Swamp Fox clutch problems

[broncofiresmith]

I am still having power problems with the Swamp Fox. Today I noticed when I push and pull the drive belt to get the top and bottom of the belts to come together in the middle (like you are checking belt slack) the driver clutch that is attached to the shaft on the T20 will move which seems to be all the way open. To me this does not seem right. The Fox will move but I have high RPM's and no speed. Could this be a keyway problem?
Thanks

[racerone3]

I take what you said to mean that when you squeeze the belt, the clutch opens up (movable sheve, moves toward the t-20). if that's the case, I suspect that your clutch spring has broken.

[broncofiresmith]

I take what you said to mean that when you squeeze the belt, the clutch opens up (movable sheve, moves toward the t-20). if that's the case, I suspect that your clutch spring has broken.

Thank you for your response. That is exactly what it does. I pulled off the clutch to check the key and that is good. I will check the spring it may be a good time to get the new red spring.

PS. I have a 1974 uncut Bronco.

[racerone3]

you might have just lost the snap ring from the back of the clutch... if the snap ring that keeps the helix on the clutch is in tact, then it's your spring. if you have to get a new one anyway, then it's the perfect time to upgrade to the red spring. i've never tried one, but i would like to change one of my machines out one of these days and see how I like it.

uncut broncos are getting real hard to come by! mine is a 71 sport. the po welded in 1/4" plate as a replacement to the rotted floor boards, but otherwise there has been nothing done to mine that couldn't be put back to stock very easily. as much as I hate to do it, i fear the Bronco might have to be the next toy to go up for sale

[Noel Woods]

The green spring that was in the clutch of the Swamp Fox was in pretty bad shape too. The new red spring makes a world of difference in low end grunt. You can feel the power building and when the shift takes place. I think other than a racer, the red spring is the way to go on an amphib.
At one time I had an uncut '74 Bronco, lime green, straight 6 200 c.i., three on the tree. It had alot of style though. I put dual headers on it and by the noice you would have thought it was a 351 Cleveland. I miss the old Bronco. Have a '78 I.H. Scout 2 thats tricked out and will have that until my last days.

[broncofiresmith]

I am going to order a new spring on Monday and hope that fixes the problem. When I bought my Bronco my plans were to cut it and paint it lime green but then I decided to restore it. It has a 302 three on the tree. From what I read about replacing the springs a lot of the job is getting the clutch off the transmission. On the Swamp Fox it is one bolt and I had it off. I hope the rest goes smooth and it fixes the problem.

[broncofiresmith]

Installed my new red spring in the clutch and went around the yeard a few times. It fixed the problem and it seemed like it had more power. I need to adjust the RPM's they were going up to 4500 on the Vanguard 23. I don't want them to go over 4000RPM. I live on a very steep hill and took the Swamp Fox down the hill to play around and on the way back up the C-Clip popped off and the clutch came apart and distroyed the new red spring. I will need to order a new on next week. I needed to use a 4WD John Deere and pickup to get it back up the hill. Any thoughts on the RPM issue?

[jpswift1]

I've got the same engine and transmission that you have in my Hustler 980 BIGFOOT. I was considering trying out the red clutch. Before it came apart what were some other differences that you noticed between the red and green spring? Does it still have the same top speed? Does it seem like it is a little slower/doesn't have the acceleration that the green spring did? Thanks.

[broncofiresmith]

I've got the same engine and transmission that you have in my Hustler 980 BIGFOOT. I was considering trying out the red clutch. Before it came apart what were some other differences that you noticed between the red and green spring? Does it still have the same top speed? Does it seem like it is a little slower/doesn't have the acceleration that the green spring did? Thanks.

It seems like it does have the same top speed but it takes a lot longer to get to it. I like the speed more so I was a little dissappointed in that. It seemed to have a lot more power at the low take off speed.

[Noel Woods]

You know the top speed of my two vehicles dropped considerably. The red speed probably took the speed on my Max2 down to 18mph, If I recall gps with the green spring put the speed at 24mph. On my Swamp Fox, top speed went from 28mph down to 20mph but I also installed the larger more aggressive ASX tires at the same time so I can't really call the speed difference only due to the red spring. Both vehicles now shift much better in low speed and heavy mud/swamp which is where I mostly ride. If you want speed then stick with the green spring. If you do bogging or occasionally haul or tow heavy loads, the red spring is better.

[gearhead1937]

Don't want to hyjack, but I've got two quick questions... where is everyone getting their red springs & how much $. I would like to try one.

[Noel Woods]

The other thing I forgot to add pertained to rpm's. These engines have a rev limiter built in, so you may not actually be over-revving the engine. If you installed a tach its very easy to select the wrong detent/selector for quantity of cylinders. Most small engines limit out at 3600 or so, you can disable or remove the rev limiter but it entails some effort, so if you didn't tamper with it, the rpms shouldn't really be that high.

[broncofiresmith]

The other thing I forgot to add pertained to rpm's. These engines have a rev limiter built in, so you may not actually be over-revving the engine. If you installed a tach its very easy to select the wrong detent/selector for quantity of cylinders. Most small engines limit out at 3600 or so, you can disable or remove the rev limiter but it entails some effort, so if you didn't tamper with it, the rpms shouldn't really be that high.

Dug into the governor and rev limiter a little bit last night. It appears as if the linkage that hooks to the throttle and then under the air cleaner became unhooked. There is a small spring on the outside of the linkage and it looks as if that may have came loose and is now damaged. I am planning on working on it this weekend to see if i can get fixed.