Paint a Clutch?

[uxward]

Hello!

Bought an old gokart for the boys (16, 13, 9) for Christmas. We've been dismantling the engine, cleaning the parts, and putting it all back together to get it running.

We noticed the clutch was sticking, and took it apart to clean it. It was pretty rusted, so we worked hard getting all the rust off, and each piece very clean.

But now all the parts are basically bare metal. I know you can paint the outermost cover, but I assume you can't paint the inner parts. I've been looking into blackening them, or even using gun bluing, but I haven't found any articles or videos discussing painting your clutch.

What would you guys do? I'm afraid doing nothing will only encourage it rusting yet again.

Yes, I could just get a new clutch, but a big part of this experience is letting the boys take everything apart, clean it, and put it back together to see how everything works and runs better. So I'd really like to keep using the old, but rust-free clutch if we can.

Thanks!

Brandon

The attached photo is for reference. It's the same type of clutch to which I'm referring.

 

[Functional Artist]

IMO yes, you can paint everything, except the "clutch shoes" or "grip pads" (which aren't metal anyways)
...just use high temp paint, like auto engine paint or BBQ grille paint
...& don't lay it on too thick

 

[uxward]

Thanks @Functional Artist

 

[Rat]

Thanks @Functional Artist

You can use gun bluing as well if you choose, it would certainly wear better and be harder to pile on too thick.

As for blackening, that would be "Parkerizing" and it is as simple as getting the parts uniformly to a straw/brassy color (right before they begin to blue) and dropping them in a tub of old used oil preferably with a high iron content (like what you get during break in) seems to work best.

I would have to discourage this process simply because the risk of warping is too high. The only way to minimize the warp risk is to heat the parts in a kiln so that the heat is even, it is hot/cold spots that encourage warping and there too little tolerance for any of that in the clutch design.
There is also the fact that being heated too hot for too long could potentially weaken the parts beyond safe usage.

Mild Steel, 1040, Chromoly, other low carbon alloy steels tend to show thermal discoloration in the pattern as follows

Straw/brass
Redish orange
Pale blue
Medium blue
Dark blue
Indigo (dark blue vaguely purple)
Ash grey
Dark grey
Glowing hot

 

[Denny]

Do not paint the inside of the bell or shoes. Slight rust will not hurt anything. But painting the wrong stuff will.

 

[JimD]

Oil the chain every time you are done riding and the oil will keep everything from rusting. The rust on the inside improves the coefficient of friction and it will work better. The shoes in a slip mode will clean everything up on the inside. Now rust on the chain is BAD because it will wear the sprocket quicker and the chain will not roll smoothly into the valley of the sprocket. Spend more time on the chain then the clutch if the chain doesn't roll real easy into the clutch teeth replace the chain. New chain is a lot cheaper than a new clutch. Poorly maintained chain will wear both the axle sprocket and the clutch sprocket real fast.