Vincent twin clutch
- Thread starter Goffy998
- Start date
I was talking to Stu Spalding at the weekend, he has done a few mods to his standard clutch and after a year of use it still works well.
He has offered to do the same mods to mine, which I may take him up on, although his mods don't require having the complete unit, I think he would be happy enough to tackle the whole thing.
He doesn't do email, but I will send you over his phone number.
He has offered to do the same mods to mine, which I may take him up on, although his mods don't require having the complete unit, I think he would be happy enough to tackle the whole thing.
He doesn't do email, but I will send you over his phone number.
I had my V3 working reasonably well for a while with thin synthetic oil, but it always dragged slightly. After several hundred miles of this it started slipping. I cleaned off & washed the plates, heated them with a hot air gun & boiled them in washing powder to try & remove all traces of the synthetic oil. Now with the lightest dino oil I can find & even heavier springs fitted it now slips & drags. Pushrod adjustment is OK. I don't want to waste more money on new plates just to get back to the unsatisfactory position I was in before so I thought I'd try something revolutionary & fit a Vincent clutch. I spent a lot of time with this before & although the primary clutch worked perfectly I couldn't get the shoes to disengage properly.
The Vincent clutch works just fine, if it is free from oil, if the primary plate lifts off square, if the plunger springs are adjusted properly and not broken, if the plunger bores are not excessively worn, if the central bush C17 and the C20 are running nice and free and as Trevor posted, if there is sufficient end float to cater for thermal expansion, if the pivots in the shoes are not worn, (they can be bushed back to standard if they are), decent clutch linings, all of this work can be done by Bob Culver who I believe has the original factory test jig once owned by Furness and Searle, I don't know if it is a valid point, but it was discussed at the technical discussion sessions in Italy, the Vincent clutch lifting mechanism was only designed to provide clearance for one friction plate not five or six, but that would only account for clutch drag not slip, oh yes and don't forget the six little timing chest washers under the inner pressure plate.
The Vincent clutch just needs good unworn components especially the links Ben has done a couple this year and I think (unless the belt drive option takes a real hold on me) it convinced me that a standard clutch is not a bad option. If you do have a multiplate the back to front adjuster and nut is a must we ran a multiplate on the Egli racer (Newby) and it never gave any problems.
There are several versions of the v3. If you have problems then contact Neal and he will sort it. I have had a V3 for over 10 years and run it dry but once a year I clean and oil the friction plates in ATF. Drip dry the plates and assemble. Sometimes it slips at full throttle for a few minutes after servicing but then good for several thousand kms.