How important are the dowels on the flywheel for the clutch? I got rushed putting my clutch together and left them off, but now i'm thinking i should take everything back apart and stick them in there. I have ARP pressure plate bolts, but don't the dowels take the brunt of the force?
If it were my car, I'd put them back in before running it. I've been involved with one clutch explosion in my life and that was enough for me.
From earlier posts, he is running either a T5 or T56. (And judging from his signature line, he has the horsepower to need the pins) .
Thanks for all the responses guys! I'm running a t5, with a 28oz imbalance flywheel made for the mustang 10.5" clutch. My flywheel actually didn't come with the dowels, which is why i didn't put them in, but i've been running the motor up to 7500 lately and it's been one of those "little" things i worry about (you know, losing my legs ). It sounds like the general consensus is that i'll be "okay", but i'll definitely locate some and put them in there as soon as i can find a scatter shield to go on with them. And try not to push my luck too far Thanks!
Dowels are usually there to position parts, not take a load. The flange friction and/or bolts are generally what carry the load. I'd be more worried about the clutch not being dead nuts centered. If it's not affecting your shifting, and you don't have a bad vibration, I wouldn't worry about it. I saw a clutch let go once. The driver didn't get hurt, but he was picking pieces out of his floor mat. This was in a late model LS camaro launching on slicks and nitrous.
7500? Hope that's a steel SFI flywheel and you have a "can" to contain it all if/when it breaks. There are some pics over at fordmuscle where a guy was doing a 7000 RPM burnout when his let go....luckily he wasn't hurt, but man oh man, what a mess. Destroyed the car.
Eee!! No more stories guys That makes a lot of sense, ATOMonkey. My flywheel is SFI, and i'm using all ARP bolts. I've been holding off on the scattershield because i'm not sure what i'm going to do about the transmission, but i will definitely get one before i do any serious racing.
