For those of you that race the very competitive 4WD Short Course class you know how important set up is. One is always looking for advantages to help their trucks get to Victory Lane.

For myself, I race a Team Associated SC10 4X4. I bought the truck as a RTR to dabble in the class in late winter of 2011. I found the class very addictive and fun but the SC10 was a handful to drive as many of you know.

I slowly started upgrading the truck with better electronics, tires and little “mods” I read on the internet. The truck started coming around but was still lacking something (aren’t they all).

One of the weak spots on the truck is the slipper clutch. It’s a unique design but a design that has its limitations. The stock clutch is a “de-coupled” set up. On your “normal” slipper set up, you usually have two slipper pads on either side of the spur gear followed by two slipper plates (also one on each side of the spur). The rear plate is either grooved or pinned to keep it locked onto the top shaft of the transmission. That is all held in place by a spring and nut which allow you to adjust how much the clutch slipped to improve traction to either the two rear wheels or all four depending on vehicle type.

How does this set up differ from the one used on the SC10 4×4? Not much except that the slipper assembly is not fastened to the transmissions top shaft. Its free floating. This allows the front and rear slipper pads on the clutch to act independently of one another. The front pad (the one furthest away from the motor and in front of the spur) controls slippage to the rear of the truck and the one behind the spur gear controls slippage to the front of the truck. With this set up the clutch easily over heats and the pads tend to glaze causing poor performance.

Team Associated even saw this problem and addressed it with the release of their “VTS” slipper clutch basket on the Factory Team Kit version. It’s available as an upgrade for the original SC10 4×4, and the RTR version. The part number is ASC91175.

I installed the VTS slipper on my truck months ago and without going into to much detail the VTS helped. However the truck was still missing drive out of the corners, especially compared to other race trucks.

In my search to go faster I came across Exotek’s locked front clutch plate. Part number 1206.

This plate replaces the rear slipper pad, plate and brass bushing on the stock set up.

The plate is the same octagon shape that the stock slipper pad is and when installed correctly fits in the recessed octagon shape on the back of the spur gear, locking the two together (no more slip for the front drive).

Exotek’s instructions tell you to put the plate onto the pully first but I wanted to make sure the plate was fully seated into the spur gear as its easy to misalign the two. I found it easier to snap in the Exotek clutch plate into the spur and then place the plate into the square recess in the pulley.

With the plate installed onto the spur and seated into the pulley, just follow the instructions and place your stock slipper or VTS slipper onto the front of the spur gear followed by the clutch spring, washer and nut. Tighten the nut till one or two threads of the top shaft are showing. Final adjustments can and should be made at the track.

So after reading this overly long article I am sure you are wondering how this worked and my opinions on it? Well… I took the truck out for some Monday night racing at Walt’s Hobbies outdoor track. Walt’s track is a small but fun track and it is dry and slick most of the time. Perfect for testing the new Exotek front clutch lock. I made no other adjustments to my truck as I wanted to make sure if I felt any difference in performance it was the Exotek clutch and no other changes I might of done.

I went out for some practice laps, the track was dry as a bone and slick. I noticed right off the bat the truck tracked better and I could get on the throttle sooner, even in these conditions. So far I was liking how the truck was reacting.

The heats came around and the 4×4 class was last and that means the track would be dry by the time my race came around. I got the truck out for the 1st heat and it felt good. I could pin the throttle coming onto the straight and the truck went where i wanted it to. I ended up coming in 2nd for the 1st heat.

After the heats I managed to qualify 2nd out of at least 18 trucks. I ended up starting on the pole as the TQ had to leave early. After a very bad start and a poor race I finished mid pack. I’m not even 100% sure where I ended up. It was a rough race, but I feel the Exotek clutch lock was a good investment. And its cheap, $7.95 plus shipping will get you one at http://www.exotekracing.com/

I am sure with more running and further adjustments the Exotek front clutch lock will help me drive better. One can hope any way. Only time will tell. Maybe after some time we can post up a better summery of how this part worked.