SRTcracka
Full Access Member
This is my Southbend Clutch experience in it's entirety. I am not a professional, so some of the problems I encountered may have been from my own inexperience, but I wanted to tell it exacltly as it happened, in order to better inform everyone. I did not powder puff it, so be advised.
The ordering...
It started off pretty good, called Southbend, got some info on their products. The man I spoke with, who seemed knowledgable and confident in their products, suggested the stage 2...1 side Furamic and 1 side organic for the use that I intended...cost was $650. After I considered what the man had told me and the high recommendations I had heard on the their clutches, I called back the next day and ordered the clutch....it arrived within 3 days of ordering. The product looked very nice and of high quality.
The install....
..everything bolted up fine, but when I went to install the tranny, it wouldn't go in the last 2 inches or so....checked the alignment and all that jazz...tried again...same problem. The pressure plate fingers were coming in contact with the release bearing about 2 inches or more out, holding it back from the bellhousing. This may be normal, but since this is my first clutch replacement with a centrifugal slave design, I had no clue. So I called Roe Racing to ask if this is normal (since I bought the slave upgrade from them), and they said no, that the tranny should go in with no resistance...he also said that he had never heard of this problem with a Centerforce clutch before...I told him that it was a Southbend Clutch...he said he had never heard of that company before, and that was probably the problem, and that I should have probably just bought a Centerforce. Well, you could imagine what I was feeling at this moment...not too happy.
I decided to call Southbend and ask them what they thought might be the problem, and to check to make sure that I had the right clutch. I had to call several different times (about 4 total i think) and I basically got transfered from person to person each time, telling my problem over and over. Everyone I talked to, that day, did not seem to know anything about the hydraulic clutch set-up on our trucks, and most of them seemed puzzled when I said I had a Viper truck...like they had never heard of such a thing. The only thing they could tell me to do was to take the clutch back off and compare it to the stocker to see if there were any major differences, and then call them back. By this time I was starting to get very frustated and peeved..I was wondering what happened to the knowledgable staff, or person, I spoke with when I ordered this thing?!! I was thinking how could a company make a performance clutch for a vehicle they don't know anything about or have never heard of??!! :dontknow: :dontknow:
So, I took the clutch back off and compared it to the stocker as instructed. There was a 3/8" difference in the circle diameter that the the clutch fingers make (3/8" larger opening), but the depth seemed normal. So, I called back to report what I had found, and they were closed. I took vaction days off work to change it out, so you could imagine I was ticked off when i coundn't do anything else that day because they were closed, and it was only 4:00p...especially after going back and forth with them all day.
Well, you could imagine at this point, I was ready to pack it up and send it back, but I remained calm and waited for the morning to report my findings. I called first thing the next day...this time I got the guy I talked to originally...come to find out, he was the only person at that time (so I was told), that was in the know on the hydraulics system for the Viper trucks, and had been out the day before. He insured me that I had the right clutch and told me that there would be resistance against the spring with the upgraded hydraulics slave cylinder, and gave me some tips to assist in getting the clutch in. The tips were to take the cap of the reservior and open the bleeder screw to reduce pressure against the cylinder...that simple.
Armed with this new knowledge I bolted the clutch back on to the flywheel, retorqued, and tried to install the tranny again. I got to the same point and it stopped again..same problem, but this time I kept at it and with a bunch of jiggling, jostling, pushing and cursing, I finally got it close enough to get the bolts in and they did the rest of the work. Finally, after two and a half days...success!! I was relieved at this point.
the Performance...
I went with the more conservative style break-in, driving it easy for about 650 miles or so before ever dumping the clutch or powering through the gears. I had some concerns with some mild slow chattering type actions from the clutch, but overall the clutch performed very well. I assumed that since this was a performance type clutch, that I would have less of a smooth operation. Just to be sure, I called Southbend and they assured me this was normal and should improve with more miles and break-in. He also pointed out that the new flywheel I bought from Dodge was not totally flat out of the box, which could be contributing to the mild chattering, and should improve with time.
I now have over 1200 miles on the clutch and it is still perfoming very well, though it seems to very noisy in neautral. I hope it is my ears playing tricks on me, but I think it may be getting louder. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is normal. I'm thinking this may be caused by the differences in the pressure plate finger design and/or diameter difference...I just hope that its not eating the release bearing up.
Overall, I think that Southbend knows how to build a good clutch, and in their field of expertise (diesel trucks, etc.), I'm sure they are top contenders, but I wonder just how much actual R & D and road testing have been done on the clutch design for our trucks. Serious concerns are raised when only one person out of the many I talked to have knowledge of our vehicles and the systems they use. I was also disappointed with the customer service I recieved from most of the staff. I was made to feel like I was a bourden when I called with questions...with the exception of Pete, he was very knowledgable and willing to help.
