cat007 wrote:Think of it this way - Put your hand on the floor, get someone gentle stand your hand eventually having their whole weight on you.
Then get them to do the same thing but starting with their foot 12 inches above your hand slamming down onto it.
Tell me which one hurts the most
Hi, thanks for being patronising, I do actually understand the concept of impact loading - hell I can even start throwing some numbers at it because part of the mechanical engineering degree I did involved learning about the theory behind this magical idea of yours.
Unfortunately, the taking it to the extreme like your example is completely irrelevant to the situation. Applying a force instantly, rather than gradually, multiplies the stress seen in components by a factor of 2. Any further increase, as in your jumping on someone's hand example, is achieved due to any momentum in the object that's applying the force. Now, because in either case of preloading or not preloading your drivetrain, the only difference is the momentum of the components between the clutch and the wheels - you have to have a massive amount of backlash in your drivetrain to make any real difference (and just so we don't go there, you don't have much backlash in your drivetrain).
It could in fact be worse, because components that are designed to have some level of elasticity - i.e. the sprung hub in the factory clutch, will be preloaded and therefore will not be able to absorb as much shock as it would in a free state.