Pantera, its not really supposed to be used on sleds of more than about 40HP, the Pantera's engine is closer to 50HP but this clutch has been on it since my friend Ed bought the sled back in 2001 and everybody has always been happy with the clutch engagement so I figure even if I have to fart around with it every 13 years thats acceptable.

Here's the object in question:


The black one was taken from my sled, the white is a replacement. Notice the scar on the black one, I think thats from the time the sled was frozen to the ground and I tried to break it free with the engine. The way the clutch works is these pucks normally at the bottom of an incline plane. When the engine is revved up centrifugal force tries to force the outward up the slope. The clutch cover resists that since its bolted to the end of the crank. This forces the inclined plane in toward the engine, this causes the outer sheave of the clutch to grab the belt transferring rotational force from the engine to the belt and then onward to the secondary clutch and finally the track. The scar is from the side of the track the puck rides in.


On the scale this one is 23.3g which was essentially what they all were. New pucks are sold by weight with nothing around 23g. The next closest was 25g so thats what I ordered.


All the replacements come in around 25.4g which could just be variation attributable to my scale.

The problem I was fighting was a clutch which wouldn't disengage. I hope thats caused by the pucks not sliding back down the incline due to the scar. Just in case I also bought another stock size spring. Its possible that the old spring has lost some of its sproing and the replacement will do better.

This '78 Pantera is one of the best riding leaf spring sleds I've ever been on so I hope this fixes it. If it doesn't I do have one more trick. Randy scratched up and possibly bent the clutch cover getting it off without the proper puller. The clutch performance actually got worse after that debacle so if the new pucks and spring don't work out I'll get a nother cover and see if that helps.

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