New Lauterbacher 3-shoe Clutch Review

[DemonRC]

I installed the new Lauterbacher 3 shoe today and took it apart to figure out how this thing actually worked. It's a work of art and I'd hate to cover it up under the clutch bell. It's also built totally different from the Lauterbacher and Elcon 4 shoe. Instead of springs pushing the shoes inward it uses a spring loaded pressure plate to put pressure on the face plate pushing the shoes inward. You can see that the shoes and the front/rear plates are ramped. This is a similar to proven design taken from some 1/8 racing clutches. For example, Kyosho and Werks Racing clutches. The advantage to this is that any adjustment you make, via the center nut, will produce equal resistance to each shoe. This was always a PITA with my Elcon 4 shoe because you have to count screw turns on each shoe to make sure you have equal adjustment on each show. You don't want one shoe engaging before the others. I've had 1 spring go soft in my Elcon and I never knew about it untill I saw that 1 shoe was totally worn while the others still looked new. With this new 3 shoe design you don't have to worry about that. As far as performance goes, it performs just as good as the Elcon or Lauterbacher 4 shoe but with extra perks.


Pros:


1) Lighter than the Elcon or Lauterbacher 4 shoe. I'd guestimate it's dam near 1/2 the weight of the stock setup (2x shoes, 2x 10mm bolts, 2x washers, and clutch mount)


2) Equal shoe resistance


3) Does not lose it's adjustment


Cons:


Will cost you your left nut


Does not come with the adjustment tool, however, it is easily adjusted with needle nose pliers.

 

[satttheman]

where did you pick this up from??? i want one!!!

 

[csp1971]

So you have to have the clutch bell off to adjust, right?

 

[DemonRC]

where did you pick this up from??? i want one!!!

http://www.davesmotors.com/s.nl/c.885035/n.1/it.A/id.6429/.f

So you have to have the clutch bell off to adjust, right?

Ya because the adjustment is done from the center knob on the clutch face. It wasn't a big deal for me to make 3 adjustments on mine since the rampage engine is easy to remove. I prolly spent an hour total getting the clutch to where I wanted it. I would guess I spent half of it driving and half of it wrenching.

 

[csp1971]

Maybe it'll be a "Dave's sale of the day" in the near future!


That's a nice clutch for sure.

 

[DemonRC]

I got an important update in the Lauterbacher 3 shoe. I will be contacting DDM on Monday for a credit or exchange for parts. The clutch did not hold up to my Rampage. The shoes are almost gone and there's nothing but white dust all over the place.


Basically the problem was it was slipping alot. The stock setting worked fine for the first test run. It seemed a little high so I pulled the engine to loosen the adj bolt. That's when I noticed a little white dust. I figured it was just breakin in (I remember my elcon did this the first time I ran it). So I loosened the adj nut and tried again. This time it engaged too low. It was just like the 6k spring. I noticed my engine didn't have any bog from engaging at that RPM. It was because it was slipping slightly. When I pulled the engine again to raise the engament point there was a little more white dust. I adjusted it again to a little bit higher than 8k. After a couple dozen stop and go's around the cul-de-sac I pulled the engine agian. There was alot more white dust. I got about 25% shoe life left from not even a 1/4 tank of gas.

 

[kryptonite]

uhmmmm. what the HELLLL! what could have coused that? was your stock clutch bad or something. its hard to really scratch the clutch bell up, but is it really scratched inside. i feel for you man. that really bites and im hoping they do something for ya. i wanted the clutch you have, but was not happy with the price tag. im not sure what im going to do now. im in the midst of my TTruggy rebuild. most of my funds were going towards a clutch instead of a motor.. keep me posted so i know what to do. i'll check with moo to see how his is doing.. was going to order on monday/tuesday. i'll have to wait. thanx for the heads up.

 

[DemonRC]

I was using my brand spanking new stock clutch bell. I never ran with it cause I put the upgrade vented CB in before I ran my TT for the first time. You can see from the pics the CB turned colors. It got rather hot in there from just a few minutes of running around the street. Also take a look at the shoes from the first post compared to the one one below. They got about 25% life left which equivelates to about 10 minutes.

 

[fastlane]

I had a werks clutch on a SH 28 8port and never was able to get it right. I went through 5 sets of shoes before I said to hell with it and went back to the tryed and true.

 

[fastlane]

I am not much for that design at all.

 

[DemonRC]

I think they'll get it right on the V2 of the V2. Too bad I'll have something else by then.

 

[DemonRC]

Crap, I just got off the phone with DDM and they want me to send in the clutch and the clutchbell for testing. They said if they find a problem with it that it will be sent back to Lauterbacher under warrantee. I'm not all to happy about that. I wanted to send it back for exchange. I already did the testing and it doesn't grab properly unless you loosen the adj nut which forces it to engage at a much lower RPM than I want.

 

[roccos_van]

Moo can you tell me how many turns you do in from factory; my clutch did the exact same thing.


I did some searching and the clutch springs break in and have to be readjusted until after the first few tanks.


Thanks.

 

[Sucram]

guy on hbf is having similar dramas with the same clutch

 

[DemonRC]

Brad @ DMM sent me an email yesterday right after he received my trashed clutch and they are going to credit me for it. I'm going to pick up the 4 shoe.