Gearbox Clutch

[horsepower 24]

Any of you guys run a clutch on your C gearbox? Sounds like a good thing other than trying to prop start but dont know a thing about them.I dont really have an extra 500.00 to throw away but if it is something that a guy should get then now would be the time to do it as I dont have my engine permanently mounted yet. Thanks Randy

[akflyer 1427]

Any of you guys run a clutch on your C gearbox? Sounds like a good thing other than trying to prop start but dont know a thing about them.I dont really have an extra 500.00 to throw away but if it is something that a guy should get then now would be the time to do it as I dont have my engine permanently mounted yet. Thanks Randy

AKFLYERBOB and myself are running them. I love it for cold starts or warming up on floats. The engine starts and idles MUCH better without having to get that prop swinging. Idle is rock solid at 1500 RPM. The down side is you cant stop the prop in the even of an engine out so the glide suffers alot.

Having a dead battery out in the middle of nowhere is another big issue, but so far I have not had any troubles. You can change out to the clutch real easy even if the engine is mounted so it is something you can upgrade to real easy later on if you want to.

[Gerry Visel 4]

I did not have one on my Challenger's 503, and was constantly replacing starter brushes.  If the battery was at all down, the inertia load from trying to swing the prop caused load on the starter to burn out brush leads.  
My new Avid's 582 has a clutch, and I was a bit worried about the starter location, buried in a box cut through the firewall, where I'd need to pull the engine to fix it.  The clutch in the gearbox almost completely addresses that, as starts were like starting my lawnmower.  By removing the prop inertia load during engine start, it just starts and runs.
But I was able to get home more than once with the Challenger by hand propping, which I cannot do with this puppy.

Gerry Visel