The past few years there's been many articles and ads in several of magazines touting all the wonderful benefits of using titanium springs, including ti cluctch springs. There's an article on p. 16 in the latest (Oct/Nov 2005) SnowTech that seems to indicate otherwise:
"... but feedback from the field indicates they simply do not last when placed under torsional vibration loads (as found in clutches). The springs are wearing away the inner coils at the ends of the springs, as evidenced by a little pil of titanium dust down in the belly pans. Primary springs collapse the ends of the spring first, and due to the torsional vibration loads the springs are wearing away the coils where the contact is occurring. The wear can be witnessed on springs afterr only 500 miles or so. We have springs with these flat spots on the coils."
WHAT IS UP WITH THIS????? After ALL the hype we've heard; after all the mag articles; after all the ads... frankly, I'm not too sure at this point just how much trust to put in that article. Can anyone here "in the know" shed a little more light on this article and/or the claims being made?
I think we've all seen clutch springs that develop vibration induced flat wear spots, as described above, but are these ti springs wearing to the point of critical failure, or what???
My main question at this point is, are the rates of these flat-spot-worn springs being affected in any way whatsoever? Will they still perform as good (or better than) and/or last as long (or longer than) the ol' shot-peened chrome silicon wire springs?
In short, I installed a ti drive clutch springs for the long-term durability and consistancy -- can I still expect this, or has all of a sudden in just a few quick seasons, the ti clutch springs proven inferior to the old chrome silicon springs we've been using for decades???
Thanks for any and all additional productive feedback on this topic. -- Roy
"... but feedback from the field indicates they simply do not last when placed under torsional vibration loads (as found in clutches). The springs are wearing away the inner coils at the ends of the springs, as evidenced by a little pil of titanium dust down in the belly pans. Primary springs collapse the ends of the spring first, and due to the torsional vibration loads the springs are wearing away the coils where the contact is occurring. The wear can be witnessed on springs afterr only 500 miles or so. We have springs with these flat spots on the coils."
WHAT IS UP WITH THIS????? After ALL the hype we've heard; after all the mag articles; after all the ads... frankly, I'm not too sure at this point just how much trust to put in that article. Can anyone here "in the know" shed a little more light on this article and/or the claims being made?
I think we've all seen clutch springs that develop vibration induced flat wear spots, as described above, but are these ti springs wearing to the point of critical failure, or what???
My main question at this point is, are the rates of these flat-spot-worn springs being affected in any way whatsoever? Will they still perform as good (or better than) and/or last as long (or longer than) the ol' shot-peened chrome silicon wire springs?
In short, I installed a ti drive clutch springs for the long-term durability and consistancy -- can I still expect this, or has all of a sudden in just a few quick seasons, the ti clutch springs proven inferior to the old chrome silicon springs we've been using for decades???
Thanks for any and all additional productive feedback on this topic. -- Roy
