I also run a McLeod "Soft Lok" with the aluminum flywheel and pressure ring in my 428 Fairmont, along with an older Jerico DR4, and in about 10 years, I still haven`t hurt the Jerico. Granted, I`m way below 675HP, let alone 850, also my car is fairly light, 3100 lbs with my fat ass behind the wheel. My pressure plate has a base pressure of 280 lbs, & I normally run about 3 turns of static on top of the base pressure. Since I can`t remove my Lakewood scattershield in the car, I haven`t really played with counterweight at all, as I`m paranoid about dropping the nuts and spacers inside the can, going thru the fork hole. Maybe some of you faster guys can correct me, but since I usually shift at 6200 rpm, and launch fairly close to that, I didn`t think that the differance between static and centrifugal would be very much. Am I wrong? I normally run the clutch in the Fairmont a little stiffer than maybe I should, but the car normally hooks pretty good, and doesn`t slip in high gear. Plus by running it a bit stiffer, I can go a few races without adjusting the pressure. Since my car is basically a bracket car, it`s not unusual to have to make 3 runs in 15-20 minutes if I make it to the later rounds. The semi finals are a bad time to find that you need to add 1/4 -1/2 turn of clutch when they want all finalists back to the staging lanes right away! Jeff Colvert, have you ever tried Rob Youngbloods "Advanced Clutches"? My buddy tried some of his ideas in his old SS/F Chevelle, which was a very low pressure, thicker heat shield affair. I worked fine, but required much more maintenace the the Mcleod stuff.
Dale, as per Peters SS/A Cuda, are you sure that he has the heavy duty Jerico in there? I know that he was running a G Force not too long ago in it, after busting hid Jerico`s pretty regularily.
In my M/S 302 85 Mustang, I normally would run a Soft Lok as well, but I found that in that low power situation, a heavier steel flywheel works better. With the Mustangs Soft Lok needing a freshen up, last year I installed a sprung hub sintered iron McLeod disc, along with a non adjustablre McLeod diaphram pressure plate. It` s pretty agressive, but with such low power, it hasn`t hurt anything yet.
428 powered Fairmont drag car, Best ET:10.03@132.11MPH, best 60 ft: 1.29
59 Meteor 2 dr. sedan 332, Ford O Matic
74 F350 ramp truck 390 4speed
