All UTV's My STM Rage 6 failed on me, dammit!

[megadesertdiesel]

420 miles and one year of use in Glamis . I blow the dust out after each trip to the dunes and tap off the sand on my intake screen a couple times each trip.

I was duning and heard the clutch making a little more noise than normal so I limped it back to camp and pulled the cover to inspect.

First I found some holes in my clutch cover that were popped from the inside out. Then I noticed one sheared off bolt at the secondary weight arms rollers. I also found most of the rollers and slides are worn.

Why does this happen? I remember Reid mentioning something about bolts breaking off but the bolt that broke on my unit is supported on both sides and does not look like it takes a lot of load.

well I guess I need to start trying to contact Airdam. The chitty part is I have a trip planned in two weeks.

 

[Blue Coyote]

Join the club...
At least your spider did not explode - that really makes a mess.
You may be able to get away with replacing all the roller hardware and the spider wear buttons if the steel spider did not dig into the sheave much. But IIRC you have to remove the spider (that big nut) to get to them. The outer sheave while scarred up should be fine.
I feel your pain - and went back to the stock primary.

 

[the stripping shop]

we have good luck with dirty dawg/ team industries clutch. It looks and is a Polaris clutch gives it a very good bottom end works better then stock and cv-tech style. I am not talking shit but adam from air dam is a very hard guy to contact or get a hold of. We have his cv-tech clutch on one of the maverick. it works better then stock but not as good as team industries/dirty dawg.

 

[megadesertdiesel]

i am happy with my Rage 6 and want to rebuild it, with some knowledge of why this happened and how to prevent it.

I sent some pics in to STM and hope to talk with them today.

 

[sand shark]

Mike - sorry to hear you clutch took a s---! It seems these clutches just do not last as long. You are not the only one I have heard of dealing with wear problems. Maybe that is the reason many of the desert race guys go with the stock set up.

Maybe fine bits of sand are getting in there and causing the wear. Or maybe the the material they use to make the weights can not handle the heat generated in the clutch.

I would look at ordering your weights and parts from some other vendor. Airdam seems to be a tough guy to get a hold of.

You do have KMS near you that can probably help.

 

[megadesertdiesel]

i just talked to //Airdam Adam and he has all the parts needed and will fix it as soon as i can get it to him.

boxing it up and firing it off to MS right now. That great news, i really didnt want to drive the T4 for my next trip.

 

[sand shark]

i just talked to //Airdam Adam and he has all the parts needed and will fix it as soon as i can get it to him.

boxing it up and firing it off to MS right now. That great news, i really didnt want to drive the T4 for my next trip.

Why not it will be faster than half the Rhinos! LMAO!

Good news that you were able to get a hold of Adam. Did he give you any insight as why the parts were worn?

 

[megadesertdiesel]

Why not it will be faster than half the Rhinos! LMAO!

Good news that you were able to get a hold of Adam. Did he give you any insight as why the parts were worn?

no info, he will let me know when he gets it wednesday.

 

[BiggJim]

Looks pretty normal.

 

[megadesertdiesel]

Looks pretty normal.

normal for 420 miles?

 

[BiggJim]

normal for 420 miles?

Thats about all we got out of ours with the steel spider. I am not 100% sure but they had to do something different when the use a steel spider and out "puck, pads, or whatever" broke and wore quickly.

 

[sand shark]

That seems like not much use out of a rather expensive clutch.

 

[warlock]

We had a few STM Rage 3 clutches wear out parts and start making noise in just 2 weekends out and the Guys at STM acted like we were thrashing them some how, and they acted like there shit is so great there is no way that there clutches would be having problem unless it was something we caused.
We still have a couple of Rage 6 clutches and some Roller secondarys laying around that are brand new.

 

[badassmav]

Even though the pivot bolts for the weighted arm are loaded in double shear, on our clutch, the area of the bolt where the shank meets the threads fell in between the two shear tabs. Acceptable when it is happening to a 1/2" diameter, 180,000 psi tensile shock bolt, but NOT acceptable in the application of a primary clutch that can get up to 3 or 400 degrees, and introduces a seemingly infinite amount of cycles in a short period of time.

 

[megadesertdiesel]

Even though the pivot bolts for the weighted arm are loaded in double shear, on our clutch, the area of the bolt where the shank meets the threads fell in between the two shear tabs. Acceptable when it is happening to a 1/2" diameter, 180,000 psi tensile shock bolt, but NOT acceptable in the application of a primary clutch that can get up to 3 or 400 degrees, and introduces a seemingly infinite amount of cycles in a short period of time.

Should i have some bolts made so the threads are just where the nuts are? Sounds like cheap insurance.

 

[badassmav]

Should i have some bolts made so the threads are just where the nuts are? Sounds like cheap insurance.

You should be able to find AN bolts at your local surplus store that have exactly the shank length you need to meet your requirements. If not, Aircraft spruce co. in Nor. Cal. sells AN hardware by the bolt. Ultimately, unless the bolt needs to exert a clamping force onto the shear tabs through which it passes, you should get the length of the bolt so the nut bottoms out on the thread just as the bolt begins to exert clamping force on the tabs. Use shim washers under the head of the bolt if necessary to set the clamping force when the nut bottoms out on the thread.

 

[///Airdam Clutches]

i already have the bolts you need. shoulder bolts i already upgrade them when i rebuild a primary. dont sweat it your clutch is in good hands.

how did it run before it came apart? just wondering about the calibrations and is there any changes that need to be made while its torn apart?

 

[badassmav]

Adam to the rescue! You're in good hands now, so I'll just get back to my beer.

 

[500 MIKE]

Wish I had a beer right now

 

[megadesertdiesel]

i already have the bolts you need. shoulder bolts i already upgrade them when i rebuild a primary. dont sweat it your clutch is in good hands.

how did it run before it came apart? just wondering about the calibrations and is there any changes that need to be made while its torn apart?

it ran PERFECT!!!!! 8050 RPM pulling up hill , you nailed the tune the first time. the bad part is i dont know what washers were on the end of the little arms and now they are missing.


Thanks //Airdam i hope you can fix it up and fire it back to me before thursday afternoon next weeek.