I have an '08 Dodge 2500 with the Cummins and 6-spd. My clutch is going out at only 80k. I've talked with several shops and the best price locally is $1300 at AAMCO. This truck, and apparently Ford from what he tells me, uses a double flywheel setup that's prone to failure. AAMCO has a kit that converts it to the old reliable single flywheel. He says it's more reliable and cheaper, too, so that's the way I'm going. Isn't high tech wonderful?

Flywheel/clutch technological "improvement" is apparently born from the boredom of engineers, one might think? If something fairly simple has proven to work well over long periods of time, some bozo will try to change it.

We once had a '94 GMC Sonoma 4x4 with a five speed manual tranny. The tranny self destructed "at speed" when she was borin' down an Interstate in VA, locking the rear wheels momentarily and almost causing her to get run over by a semi.

Local dealer installed a new tranny (still under warranty), never did a thing to the clutch assembly, which was chattery/jumpy afterwards. Got it home, took it to the dealer she bought it from new.

They had the flywheel resurfaced, installed new clutch kit including throwout bearing and "improved" clutch fork. When ya let the clutch out, it grabbed ahold about an inch from the floor and the truck took a "great leap forward".

A mechanic bud that had the current GM shop manual, showed me the section on 4.3L V6 clutches, in which it noted that the flywheel could not be machined, needed replaced if burnt or scored. So back it went for a new flywheel, clutch kit, etc.

IIRC, the flyhweel face where it mated to the pressure plate, was of a slight cone shape design, instead of being flat? It was never right aftewards, as the clutch continued to be noisy and after awhile, got grabby again. The clutch pedal actually shook every time ya used the clutch.

My theory: When the tranny locked up and screwed up the clutch/pressure plate, it also bent the end of the crankshaft enough to make everything wobble a bit.

Most clutches that are starting to go bad will slip when you take off. This Dodge thing will slip at high speed when you accelerate or go up a steep hill but it grabs fine when taking off. It's kind of backwards. I don't know what one looks like inside.

I had a Chevy that you could tell would slip a bit if you gassed it in 2nd. That was the first warning the clutch was going out.

Call Peter at South Bend Clutch and talk to him. Their clutches are some of the best out there and you'll likely come out ahead by buying the kit from him and having it installed by a local shop.

http://www.southbendclutch.com/hd%20kit.html

Never buy a bunch of parts and expect a professional to install them.

Yup. I won't do it in my shop. Been there, done that. When the customer's parts fail, they expect me to eat the labor on their parts I didn't make a nickel on.

I know my 06 was really close to pulling through the clutch. My mechanic boosted the HP by a few (reprogrammed the ECM), and it would pull through the clutch just by stepping on the accelerator in fourth and fifth gear.

I think the whole assembly is a little delicate, but mine lasted 110K miles before she got wrecked, including about 30,000 with a 10,000 lbs trailer behind it.

I suspect that is the root of the issue for shops that won't install parts supplied by the customer.

I have a local mechanic, plenty "professional" in my opinion, that does great work at a fair price and will put what I want installed on my vehicle whether he sold the part to me or not. He's the one that installed the South Bend clutch in my 98 dodge diesel, I ordered the clutch kit and he happily put it in. Maybe it's a big city issue but in my rural area the good shops will do what you ask within reason. There is one diesel shop that I have used a couple of times that always tries to push their preferred vendor's parts, but I try not to use them for that reason. If my favored mechanic wouldn't do what I wanted then I'd find another mechanic. Mine has made plenty of money off of me over the years. Just like with gunsmiths, if a mechanic doesn't want to do what I want done then I find another one. It's my money & my vehicle, so my rules.

You shoot yourself in the foot if you insist on supplying your own parts. First, you limit yourself to the lower tier mechanics who will take on any kind of job because they need the work. Second, you have no recourse on the outcome of the job, if/when it fails. If it doesn't fit, you are out the cost, so far, for the mechanic's labor, unless you chisel him out of his labor and his materials margin.

Just bad policy.

Why does a shop need to make money on supplied parts? Most of which are probably delivered to his shop cost free. My mechanic will use parts I supply with the understanding he will not replace them if faulty. mtmuley

I have an 05 and an 2011, both had the throw out bearings go under 100k. They were under warranty, but put a new clutch in as well.

The 05 has about 250k and hasn't had any trouble since.

