ronniebiggs

Anyone running a padel clutch??? I need some feed back. I was told not to run the car with one as you cant slip it. Hence when u pull away from traffic in jams you stutter like hell trying to get going. I was told to run a normal clutch.

Any comments Ronnie

tweenierob

Had an AP paddle in for two days...
If you are gonna use the car as a daily driver then dont do it!!

I absolutely hated it.

Rob

ronniebiggs

Please tell me more.
Whats the problems with them??? Could you bear it if you had to. eg you cant get another clutch as yet etc.

Gidney&Knowlesy

A paddle clutch is either on or off.......Unfortunately it had been a while since I had driven a car with a paddle clutch and managed to stall it 3 times; much to the amusement of the onlookers.

Once you get acquainted with it they are good though not great for everyday driving especially in town.

Is there some special reason why you want to run a paddle clutch?


[Edited by XtremeScoobies - 5/10/2003 3:10:14 PM]

Commercial content removed. Please speak to webmaster@scoobynet.co.uk for advertisements. thankyou.

[Edited by P20SPD - 5/14/2003 8:11:30 AM]

ronniebiggs

Bought a STi steel flywheel and it came with the padel clutch so I decided to use it as my clutch is worn out. The BHP on my car is about 300 and I know my last clutch was slipping and thats what nackered my standard flywheel. So I thought as I got both together and the padel clutch has quite alot of life left on. I might as well save myself some money.

Then some people started to tell me the horror storys of stopping and starting in traffic jams etc and it started to scare me off alittle.

Regards Ronnie

ronniebiggs

Must be more people out there with experience or who can shed alittle light on this sucject

Big Bear

I ran with a paddle clutch for a while until my gearbox broke (after 3000 miles with the paddle) then replaced it with an organic clutch , in traffic the clutch was a nightmare , it juddered like mad and made the passengers feel sick with the jerking movement .

ronniebiggs

Nice Keep these thoughts coming.

Anyone got any positive action out there padel.
Ronnie

tweenierob

Sorry Ron, nothing positive from me mate
I fitted the clutch in teh afternoon, nearly shook the car to peices tryin to pretend that there is a biting point.
I originally fitted the clutch as it was almost free and i wanted something better for drag racing, unfortunately i have to use the car as a daily driver. The two dont mix..
If you are anything like me you are thinking that you will get away with using a Paddle for day to day use and that you will get used to it... WRONG!!
Luckily for me i can fit my own clutches so it isnt as much of a pain to replace if i am not happy, if you are paying to have the clutch changed then definately dont do it as you will have to pay for it to be changed..
I fitted in the afternoon, tried it the next day hoping it may be better the next day removed it the next morning.
TBH i was worried about what damage it was doing to my car as well because it is very snatchy, as someone else wrote.. it is like a switch.. on... off...
Also get a neck brace..

Rob

sorry if it aint what you wanna hear mate, but deffo dont make the mistake that i made unless you have the time/money to change it teh next day..

ronniebiggs

Doing the clutch myself. I got the clutch and flywheel together because I needed both. I only gave £130 so thought I would use it. Last time I put a tread up on scoobynet I got the complete opposite response. About 7-9 people said that they were using there car day to day and had no probs. They said that you can slip them to get going.

But from the theory behind the clutch I can see that there even on/off. But as you said I dont really want to except it and cant really afford to get a new clutch. As Im getting the crank, conrods and pistons, Balanced, stress relieved and shot peened and dont want to have to shell out much more money as yet.

Anyone know if balancing, stress relieving makes much difference?

Ronnie

StanS

iTrader: (3)

Had paddle clutch and 5.5kg flywheel etc etc since August. OK it is difficult to slip it, but as I drive on back roads in Suffolk most of the time it is not a problem.
The few times I have been in traffic jams on the M11 etc are hell. They are not good for moving a cars length then stopping etc for long periods of time (say more than 10 times) - the clutch does not like it.
Depends on what the traffic is like where you drive. For me its well worth having.
Stan

AJbaseBloke

I've driven a car with an AVO 5 point paddle that was OK...but I've also driven one with a 3 point STi that was "rough" to say the least

Prova has a twin plate here that is actually pretty darn well behaved, but they ain't cheap. A few clutch makers here, like Ogura (who may have worked on development+make the Prova cluch for all I know), have been working on getting high clamping force clutches to the market that don't kill the "liveability" of the car.

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

I've driven a friends gti-r with a paddle clutch..

I quite liked the feel of it didn't shake much at all..

sounds like scoobies don't like them though mate.

ronniebiggs

lol,
Well I will try my clutch and see what its like. I can't afford another clutch as yet so I will test it out and live with it for a while. I think I will use the philosophy of driving away from traffic and sticking to quite roads
Ronnie

Spoon

Had a Cossie with one but I wouldn't choose one for everyday driving.

I had an electric clutch system on it which operated the clutch automatically according to the amount of revs you applied, effectively making it a semi-automatic.

This made it a far better car to drive than driving it off the pedal as the severity of the bite was taken care of for you, making stalling the car virtually non- existent.

The car only went out on a few days a year.

Another thing that I did notice though was that I could get the back wheels to momentarily lock when coming down the box at speed.

Save up, that's my advice.

MorayMackenzie

I have had at least three different paddle clutches on my scoobies in the past, I am now using a disc type clutch again. I think that one problem with paddle clutches is that the flywheel, assuming its been used before, really should be skimmed to ensure that they have a true flat surface to work with when they are fitted. I would stick with a disc type clutch for a road car, and would probably think about a paddle clutch for a trackday car. Imagine what the poor car puts up with on the rare occasion that you need to reverse up a hill... now imagine that with a clutch that gives next to no slip. eek!

carmad

Had a 4 paddle Ap sprung center + billet flywheel, works fine takes a bit of getting used to, they have less feel (used car for work city and country driving) can cause damage to flywheel, and easier to damage box as power can be transmitted with more of a bang. Most rally/race cars use paddle cluthes. You can also get 5 or 6 paddle cluthes which are less severe, stay away from 3 paddle sti clutch it would be ideal for drag racing, terrible for the road and hard on your gearbox, diff etc.
What ever u use stick with the well known brands eg.Ap...etc as u can have them rebuilt + u have better chance with warranty.
keep away from unheard of junk sold by the 'snake oil' merchants

Trout

iTrader: (1)

My (limited) experience of a paddle clutch was to drive a Lateral Performance car. This was after it had been tested at Elvington and was given a harsh workout!

On the road, including in traffic, it was rarely different to the AP clutch in my own car (non-paddle). There was little of the vicious stutter I was expecting and I suspect this may be a lot to do with Morays comments.

Personally I have opted for this option for what will be a daily driver in traffic. I think my driving style may need to change a tad - but not much based on my own experiences of this clutch.

Rannoch