clutch balancing

That's a no brainer. if you plan to balance and have him next door then yes, money well spent. these machines eat clutches. poorly balanced clutches eat machines.

If you are next door take him both clutches. He can clean up secondary as well.

If I lived next door to IndyDan I'd have to start an account with him.

14RMK144 said:

Never balanced primary Clutch in the past.
Just got a 18 Axys 600 thinking about balancing the clutch. Indy Specialties charges 150 to balance new clutch, and they are basically next door to me so don't even need to ship .
MONEY WELL SPENT?
Love to hear what people think.

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Dan does a great job and stands behind his product

I have him work his magic on everything I own. I Won't start an engine or run a clutch until he blueprints and balances it, and I'm in Alaska.

If anyone has to ship there clutches to be balanced we are more than happy to balance them..We are in Indianapolis (race capital of the world) we charge $75.00 plus shipping. We provide a sheet that tells you how your clutch was before and after we balance it...We use a high tech crank balancing machine we had converted into doing snowmobile clutches.

We do hundreds a year!!

TJ Patrick
Patrick Custom Carbon

Murph said:

Money well spent.

I'm biased, I'm an Indy Specialties dealer in CA, but I have nothing to gain by telling you to drive it on over. Drive over and check out their facility.

Call Jon or Dan and tell them Murph sent you

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I'll second that

Indy Dan is the only way to go!

The rest are just hacks, and their pricing proves my point.

There is no way they clean the clutch, much less disassemble and balance as individual components (like it should be) nor check it's condition before or after balancing; with a price point under $100.

Dan is a straight up guy and really serviceminded.

Will buy from him more times soon.

Well I don't like being called a hack..Let me explain how and why we balance clutches. We balance your clutch as you run it, all together less clutch weights. Our balancer spins to 1500 RPM for balancing.. This is like your car tires, remember when they used a bubble?? Now they spin them as you run them. We use a 25K balancing machine with infer-red technology..Your standard stock Polaris clutch is anywhere from 35-65 Lbs out of balance at 8000 RPM..We get it down to under 5 lbs..

I have been in all forums of racing..I have worked on and raced them myself for years, (snowmobiles) since 1975, I am not new to this...We can repair and change shims to any clutch.. I am not here to argue, but calling someone a hack with out knowing, how and why, is out of line.

TJ

Balancing it as a complete unit is fine if you never change belts or rebuild or re-shim it for different weight profiles. If you do it is out of balance again. Hence my use of the word Hack. A guy with a background in racing should want to give his customer what a racer would want for the ultimate performance gain. Not a bargain basement job that is only good for the short term.


I would bet, most aren't shimmed correctly for belt width nor weight profile when you receive them. So as soon as that is re-shimmed to be correct your balance job (by doing it as a unit) needs to be redone again.

I could say the same thing about balancing all the parts separate on a bubble balancer. No way they are exact in balance! So you pout 4 pcs together and expect them all to be perfect is not a perfect scenario..I can promise and guarantee we can get the clutches closer to perfect balance than a bubble balancer. We also remove weight from the clutch not add weight to balance, thus making it lighter not heavier! Yes if and when you re-shim your clutch it can change. I have done it with .010 to .050 the most it changes at .050 is 12-15 lbs of balance. Now the stock clutch is 35-60 lbs out of balance from the factory. I would have to ask just how many really change there shim, maybe some racers? Most don't carry the clutch toll to take them apart. I am sure that some people do a good job of balancing clutches, but to say we do it wrong and doing like a hack just shows lack of knowledge....

Indy Specialties does not use a bubble "static" balancer. All the individual parts are "Dynamically" spin balanced, after being cleaned, and any necessary machine work done (I.E. sheaves trued, etc.).

You may have got lucky on a clutch or two shimming them 0.050" and still better than the factory balance after balancing as a unit. That is not the normal outcome.

Your way is not wrong and I never said it was "wrong". IMO less than Ideal, but then I am performance oriented; shim for belt clearance, weight profile changes, and want the most versatile service for my needs.

It comes down to you get what you pay for; and for the money I'll continue to send mine to Indy Specialties, because it is done they way I would do it and want it done, and you are getting far more than just a "Balance" job. It is essentially a blueprinted clutch with the sheaves trued, cleaned, re-built, re-shimmed, individually balanced, etc. A better value for my money (I want the work / service to cost more than the postage).

I am a old school manual machinist, I've dynamically balanced a lot of things in my life. Claiming I possess a lack of knowledge does not fly; I don't know it all, but I'm getting there.

Had my clutch Balanced by Dave at Cascade great to deal with.

So here we go. A real computer controlled dynamic balancing machine will cost 20-25K. Then set it up with all the required tools and mandrels for all the different clutches. Then we have the different methods of balancing. I don't balance the same way Dan does however its not my job to question his experience. If he has perfected a method that works for him, which he has, that is great. Dan produced a document on SW a few years ago about what it took to balance a clutch. How true it is was and still is. So let review the process that I use and any reputable shop will use.
First receive box with clutch in it.
Unpack, tag.
Do pre inspection of basic condition, belt to sheave clearance, disassemble clutch, check button condition, spring condition (with a hydraulic spring pressure tester), and check bushing tolerance, and log all the data on a work card.
If dirty.....which 90% are, we disassemble and clean all the individual parts via media soda blasting or other methods.
The spider nut and spider require over 300 ft lbs of torque to remove which requires special tools and fixtures for each manufacture.
Then the sheaves are trued on a lathe and reassembled to correct the belt to sheave clearance we checked earlier. (I like less than .010")
We then correct the fly weights to make sure they are the same weight so we are not balancing the clutch to correct a fly weight imperfection. Its not uncommon to find weights that are stamped 64 to be 64.5 or more. If you change your weights after balance and you scale the new weights and make then all the same you will not impact the balance dramatically.
After all this we are ready to put the clutch on the balancing machine.
We balance all clutch's with dual plane method to within less than 1 gram per plane. Most will end up at .5 g in. or less per plane. Due to the fact there are moving parts in a clutch with tolerance it not likely to get the clutch to 0.00 balance. Just rotate the primary spring in the pocket and it will effect the balance.
Once completed and balance report is printed out we re-pack clutch for shipping, print out a shipping label and invoice and call customer for payment.
In closing it's hard to listen to people talk about who's the Best or Cheapest. If I had to make a living balancing clutch's only I would have been gone years ago. Pick a company you are comfortable with and have some history and go with them. There are three company's on this post. Anyone of them will do a great job for you. If you have your clutch's balanced and serviced you way ahead of many who just ride them until the crank seals, bearings and clutch have beat themselves to death. Service your clutch's and have a great season.

Wintertime said:

Had my clutch Balanced by Dave at Cascade great to deal with.

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I've had them do 2 of my clutches along with their clutch cover. Worth every penny.

On my 13 Pro, my belt went bad every 400 ish miles. Do you think if I would have balanced my clutch it would have prolonged belt life?

Are the AXYS's known to be hard on belts?