Oh yes they were great helicopters very forgiving who seemed to share a complicity with their more or less skilled skippers....It is true that it seems that failures on Artouste / Aztazou engines, that never happened before occurs now. One of the causes could also be the gap between "old" and "new" engineers generation...
This put apart, and to come back to clutches, on the first Alouette 2 (SE 3130) if I remember well,there was oil inside the clutch instead of weights, there was then no time limitation, just an indication stating that synchronisation should be completed within 50 sec. The rotor was then starting to turn on start-up.
Latter models of clutches were fitted with weights and some oil, with a time slot to synchronise (but also with rotor winding up on start up)
Thanks again to designers of this time !