Clutch is slipping

[Smokey73]

Every since I got the IP problem squared away on The Mule, I've been pimping it around town and what not. I've noticed off and on that it seems to rattle when you start the truck and really bad when you kill it. There's also been some other things related to a bad DMF i've noticed. I think I've determined that the DMF is going. This morning, I was headed over to mom's. I was sitting at a stop sign, about to cross the highway. Somebody pulled up behind me in some kind of rice burner, with a boom-boom system in it and the windows rolled down. I watched him in the mirror, waited for a brake in traffic, put it in 2nd and thought I would smoke the tires and fill his car with soot. Instead, I just barely rolled across the highway at about 3000 rpms (it did soot him out a little). I figured I was just a little rough on it, I've never been that ******* it before and thought it was just a fluke thing, or something with the bad flywheel. Later-on, this afternoon, me and the old man hooked up the 5er and moved it over so he could do a little work on it. He pulled it up a bit, put it in reverse, let out on the clutch and nothing........ It just sat there........Dadgum thing won't hardly pull its own weight now

 

[RLDSL]

The flywheel noise combined with what just happened, it may not be the clutch, your DMF may have just bit the dust. There is an overload protection device in that flywheel that acts like a clutch and when they get old, it doesn't take much to get the thing to break loose. Once its happened, the thing is toast.

 

[Smokey73]

either way, it looks like I'm gonna do a flywheel swap. Is E-bay a good place to get every thing. I went to the luk site, and looked up what is needed to go to a SMF, and someone has got the flywheel for about $200 delivered and the clutch kit for about $300 delivered. Is that a good way to go?

 

[RLDSL]

either way, it looks like I'm gonna do a flywheel swap. Is E-bay a good place to get every thing. I went to the luk site, and looked up what is needed to go to a SMF, and someone has got the flywheel for about $200 delivered and the clutch kit for about $300 delivered. Is that a good way to go?

I think Advance, partsamerica has a solid for around $160 ( or at least they did )
As far as a clutch, Ft Wayne Clutch is a rebuilder and I've got my last 2 fromn them, very nice work, and for around that kind of money, you could get a rebuilt kevlar clutch instead of a standard organic lined one. My last one was a 12 1/4 " kevlar clutch kit and it ran about $325 + shipping, about $345 total Beats the heck out of what a brand new kevlar clutch runs ( about $800 or so ). my last one was an 11" kevlar and it was quite a bit cheaper ( there was nothing wrong with it when I pulled it, I just got a 12 1/4" solid flywheel given to me so I had to pickup a larger clutch ), they have rebuilt clutch kits with organic linings for even less. Whatever you put in, spend the extra bucks and get a kevlar pilot bushing and don't fool with the pilot bearing, you will thank yourself for it.

 

[RLDSL]

I stand corrected, Advance/partsamerica has them but they are about $200 online. May be cheaper in the store, doesn't hurt to check, a lot of parts are.

 

[Agnem]

The lucky mod is the way to go if you want a solid flywheel.

 

[Smokey73]

The lucky mod is the way to go if you want a solid flywheel.

The lucky mod, if I read it right, just gut the old flywheel and bolt the two pieces together? I guess that would be better than a new SMF because it's already balanced and is heavier. Where can I get the right clutch?

 

[Smokey73]

I talked to a guy today who said that a person could just weld the two halves together with everything still in it. Said that they used to maintain a fleet of city trucks and they would do when they had a problem with DMF's. Sound kind of squirrelly, but I suppose it would work in a bind

 

[Mat J]

Is there a way to kinda know before its going to go out. Mine rattles at idle but goes away at 1100rpm. I dont want to do the lucky mod till I have to because of the added noise supposedly.

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

Whats a DMF and SMF??? Also what is the lucky mod?

 

[Mat J]

Whats a DMF and SMF??? Also what is the lucky mod?

dual mass flywheel and solid mass flywheel. look for the lucky mod in the FAQs basically makes the DMF a SMF.

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

Im new to the 5speeds...Actually I just bought a zf 5. So this kind of interested me. I guess I will look at the FAQs, maybe it will tell me the differences and advantages of dmf and smf...

 

[Fordsandguns]

I talked to a guy today who said that a person could just weld the two halves together with everything still in it. Said that they used to maintain a fleet of city trucks and they would do when they had a problem with DMF's. Sound kind of squirrelly, but I suppose it would work in a bind

My FIL and BIL did this on an 86 f350 that they had put a ZF into. Truck went for years like that. BIL said he did it still in the truck. Just went in little pieces, with time to cool in between, till he was completely around.
I would be wary of warping it, but they said they never had any problems after he welded it.

On edit I noticed that you are in Scurry Tx. I'm in Eastland, so it may have been my BIL you talked to.

 

[RLDSL]

Is there a way to kinda know before its going to go out. Mine rattles at idle but goes away at 1100rpm. I dont want to do the lucky mod till I have to because of the added noise supposedly.

if it's rattling, chances are it has some wear, and could be on it's way out, but keep in mind, if you have a bad injector, the imbalance in the firing can cause the thing to rattle pretty bad.
That said, after recent experience, if you haul any kind of weight and the DMF is old, modify it, get rid of it and put in a SMF, whatever it takes. Those suckers can decide to fold with little to no warning, so rather take the rattling as your warning and consider it in it's death throws.

When I went solid, I got a 12 1/4" flywheel and the clutch I got for that size was rebuilt on a LUK core and it has about 9 springs in the middle on that thing and I'm not having a problem with rollover noise

 

[Mat J]

cool thanks I will look into fixing it.