during the life of this clutch. I'm more inclined to say that it failed due to a manufacturing defect. If you look closely at the retainer plate, in the manufacturing process it is stamp cut and that edge is raised to 'cup' the spring. Where it is cut and bent upward there is a hole drilled at the seam of the cut to stop it from propogating and making it tear. I didn't look over this clutch with a magnifying glass (or any other NDT equipment) to see if there were any scratches or cracks, but I really think this is a fluke occurence. We just haven't seen it happen before so it would be unfair to say that the design is flawed. Greg and the guys at RPS are going to go over it with a fine tooth comb and determine if it was a manufacturing problem or if there is anything that can be improved upon. A thicker guage steel plate would certainly prevent this from happening, but it may be overkill. We'll have to see what happens. I dont think the disc is actually produced by RPS - the pressureplate is where it gets its holding power and I believe RPS produces that part and the disc is an OEM part.
