Doing a quick check of all my components over a long break in the race action. i was thinking of changing springs in my clutch, so tore it apart. I’m brand new to karting so i’m unsure of how the shoes are suppose to look after use. i feel like they are super shiny? should these be replaced, or are these normal wear on the shoes.
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Hey welcome to the forums @Svt240sx
What kind of motor is this running on? Shiny isn’t necessarily good, but the more uniform the pattern is across the pads, the better.
This is on a lo206. With about 5 hours on it.
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TBH it doesn’t look too bad at all. It’s a bit dirty inside, but you’ve got a reasonable contact area there. You could scuff it if you wanted to, but if its working well I’d say leave it well alone and just change the springs if you are concerned about the.
Main thing is that the engagement is happening when you want it to on a consistent basis. For a black slide 206, somewhere around 3400-3600 RPM seems to be the sweet spot. Main thing to look for is not to set the engagement speed excessively high as all you end up doing is generating heat, rather than accelerating the kart.
For most 206 applications, the clutch mainly comes into play if you’re doing crawling/standing starts or have a track config that has a really long straight and a very tight corner that necessitates some clutch slip to get optimum drive out of the tight turns.
One technique to test out engagement speeds that I’ve read about, but have yet to try, is the “Bathroom Scale Method”. Basically put a bathroom scale against the wall and have the kart depress the scale. Try different engagement speeds (And maybe even some carb float settings), note the results of each test and see what you uncover.
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Thanks for all of the insight! This is my first year racing so its a big learning experience. Working on not only my driving but making sure i keep up with my kart and understanding the things that is does. I will be playing with some of the things that you have mentioned over the next few weeks during practice.
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No worries. Thinking more about it, since you’re somewhat new…just get the thing running well and focus on getting your driving down and understanding chassis setup.
If you have a datalogger, I can point you to a great series of videos that @DavinRS did that can help you use it to improve your times.
With the stinger clutch this to me looks normal. After every event I take mine off and clean. I have another clutch that went about 4 events without cleaning and way worse then that. Once cleaned install back on and had no problem. I dig out all the material in is the grooves and scuff the drum with 80 grit paper. Once done wipe out any dust and use a thin layer of wd-40 on the drum as well as needle bearings. Here is some pics of before and after 
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Can you link the data logging article?
It’s a series of videos on YouTube
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