My South Bend Experience

[RollOver_Pete]

This is a cut /paste from a thread I started on another board.
There's lots of good info here so I thought I'd share.
Please....
Lets keep this on topic.
It's about a clutch installation and a clutch installation only.



1st, I'd like to thank Larry @ the DTR Store for hooking me up.
I seldom have time to go shopping for anything, let alone finding the right part for my application.
It's nice to have someone around who can be trusted instead of somebody on the other end of the phone who might not be looking out for your best interest.
There were no surprises or hidden costs by going through the DTR store.
Everything went down just as Larry said it would.
Once again Larry, thank you.

Within 5 working days,
my clutch had arrived via UPS.
Everything was there except any special install instructions.
I wasn't sure if there were included with my clutch so I called up South Bend.
Peter had the day off so the lady who answered the phone said she would emeil me any instructions.

That evening as I was just about to get started on my Dodge, Peter calls.
There were really no special instructions other than removing the spacer
from behind the whatchamacallit.
Peter and talked for some time.
The tips he gave me, what to look out for, everything we talked about was right on 100%
Thanks for the call Peter.
It was a pleasure talking with you.
And the install went just fine...just as you said it would.

I did the install 95% by myself.
I had help installing the clutch onto the flywheel...yeah...its heavy.
I got started just before dark and finished just as the sun was coming up
I know...I'm slow.
But I drained my diffs and tinkered with a bunch of other stuff that neaded to be done.

Tip # 1
When you think you have the truck up high enough....
Go higher.
Its much easier to get your transfer case out of the way.






Tip # 2
Remove the center console, shift tower, old hydraulics and re-install the new hydraulics BEFORE you jack your truck up in the air.
This is a no brainer folks.
It wasnt so bad after I found a few milk crates to stand on.




Oh yeah, when you remove the shift tower, cover the top with something.
I used a piece of cardboard.
It helps keep the crud out.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

After you get the transfer case on the ground,
its easy to position the tranny jack in place to support the transmission while you remove the cross member.









Tip # 3
Remove the two bolts with the exhaust bracket 1st.
If the bracket wont clear the bell housing, just get a piece of pipe that till fit over the end and bend the thing out of the way.
I used some spray silicone around the rubber insulator first.
It will slide right out of the bracket and might give you enough room to clear the bell housing
It doesn't take much to bend the thing out of the way.
Besides, its much easier than messing with the exhaust clamp.

Tip # 4
With the cross member out of the way, you can lower the transmission jack just enough to get at the two bolts located at the top of the bell housing.
Get a 3' extension or longer with a wobble socket.
Life will be much easier this way.

I didn't worry about supporting the engine with anything.
It didn't end up fall out or anything.....hardly even moved...

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

Here's the parts that came out.
This is my 2nd clutch in this truck.
The 1st one exploded at 12,600 miles....
I'll save that for another thread.

The clutch below has a total of 78,000 miles on it.
I had always known that I would end up replacing the clutch sooner or later.
This truck is my daily driver/work truck.
It sees off road use almost daily and I often pull trailers or gen sets weighing 25,000 lbs +.......off road even.
Now this truck weighs 11,000 lbs with me in it.
Thats fuel, tools, work stuff.
I don't race or hot rod the truck around.
It's a tool that I use to make my living with.
When I added my Smarty, I did so knowing that I would also be replacing the clutch.
I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

DMF on the left, SB on the right.

I did this job myself except for mounting the clutch assembly.
It's just too damed heavy for one person to by himself.
Besides, I was getting pretty tired by now and was really fighting the urge to find a corner of the shop to take me a little nap.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[JWHPopeye]

Nice writeup. After you were done with the install, what pieces did you have left over besides the stock Flywheel, disk and Pressure plate?

__________________
06 Dodge Ram 2500 SLT, 4x4, SWB, Quad Cab, CTD, G56, South Bend DD 3600 Street Clutch, Smarty Beta, Quad Boost Fooler, 5" FBD Turbo Back-NO MUFFLER-NO DRONE , Amsoil 4510 and Torque Tube, Amsoil BMK-11, 315 BFG A/T's on H2's, ISSPRO Gauges.

[RollOver_Pete]

Everything went back together without any problems.

