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Just stripped an engine down for a mate and the top cork has the tabs bent down to fit in the sprocket is there a reason some builders do this? , it's a standard 4 plate surf lex corks with 1.5 steels LI set up with thimble

Just read about this last night in Stickys book.

Sometimes (esp with a 5 plate clutch) the stack height of all the steel and cork plates can 'just' exceed the depth of the slots in the clutch basket and the top plate could slip out of the slots themselves. the trick is to bend the corners down of the top plate 'tabs' to reduce the risk of this happening.
As far as I know, a standard clutch stack will simply drop-in, no need to bend anything.

Graham.

911hillclimber wrote:Just read about this last night in Stickys book.

Sometimes (esp with a 5 plate clutch) the stack height of all the steel and cork plates can 'just' exceed the depth of the slots in the clutch basket and the top plate could slip out of the slots themselves. the trick is to bend the corners down of the top plate 'tabs' to reduce the risk of this happening.
As far as I know, a standard clutch stack will simply drop-in, no need to bend anything.

Graham.

Thanks that's why I'm asking it is a 4 plate

If you fit one of the aftermarket thin top steels then even on a 4-plate you can find that the top cork's tabs are very close to riding over the basket and doing a good job of machining it down! With standard Surflex 4-plate corks often being 'fatter' than they should, fitting a thinner top steel or thinner steels (in the stack) is a common fix to get the space necessary for separation and correct clutch function.

I have had to bend top cork tabs for just such a fix when assembling motors.

Adam

Good to know as I'm fitting my replacement 4 plate clutch tomorrow.