Topic: Clutch Question

[85Toyotar]

So what exactly is the advantage of having a higher rated clutch as in foot pounds. For example the kits marlin offers for the 81-88 4 cylinder are 1200 foot pounds and 1600 foot pounds. I own a 85 with 31 inch tires and I would like to know the difference in how it feels when driving on road since for the most part I daily drive it and want to turn it into a better weekend offroader. I am a noob when it comes to how parts work. Will the clutch engage at a different time? Will the pedal be super tough to push down? Will I need to upgrade parts? Or does it just come down to what size tires you run?

[Cheesemaker]

Its the clamping force that your reading.  I got the 1200#, thinking the 1600 would be too stiff on the pedal.  But my 1200# feels smoother than the OEM clutch.  I wouldn't to hesitate in getting the 1600#.  But either one is killer.  I run a 22RE, R151F trans, 23 spline tcase, 4.10 gears and 31's OG BFG mud terrains.  My clutch hooks up hard and easy.  I can hold the truck on a hill just feathering the clutch and not using the brakes.  I have been in places where I was hammering on the clutch, and I can easily say, the motor was gonna stall out before the clutch let go.

[Gnarly4X]

Geezz… the clutch disc again. There are many different perspectives on clutch discs and pressure plates.

Here’s mine…

I wheeled the heck out of ’85 short bed, 5-speed about 10 years.

I never had a clutch disc issue, like a premature failure, in all my years of owning manual tranny vehicles from my 1967 Vette with an L-88 3200 lbs pressure plate to my current 1986 XtraCab with an M-PACT.

I’ve never run anything except a factory stock or replacement.  I’ve had my ‘85 in the sand dunes in Glamis and across the giant sand dunes in Mexico, which is where you can very quickly smoke a clutch, and never had a failure.  The rockcrawling guys I know who went with an aftermarket heavy-duty-rooty-tooty disc and pressure plate, like Centerforce, had issues.  First, they grabbed and were too sticky – no bueno for rockcrawling.  And two, the extra clamping pressures blew out the factory clutch slave cylinder. 

I remember in my sand rail days, some guys installed the feramic discs to get more bite, they ended up popping a transaxle – about a 4 hour fix.  So they went back to a less sticky disc. If they smoked a clutch at the dunes, they could R&R a new disc in about 30 minutes.

Obviously if you are pumping heavy HP, a heavy duty clutch and pressure plate may be a good choice.

Typically, if you go up in psi in a pressure plate, you will feel more pressure at the clutch pedal.  It may or may not be enough to be an uncomfortable issue.

Marlin sells top quality products, so you can’t go wrong with a choice, but it has been my experience after wheeling for about 20 years that a LUK, Aisin, M-PACT all worked perfectly for me.

So I have not experienced the "extra advantage of having a higher rated clutch as in foot pounds" in my Toyota pickups. 

Gnarls. 

[T-Revv]

The benefit in the higher clamping force is eliminating innate slippage, making it a longer lasting clutch.  The 1200 lbs clutch will not have any additional pedal feel to the OEM, the 1600 lbs clutch will have a little more pedal pressure, not an extreme amount but more than stock.  I usually suggest the 1600 lbs clutch for people that are either running 40" or bigger tires or use their truck to tow because those are situations that will cause the clutch to slip more.  Anyone else is usually fine with the 1200lbs.