Insatlled Solid Flywheel.

[MEP]

A week ago I installed a South Bend Clutch, southbendclutch.com, solid flywheel in my 2001 D-Max. It was a single disk set-up with an organic disk. I've put about 300 street miles on it without any complaints. The idle is the smoothest its ever been! When I shut the truck down, no more DMF rattle, only those massive gears in the ZF deaccelerating, and even then thats barely noticable. If you hold the clutch in while shutting down, there is no shut-down noise at all. As for how the clutch feels, there is no noticable difference from the stock unit.

[jjgmc]

Things are alot better with that DMF gone aren't they?

[MEP]

You bet! This is the way the truck should of run when new.

[DmaxCC6spd]

I also just put in the same clutch kit. What a great improvement! As I add things to my truck, I have a theme going - The way GM should have done it! The SMF is so much more solid. It's hard to describe the difference in feel. The only issue I have is some slight gear rattle when launching in low, 1st or 2nd gears from a stop. I may add a Fluid damper harmonic balancer to see if it has any effect.

Peter at Southbend has been great to work with and personally answered my questions and addressed my concerns!

This clutch is definately "The way GM should have done it"!

[VA_Dmax]

Did yall do the install yourself? Or find a local shop to install and about how much did they charge? Also did you order it straight from Southbendclutch.com? How did you find the price anywhere? Sorry for all the questions but I have been waiting for that setup to be released, and now I cant find anywhere online with the prices posted. Thanks.

[MEP]

I went to SBC's website and found a distributor/installer 40 min from my house. I had him do the installation because this is the only vehicle I have, the ZF-6 is a heavy transmission, so I would have to find a tranny jack and I wasn't sure what the input shaft was like so any of the old tranny splines I have may not of worked as a cluth alignment tool. As for the labor cost, it was 6.6 hrs@ $75/hr= $500. I had everything replaced: slave cyl, flywheel pressure plate, disk (organic) and pilot bushing. You know how it is. When you have no time your working to hard and have money to burn.

If your flywheel is failing or you have that dreaded "rough idle" do yourself a favor and dump that GM clutch assy ASAP.

[VA_Dmax]

Thanks for the reply. I take care of all the maintenance for the truck except for warranty injectors, but I dont trust myself or have the know how to do the clutch/flywheel .Unfortunately for me, the closest distributor/installer is 4+ hours away. I guess I could always order it and have a local clutch/transmission shop install it, but I dont know who to trust. I wouldnt know what dealer to go to if I went that route, I get dirty looks from them just for having 285's. The flywheel and clutch is something Ive wanted to replace for some time now, but I guess as long as its still truckin' I cant see spending the money. How did the single disc clutch compare in price to the $1700 double disc?

[MEP]

VA,
My single disk (organic), pressure plate, pilot bushing and solid flywheel cost $1,100.00. The flywheel is machined from a casting. SBC offers a metalic disk, but they do not recomend it for stock street use.

If your clutch is ok, why replace it now unless your in pulling comp. Also, If your truck is still under warranty and it fails, let GM replace it. My flywheel was on it's way out and the truck was out of the 100,000 mile warranty. The flywheel is considered part of thr engine and is under the 5 yr/100,000 mile warranty, so if you are still under warranty, you may void it by putting a non GM flywheel in.

Any competent shop can do this job in a day. Just look for someone who pays attention to details.

If you have any questions call SBC. They are very helpfull on the phone.