Verus Engineering Billet Clutch Fork and Pivot

[Gords_zenith]

Originally Posted by VeloxEric

Alright, 3D printed prototype proves fitment. Few small changes to make it even nicer and it's ready to be made. Discussing with machine shops now to try and bring you guys the best price.















Before it's asked, yes... everything is prettier in pink

So weird, I literally just thought about it being made of a billet material perhaps T7076 aircraft aluminum. Great minds think a like....😎
Nice job though!

[VerusEric]

Originally Posted by Gords_zenith

So weird, I literally just thought about it being made of a billet material perhaps T7076 aircraft aluminum. Great minds think a like....😎
Nice job though!

Thanks.

Opted for a steel due to the life this part will see. The thousands upon thousands of clutch presses would fatigue aluminum where steel has an endurance limit which we are staying above . Though I'm sure with a reasonable pressure plate and not the 1000 lb pressure plate I simulated, an aluminum unit could do just fine.

Since the OEM units are breaking, figured rather over build it and take the weight penalty.

[Drakiv]

Originally Posted by VeloxEric

Thanks.

Opted for a steel due to the life this part will see. The thousands upon thousands of clutch presses would fatigue aluminum where steel has an endurance limit which we are staying above . Though I'm sure with a reasonable pressure plate and not the 1000 lb pressure plate I simulated, an aluminum unit could do just fine.

Since the OEM units are breaking, figured rather over build it and take the weight penalty.

Couldnt agree more, and thats why you are the man, and why so many people love your company and quality parts!

[R2RO]

Might be interested in this as a back up unit for my custom reinforced stock fork. It sucks that Design Craft Fab basically is ignoring everyone contacting him for a fork, that's why I had evasive Motorsports just reinforce a spare one I had laying around.

Heres some photos of it:

[Knshro13]

Really? I just spoke to Gary at DesignCraft and he said the initial batch he had made did not work so he was working on a new batch of 20. I have one of his prototypes thats been on my car with an OS twin plate for about 10,000miles. not a single issue so far.

I have his direct contact. Ill ask again.


But cool to see someone else taking the initiative to make something.

[VerusEric]

Originally Posted by Knshro13

Really? I just spoke to Gary at DesignCraft and he said the initial batch he had made did not work so he was working on a new batch of 20. I have one of his prototypes thats been on my car with an OS twin plate for about 10,000miles. not a single issue so far.

I have his direct contact. Ill ask again.


But cool to see someone else taking the initiative to make something.

I spoke to Kahlee, who was the original person who had Garry make this for him, via e-mail three days ago and his response was, "Just talked to Garry about the fork... He said he just made that for me, and just so happen I told gush about it and he also made him one.. I don't know who else got it but he will NOT be making any more in the near future..." Direct quote from the e-mail, it was second hand though but no reason for Kar to lie to me.

Regardless, I pulled the trigger on 30, so if he does make them, you guys will have two choices.

Overall the unit I designed is 33% thicker in wall thickness over OEM, solid in a lot of it, and made from 4140 which is some pretty strong steel.

[Drakiv]

yeah choices are nice but I already made mine and I am buying one of yours! I can't wait.....

[Slidemybrz]

Interesting, i have no need for one of these at the moment as im still on OEM clutch, but i do plan on upgrading my clutch for drifting purposes and this would be a great upgrade to install while im in there anyway. Thumbs up for some quality R&D on a part commonly overlooked

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by VeloxEric

Thanks.

Opted for a steel due to the life this part will see. The thousands upon thousands of clutch presses would fatigue aluminum where steel has an endurance limit which we are staying above . Though I'm sure with a reasonable pressure plate and not the 1000 lb pressure plate I simulated, an aluminum unit could do just fine.

Since the OEM units are breaking, figured rather over build it and take the weight penalty.

Sorry for a partial thread jack, but you say you chose steel for this part because of duty cycle.........yet the Lower Rear Control arms you make are aluminum?

Is the clutch fork really seeing that much more force/use than the rear suspension?

[VerusEric]

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

Sorry for a partial thread jack, but you say you chose steel for this part because of duty cycle.........yet the Lower Rear Control arms you make are aluminum?

Is the clutch fork really seeing that much more force/use than the rear suspension?

In the rear LCA thread we state the LCA has a life expectancy of the car. The rear LCA can see ~46,000 3.5G bump loads before it reaches its fatigue limit and begins to deform/degrade. It never fully broke, but it was deforming more than the limit we set on the machine which meant it was past it's yield strength.

