Oh shift, Cause of shifting woes is quite apparent Options

[vintage914racer]

This past weekend I took my 914-6 vintage racer to the Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival at Road America. My car ran great up to the final feature race on Sunday. Long story short, I was running up front in fourth behind a couple high-budget, blazing fast 911s when my clutch pedal went to the floor while downshifting in a heavy braking zone. I was able to pull it back and regain normal operation for a lap or two when it happened again and sidelined me for the rest of the race.



Well, tonight I pulled the tranny to assess the damage and the problem is clear -- a blown clutch. It now sits on my bench in three pieces.



I have a few questions for the wrenches wiser than me on these forums:

1) Should I be concerned about some underlying issue causing the failure?
2) Is it worth upgrading to a lightened flywheel and racing clutch kit? My understanding is these early flywheels are pretty light to begin with. For reference, the car is running a 2.5l six putting out somewhere around 250hp.
3) Given the state of the clutch and what was spinning around on the flywheel, is it reasonable to think the current can be resurfaced, or am I destined for a new flywheel?

Any and all input would be appreciated.

[vintage914racer]

Yep, that would do it

Just had the same thing happen to me.... look at my post in the Paddock section. Call Kennedy... get a proper racing puck clutch with 901 splines and the spring hub. They shipped one to me last week via priority mail... had it here across the country at noon of second day.

I will investigate. Does Kennedy provide the pressure plate as well, or just the clutch?

more flywheel options that work well on race 901's
the aluminum 5.5 has proven much more robust than the steel 5.5 which I broke

the 901's become NOT cost effective at 200hp on the track
the annual rebuilds... Cooling my 901 has so far doubled the life expectancy for high RPM use.

I hear you. The lesser built engines I used to run over the years played nicer with the trans. I just added cooling this season after I found I was cooking the fluid. Have to get the stack rebuilt again this winter...

Who makes the setup you have, Brant?

I’ve had my eye on the JB Racing setup. Seems to have a good reputation.

Looks like there’s been a few failures with the Patrick lightweight flywheel kit