Tip # 5
Lifting up the truck in all 4 corners would have made stabbing the transmission much easier.
Jacking up only the front as I did means that you now have to align, push and lift the transmission at the same time.
With a level truck or even higher in the rear would make this much easier.

Now that everything is back together, all new fluids,
truck is back on the ground, and a change of clothes since I've already smeared grease and oil on my seat covers
comes the moment of truth.
I step on the clutch pedal(finally feels like a real truck clutch) and hit the key.
Nice.....
And Peter...
You were 100% dead on when you mentioned the 3208.
Exactly what it reminds me of.
Ok....engine is running, clutch is rattling.... time to back out of the shop.
I find reverse and slowly start to let the clutch out....out.....out.....out....
What the hell?
Nothing
Oh.....
Transfer case was still in neutral

Its now been a few days and once again Peter, you're 100% on with your description of how things would go.
Yeah, the clutch is noisy.
Yeah its grabby.
Yeah, the pedal is stiffer.
And yeah, Its just what I expected.

Once again, thanks Larry...
Thanks Peter @ South Bend
And thanks Craig at Cragars Off Road for the use of the shop and for being a long time friend (30 years)
Craig has a fab shop here in Indio Ca.
He builds some pretty wild stuff.....
I'll post some pics of his creations in a bit.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

Originally Posted by JWHPopeye

Nice writeup. After you were done with the install, what pieces did you have left over besides the stock Flywheel, disk and Pressure plate?

Throwout bearing, old hydraulics, and the little spacer that goes between the bell housing and throwout bearing arm thing...
I forget what you call it.

In the pic, its the little yellow tab left of the input shaft.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

This is my 1st clutch that exploded @ 12600 miles.
600 over the POS DC warranty
Once the jerk from star came down and looked things over,
he denied the warranty on my 3 month old 2006 Dodge Ram.
AFAIC, this is to be expected from DC and star.
Like they could give a ratts rear about a customers problems.
There was obviously a problem here with the clutch used in these trucks.
I showed them posts I had printed from different forums showing that this aint
the first problem.
But DC and star could care less...
I was about to trash them on the Internet just like a red headed ex-wife.
Even the service manager agreed that this should be covered.
The owner of the dealership himself steeped up and covered all of my costs when DC wouldnt bother.

Thanks Dodge City Chrysler in La Quinta Ca.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

:thumbsup

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

FWIW,
I downloaded the same factory service manual that was up on the Hemi forum for years .
It cost about $20.00 and this time its mine....saved....you cant take it away.

Seriously, its the same service manual, all 9267 pages worth.
They have many more service manuals on their site.
Downloading was easy....just follow the instructions....


http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.p...cuments-eBooks

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

Sunday I went back to the shop to repair the rubber dust/oil boot thingy on the shift tower.
When I first removed the tower the other night,
I could see that the boot had come apart.
This was the source of an oil leak coming from the transmission.
The original boot was paper thin.
Talk about cheesing out on the rubber?
Anyways, there was no way that I was going to replace a cheesy part with another equally thin and cheesy part.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location

[RollOver_Pete]

The I.D is 2.75"...
So with that I went for a walk to see what I could find to cover up the shift tower.




I ended up using part of an old shift boot that came out of my Jeep when I dropped an Atlas 2 into it.
With 4 cuts at each corner aiming towards the center and the right sized hose clamp, I was good to go.
Before I tried on my replacement boot, I added some Lucas Oil stabilizer right in through the top of the shift tower.
I put in.....I dunno....a couple of swallows I guess if you had a taste for the stuff.
I've been using Lucas products for close to 20 years in the Peterbilt and Mack trucks I've owned.
The stuff has always performed as advertised.
I've even got their synthetic ATF in the transmission and transfer case.
I run their synthetic gear lube in both diffs.
The oil stabilized that I added to the transmission made a huge difference in how the transmission sounded.
With the DD3250, you can definitely hear the trans where you couldn't before thanks to the DMF.
So yeah, the Lucas I added really helped to quiet down my transmission.
I can still hear it, its just not nearly as noticeable.

__________________

2006 BigHorn 4x4 DRW, LB, 6 sp, South Bend DD, Jake, Smarty Jr, Straight Pipe,
HDCAI (homedepotcoldairintake), lotsa other stuff.


My location