What is 46,000 3.5G bump loads? That is a car with extremely sticky rubber (lets say 295-325 slicks), with extremely large aero (1000+ lbs of downforce), with extremely hard suspension (12+k spring rate), hitting a racing curb full on, forty-six thousand times. We estimated this to be 5-10 years of use for some of the most dedicated time attack guys.

I could see a clutch being pressed 50,000 - 150,000 times in a year easily. So yes, I do see the clutch fork seeing a high stress load more often than the rear suspension. Could I have designed a unit that would take the load and last 1 million cycles out of aluminum? Yes. However, to me, it just makes sense to make it from a chormoly, ensure it is under the endurance limit, and not think twice about it.

The LCA unit had a goal of being significantly lighter than OEM. This unit weights approximately 7 oz more, it just doesn't seem worth it to me to try aluminum and have them break in 5 years because I guessed incorrectly at how many times a clutch is pressed in a year. Hope that explains it.

[Northwest86]

What grade of 4140 will you be using out of curiosity. Pre-Hard, Annealed etc. Just curious as thats the kind of stuff I do and I'm always interested in seeing that kind of info. Just like the Control arms I think I spent way more time thinking out tool paths and looking at the milling surface finishes than most people would.

I do love 4140 though. Beautiful to work with. After working with 1045 and 4140 for almost every job I do, any time I go back to a 1018 mild steel its rather depressing. Love the surface finishes you can get so easily.

[VerusEric]

Originally Posted by Northwest86

What grade of 4140 will you be using out of curiosity. Pre-Hard, Annealed etc. Just curious as thats the kind of stuff I do and I'm always interested in seeing that kind of info. Just like the Control arms I think I spent way more time thinking out tool paths and looking at the milling surface finishes than most people would.

I do love 4140 though. Beautiful to work with. After working with 1045 and 4140 for almost every job I do, any time I go back to a 1018 mild steel its rather depressing. Love the surface finishes you can get so easily.

Annealed gets us where we need to be yield strength wise, no need to add cost for machining pre-hardened.

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by VeloxEric

In the rear LCA thread we state the LCA has a life expectancy of the car. The rear LCA can see ~46,000 3.5G bump loads before it reaches its fatigue limit and begins to deform/degrade. It never fully broke, but it was deforming more than the limit we set on the machine which meant it was past it's yield strength.

What is 46,000 3.5G bump loads? That is a car with extremely sticky rubber (lets say 295-325 slicks), with extremely large aero (1000+ lbs of downforce), with extremely hard suspension (12+k spring rate), hitting a racing curb full on, forty-six thousand times. We estimated this to be 5-10 years of use for some of the most dedicated time attack guys.

I could see a clutch being pressed 50,000 - 150,000 times in a year easily. So yes, I do see the clutch fork seeing a high stress load more often than the rear suspension. Could I have designed a unit that would take the load and last 1 million cycles out of aluminum? Yes. However, to me, it just makes sense to make it from a chormoly, ensure it is under the endurance limit, and not think twice about it.

The LCA unit had a goal of being significantly lighter than OEM. This unit weights approximately 7 oz more, it just doesn't seem worth it to me to try aluminum and have them break in 5 years because I guessed incorrectly at how many times a clutch is pressed in a year. Hope that explains it.

I was looking at the FT86SF link for the sale of your product. It mentions nothing of the sort (even though track guys should understand wheels/suspension/etc are wear items).

I wasn't trying to make some veiled dig at your product, it was an honest question regarding duty cycles and work hardening.

[VerusEric]

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

I was looking at the FT86SF link for the sale of your product. It mentions nothing of the sort (even though track guys should understand wheels/suspension/etc are wear items).

I wasn't trying to make some veiled dig at your product, it was an honest question regarding duty cycles and work hardening.

I didn't take it as a dig at the product. I answered your question as directly as I could with as much understanding as I could.

It is in the development thread:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=114

It is in our blog post:
http://www.velox-motorsports.com/#!F...f26832893a5212

It isn't on the sales pages because we don't feel it is something to be concerned about as it should easily last the life of the car for everyone that isn't go full race car, and even those guys should get 50,000 cycles out of them, which could be 5 years, or 10, or even 20.

*The LCA deformed at ~46k cycles at 3.5G bump load with a material that was 25% weaker than what we went to production with as well. We don't know where the production units end up fatigue wise but having 25% higher yield strength put any residing worries at bay for us.*

Let me know if you have any other questions.