The way a power spring works is it holds the clutch in low gear longer allowing the motor to rev higher, giving the cart more power. If everything is assembled correctly the power spring can not have less power than the stock spring. As it simply makes the driven clutch harder to spread apart which raises the engine rpm increasing torque. With that said, here are some ways you CAN lose torque when installing a power spring. Sometimes something as simple as installing the belt in the opposite direction from what it was originally or getting even a tiny bit of grease, oil or even plain dirt on the drive belt. It will work just like putting flour on the counter to keep the cookie dough from sticking.

The belt will not be grippy. Now the reason a machined clutch makes a more dramatic difference when installing a spring is it actually has a lower gear to start off in (like granny gear). These numbers are just approximate but will show the difference.

Diameter of drive clutch at engagement: 2

Diameter of driven clutch with belt 1/4 down in driven clutch: 8

That’s a 4:1 ratio now multiply that through the 12:1 gear ration in the gearbox.

A standard cart drive ratio. 48:1 complete drive ratio

Now the same thing with a machined driven clutch. The diameter of drive clutch will actually go down some because the machined driven clutch will pull the belt tighter pulling it farther down in drive clutch.

Diameter of drive clutch at engagement: 1 7/8

Diameter of driven clutch that’s been machined with belt sticking 1/8 above the outside diameter of driven clutch: 8 3/4

That gives you a 4.6:1 ratio, now multiply that by 12:1 gearbox ratio.

Machined clutch gear ratio of standard cart 56:1 

That’s over a 15% increase in gear ratio!! What’s it all mean?

Take a standard cart and chain it to a tree. Install a load scale in chain between the cart and the tree. Now with a standard cart try to pull the tree down. Let’s say the scale reads 500 lbs. Now try to pull the tree down again with a cart with a power spring in the driven clutch.

It will still only pull 500 lbs. The reason is the cart never moves so the spring slowing the shift of the driven clutch does not apply yet. You still have a 48:1 starting ration. now, if you try to pull the tree down with the machined clutch WITH or WITHOUT the power spring it will pull well over the 500 lbs. Because it has a 56:1 starting gear ratio. The power spring can only help once the cart is moving. By slowing the upshift of the clutch. Where the spring will really help is, let’s say you have a steep hill and when carts going uphill the cart slows way down to 5 mph and the engine is struggling at 1500 rpm due to the heavy load.

Same hill with a power spring, the cart will slow down but usually not as much because the driven clutch will downshift faster due to the stronger spring. So now go to 5 mph the motor is running at 2500 rpm. The motor makes way more power at 2500 rpm as 1500 rpm so it should climb the hill faster and have much more reserve power.

I hope this all makes it easier to understand. This applies to all brands and shows how even a machined 36 degree E-Z-GO clutch will out pull a 28-degree power clutch. The different ramp angle just changes the upshift but the starting ratio is the same for both clutches where the diameter of the machined clutch is larger them either of the stock clutches.