Heed this warning

Friday evening just as a friend of ours was supposed to be knocking off work and going home to his wife and kids his life totally changed. This gentleman does work for my brother and I on heavy equipment and mack trucks. He went to test drive a truck he had been working on and as he shifted gears the flywheel come apart and went through the floorboard and about cut the truck in half. The worst part is it severed his right leg into and almost got the left one also. I've never seen anything like that in my life, and for those of you who don't have a scattershield on your car I suggest you think about this story for a moment and think of how valuable it is for you to be able to get around and work to support your famliy. Just thought I would share this with you guys because you never know when something is going to change the course of your life forever.

That is a very sad story.

I can relate to it as I had a flywheel come apart in my 390 Javelin. I had just finished running it hard and had the hood open in a parking lot to try to figure out an idling problem. I rev'ed the motor a few times and with a bam/boom/crash--the motor stopped running. Parts of the flywheel exited the bottom of the bellhousing and embedded into the blacktop. One 2" piece we never recovered. Now I use a scattershield and SFI stuff in all my performance vehicles.

I'm missing 2 toes on my right foot for the same reason.

The exact reason I didn't skimp on the flywheel/clutch for my 289, AND got a scatter shielt/blowproof bellhousing. I like my legs just the way they are. ~$150 for the billett SFI flywheel new and $100 for the used scatter shield, pretty cheap insurance.

I saw one let go at 3/4 track... what a mess... totally destroyed the firewall and hood of the car.
I bought my scattershield the next weekend.

Same goes for anyone drag racing a Mopar with a 727 Torqueflite. They are just as bad!

Recently I saw the worst one. Guy had a mid 6 sec. '72 Dart with a big block/727 (1/8 mile). He staged, light came down and as soon as he matted it (footbrake car) there was junk scattering everywhere. Normally the driver would immediately stop but the car just kept rolling. The windshield was covered in trans fluid. The top of the car looked literally like a bomb went off. There were holes in both doors, the top, the floorboard was GONE, and there is still junk left in the racing surface. Anyway, as I stood there watching from behind the fence, the car still rolling, a couple guys ran out and got the car stopped (by hand...) and pulled him out. After working on him a while to regain consciousness, I noticed that one shoe was missing. Both legs were still there but one shoe was missing. A friend of mine who was at his aid reached into the car and pulled out a shoe...with a foot and ankle still in it.

He was able to save the foot, somehow, but he will never be the same. He's still comes to the track to walk around & say hello but he won't come anywhere close to the starting line. This guy is scarred for life...mentally and physically.

So yeah, if you have a manual trans and you drive it with spirit, or an auto that you use on the strip, do yourself a favor and put a shield on it.

Check this out. This one was mild compared to the one I saw.
MOPAR 727 Trans Explosion - TDR Roundtable

If the damage is THAT bad , what the hell is a little scatter shield going to do?

I'm going to put one on my Falcon ASAP!

Originally Posted by FEandGoingBroke

If the damage is THAT bad , what the hell is a little scatter shield going to do?

I'm going to put one on my Falcon ASAP!

It'll do a hell of a lot better job of stopping 99% of the shrapnel than that cheezy sheet metal floor will!

By the way, most of the 3 speed automatics use a sprag. When the sprag breaks, it can do pretty much what that 727 did, though the 727 is worse because of the cast drum. When the sprag breaks or stops working, the drum spins backwards about twice (maybe more...I remember 2.7 times engine speed on the 727) the engine speed. By the time you leave the line, the engine revs to 7000+ because of freewheeling, which means that drum is spinning 14000 RPM give or take a few. And being that the 727 uses a a cast drum, it just explodes and takes the entire trans with it. One of the things that are a root cause is that most aftermarket valve bodies don't apply the low band in low gear. That lets the sprag or one-way take ALL of the torque. If it fails, it happens.

I have also seen a C4 bust. It was a reverse manual transbrake VB that was in a 6.2X Fox Mustang. Guy released the TB and boom. Entire rear half of the case was on the track. I was working the burnout area when it happened. When the car was finally moved, I personally picked up the park mechanism, rear planetary, output shaft, governor, and the rear case with broken sprag still bolted to it. Well, parts of it anyway. Didn't exit into the car, though. Does a TB valvebody in a C4 apply the low band or no? The C4, though, uses smaller diameter drums that are steel, not cast. The drums usually don't fail, just the outer race on the sprag breaks.

I never even thought of a big truck doing this! Wow that's scarey!

Heck yeah... big trucks rarely rev over 3,500 rpm's....