The ordering...
It started off pretty good, called Southbend, got some info on their products. The man I spoke with, who seemed knowledgable and confident in their products, suggested the stage 2...1 side Furamic and 1 side organic for the use that I intended...cost was $650. After I considered what the man had told me and the high recommendations I had heard on the their clutches, I called back the next day and ordered the clutch....it arrived within 3 days of ordering. The product looked very nice and of high quality.
The install....
..everything bolted up fine, but when I went to install the tranny, it wouldn't go in the last 2 inches or so....checked the alignment and all that jazz...tried again...same problem. The pressure plate fingers were coming in contact with the release bearing about 2 inches or more out, holding it back from the bellhousing. This may be normal, but since this is my first clutch replacement with a centrifugal slave design, I had no clue. So I called Roe Racing to ask if this is normal (since I bought the slave upgrade from them), and they said no, that the tranny should go in with no resistance...he also said that he had never heard of this problem with a Centerforce clutch before...I told him that it was a Southbend Clutch...he said he had never heard of that company before, and that was probably the problem, and that I should have probably just bought a Centerforce. Well, you could imagine what I was feeling at this moment...not too happy.
I decided to call Southbend and ask them what they thought might be the problem, and to check to make sure that I had the right clutch. I had to call several different times (about 4 total i think) and I basically got transfered from person to person each time, telling my problem over and over. Everyone I talked to, that day, did not seem to know anything about the hydraulic clutch set-up on our trucks, and most of them seemed puzzled when I said I had a Viper truck...like they had never heard of such a thing. The only thing they could tell me to do was to take the clutch back off and compare it to the stocker to see if there were any major differences, and then call them back. By this time I was starting to get very frustated and peeved..I was wondering what happened to the knowledgable staff, or person, I spoke with when I ordered this thing?!! I was thinking how could a company make a performance clutch for a vehicle they don't know anything about or have never heard of??!! :dontknow: :dontknow:
So, I took the clutch back off and compared it to the stocker as instructed. There was a 3/8" difference in the circle diameter that the the clutch fingers make (3/8" larger opening), but the depth seemed normal. So, I called back to report what I had found, and they were closed. I took vaction days off work to change it out, so you could imagine I was ticked off when i coundn't do anything else that day because they were closed, and it was only 4:00p...especially after going back and forth with them all day.Well, you could imagine at this point, I was ready to pack it up and send it back, but I remained calm and waited for the morning to report my findings. I called first thing the next day...this time I got the guy I talked to originally...come to find out, he was the only person at that time (so I was told), that was in the know on the hydraulics system for the Viper trucks, and had been out the day before. He insured me that I had the right clutch and told me that there would be resistance against the spring with the upgraded hydraulics slave cylinder, and gave me some tips to assist in getting the clutch in. The tips were to take the cap of the reservior and open the bleeder screw to reduce pressure against the cylinder...that simple.
Armed with this new knowledge I bolted the clutch back on to the flywheel, retorqued, and tried to install the tranny again. I got to the same point and it stopped again..same problem, but this time I kept at it and with a bunch of jiggling, jostling, pushing and cursing, I finally got it close enough to get the bolts in and they did the rest of the work. Finally, after two and a half days...success!! I was relieved at this point.
the Performance...
I went with the more conservative style break-in, driving it easy for about 650 miles or so before ever dumping the clutch or powering through the gears. I had some concerns with some mild slow chattering type actions from the clutch, but overall the clutch performed very well. I assumed that since this was a performance type clutch, that I would have less of a smooth operation. Just to be sure, I called Southbend and they assured me this was normal and should improve with more miles and break-in. He also pointed out that the new flywheel I bought from Dodge was not totally flat out of the box, which could be contributing to the mild chattering, and should improve with time.
I now have over 1200 miles on the clutch and it is still perfoming very well, though it seems to very noisy in neautral. I hope it is my ears playing tricks on me, but I think it may be getting louder. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is normal. I'm thinking this may be caused by the differences in the pressure plate finger design and/or diameter difference...I just hope that its not eating the release bearing up.
Overall, I think that Southbend knows how to build a good clutch, and in their field of expertise (diesel trucks, etc.), I'm sure they are top contenders, but I wonder just how much actual R & D and road testing have been done on the clutch design for our trucks. Serious concerns are raised when only one person out of the many I talked to have knowledge of our vehicles and the systems they use. I was also disappointed with the customer service I recieved from most of the staff. I was made to feel like I was a bourden when I called with questions...with the exception of Pete, he was very knowledgable and willing to help.
Last edited:
