Oh yeah, that's right.
The clutch disc is splined to the tranny input shaft, and therefore the
wheels when in gear.

You would however have to push mighty fast to over speed the clutch disc
though.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Karin Baker & Raymond Paquette
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 7:13 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Have you ever broken a clutch by push starting a vehicle?

No, he's talking about when the pedal is depressed, and the clutch disc is
not clamped.

In any case, centrifugal force is a misnomer.  It's actually inertia-or the
urge for things to keep going in the direction they are already going.  Each
bit on a clutch disc wants to keep going in a straight line from wherever it
is-which seems like a force pushing outward.

I can see how going, say, 25mph in granny gear could overspeed a clutch
disk, and cause the friction material to fly off.
Although the result is excessive slippage and chattering, not inability to
disengage (ask ME how I know).  I guess you might get chunks of friction
material caught between disc and flywheel or disc an pressure plate.  I
didn't.  My disc was already weakend by being saturated with oil.

Raymond

On 11/25/07, pdooley <psdooley@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Correct, not from centrifugal force.
>
> Think about it- the clutch disk is "clamped" in place by the pressure
> plate.
> This greatly reduces the effect of centrifugal force.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Mike S
> Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 12:03 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Have you ever broken a clutch by push starting a vehicle?
>
> At 11:23 AM 11/25/2007, ***************** wrote...
> >Sorry to have to disagree,  but i've done it....
> >>If so you blew up the clutch
> >>disc from cerntrifical force... Ask me how I know this...
>
> There's the disconnect. The damage you described was caused by too much
> torque (rotational force) on the clutch friction plate. It was not from
> centrifugal or centripetal force.
>