South Bend (http://www.southbendclutch.com) has heavy duty clutches that work with the stock DMF. Just got one.

The pressure plate is a stock GM unit. So pedal pressure should stay the same.

Three different discs are available: kevlar (+150 ft-lbs) in OEM style, dual friction kevlar/ceramic in paddle style (+250 ft-lbs), and full ceramic (something more than that). SB tried to steer me away from the full ceramic, said it's jerky and is also hard on flywheels.

I ordered the plain Kevlar, bought it through Drivetrain Specialists (http://www.drivetrain.com/heavydutyclutch.html) (same price as direct from SB). But it appears I got the Dual Friction, because it's a paddle style clutch. That's okay, probably what I should've ordered anyway.

I've had the Edge Juice w/Attitude on the truck for almost a year now. The stock clutch has held it fine until just recently. But lately, full throttle excursions in 5th or 6 gear make the clutch pedal go hard and want to stay down. Juice level 2 or above will do it. It seems to still be holding level 1, but probably not for long.

I'll report back when the new clutch is installed. The flywheel is really growling so it's time to go in there anyway.

Let us know how that new DMF handle's the power.

What evidence do we have that the DMF problems are from too much power?

My first DMF failed with a totally stock motor. Lasted about the same amount of time as the second, which saw juice it's whole life.

It'd help to understand the failure mode. Didn't someone post on that awhile back? Said something about some surfaces that rub each other, and the new ones have better coating? If that's the case, it would seem to be more a vibration issue than a power issue. But I don't really know.

What I do know is that I like the quietness and low vibration of the stock truck, so if there's a chance the DMF will work, I'd sure rather use it instead of an SMF. Guess there's only one way to find out ...

My first DMF failed at 16K miles completely bone stock... Actually the 2nd one lasted a hair longer w/ the box (maybe the 2nd was "better" :-)


Tim

From what I'm hearing it's amazing my flywheel is still fine @ 83,500 miles.

It seems to me that the flywheel would bottom out the springs under hard load at higher HP levels or heavy load. I pulled a big load about 800 miles a week after I had a new flywheel installed. I ran the quad on 70 and I could not leave the cruise set on hills because it would rattle the flywheel like crazy. I imagine if I would have tuned it to stock it would have been Ok, but what fun is that. Problem solved now thoughhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Clap.gif.

Well maybe I shouldn't have said fine!? I should have said it has not failed yet! It does make the dreaded noise if I shut down in neutral without depressing the clutch pedal (which I do 99% of the time). May that is why I'm fortunate, any ideas?

I'm not so sure that shut down noise is a good indicator of the condition of the flywheel. Seems like mine started doing that shortly after the flywheel was replaced, but it took quite a bit longer before the growling noises returned. The main symptom in both of my failures has been noise in the first inch or two of the clutch pedal travel. Sometimes it's subtle and you have to have the window down to hear it. Other times it makes a racket that you can hear with the windows up and radio on. Seems random.

Question for the group ... anyone else getting this new flywheel after the 3yr/36k warranty, but inside the 5yr/100k Duramax warranty? Are they diagnosing it for you without tearing it apart first?

Anybody know where I can get a copy of the service bulletin?

Other than the shutdown noise (if the clutch is not depressed) I have no other noises from the flywheel. I figure if it lasts until I need a new clutch everything will get replaced anyways. I wouldn't say I'm easy on the clutch, but I definitely do NOT abuse it.


The flywheel is considered part of the engine, thus warranted for the 100k/5 years of the engine.

Yeah, I'm aware the flywheel is part of the 5yr/100K warranty, it specifically says so in the warranty book. But getting my dealer to believe it was like pulling teeth.

My bigger question was just the diagnosis thing, i.e. whether or not dealers were listening to the noise and reading the service bulletin and ordering the flywheel, or requiring a tear down to diagnose it. This morning, mine was doing the latter, and the only external diagnosis they'd offer was that it needed a $2500 clutch job that included re-machining the flywheel instead of replacing it. But I went through the service manager and he went through GM and we got it sorted out. They're now operating under the assumption that it's the flywheel, per the service bulletin. New flywheel is on the way.