To answer mtmuley and Crowhunter, it may very well be a big city thing. On the other hand, I don't take my eggs to the Waffle House and ask them to cook them either. What also made the decision for me, is the unfortunate fact in our litigious society, if I accept your parts, I accept the liability to warranty both the parts and the labor as decided in a widely publicized (in the Auto Industry trade rags) test case in Maryland a year or 2 ago. Another literal PITA that I had to deal with in my shop was that the customer supplied parts were incorrect, which we discovered AFTER the transmission was removed, torn down, and the vehicle held up lift space for 4 days while the owner found the correct parts. As far as profit on the parts goes, the 10-25% that I make on parts goes toward overhead, rent, utilities and especially important, the cost of diagnostic software and training. Software updates on the cars we work on can run anywhere from $5k to $20 per year, which doesn't include the cost of replacement computers etc when the manufacturer phases out support for the existing ones.

So yes, IMO, installing customer's parts is like bobbing for apples in a septic tank.

It's just not worth it.

Different areas, different norms. It might be so in Southern California but I can assure you that it's not that way in Mississippi. The guy I normally use typically takes 1-2 weeks to get a car into his shop, he's that in demand. He's far from second tier. If there's any fault I can find with him it's that he's so busy it takes forever to get your vehicle in. The reason he's so busy is that he does good work at a fair price and he'll do what you want him to without trying to sell you stuff you don't need. The diesel shop that I've used that tries to push bully dog parts can usually take you right away, he's usually sitting there watching TV when you drive up.

Quite frankly I don't worry about having recourse, I trust the guy. In 15 years he's never done me wrong and vice versa. I know that if something breaks and it's his fault he'll fix it, if it's a bad part I brought him then I certainly don't expect him to. Most of the time I use the parts he gets himself since he owns the NAPA parts house next to his shop. If I want something special like my uprated clutch he'll just say bring it in though, no questions. In a few months my 2006 jeep liberty diesel will need a timing belt replaced, since they only made 5000 of them the parts for the VM Motori engine aren't going to be something he can get through his supply chain, I'm going to get them myself and bring them in. We've already talked about it.

I suspect it's just the difference in the way things are done between So Cal and small town Mississippi more than anything else.

For the customers who insist on bringing their own parts with them, he probably makes them wait 1-2 weeks.

I'm not trying to convince you not to be a chiseler. But your advice to other members is simply bad business.

This.
It takes two thousand dollars a day to keep our shop open for four guys.
I wouldn't trust any professional that did it how you asked, not what is correct.

I have the same truck as you, and I now have a clutch in it that I like. I went through the stock clutch towing trailers within the first 50,000miles (I'm at about 165,000 now) . I was told by 2 different dodge diesel mechanics that the stock clutch would not take the abuse that the stock 6.7 would give it. I upgraded to this : http://www.valairinc.com/performance/24g56.html and then the Street Dual Disk Kit Organic 550hp item NMU70G56DDSN-ORG

It's been a great clutch. Engagement is not too harsh and it is comfortable to drive. It grabs strong and I haven't had a single problem with it since install. I still tow much, and after I passed 100,000 miles I did a DPF delete, EGR delete, added a 4 inch turbo back exhaust, a AFE stage II cold air induction and a smarty programmer. I now abuse the clutch much more than I did at stock power, and with 115,000 miles on it there has been zero issue. They guys at Valair were really helpful and listened to what I was going to be doing with the truck, and made their recommendation on which one to get.

I too was not pleased at all about the crap stock clutch, but I spent just a little more money on the upgrade and I have been really pleased I did.

I went with a single flywheel kit with a heavy duty upgrade. It's made for extreme heat and has a heavy duty clamping capability so it can take the torque of the Cummins. When it engages, it stays engaged. It's supposed to be good for the life of the truck. I'll let you know in another 200k how long it really lasts.

My 98 Cummins had a clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and pilot bearing replaced right at 100K. I wanted to put a ceramic clutch in, but they don't make them for my truck.
I did a lot of pulling with 17K lbs plus on this truck so I wasn't surprised it went. Problem was the hydraulic actuator went bad also. Whole thimg was $2K.

Did they tell you how loud your truck is about to become?

The dual mass flywheel really cuts down on vibration and gear noise.

The clutch in my dad's 07.5 Ram 3500 went out at about 41K. He went with a single flywheel and a slightly more HD clutch.

He doesn't mind because he is about 50% deaf,but the transmission noise is ridiculous now.

It's a little louder but not that much. I've run it at 70 since I got it fixed and it's not bad at all.

I have no problem with a shop obtaining the parts but I do have a big problem with them charging me more $$ for the parts than what I can buy them over the counter for...that's just outright gouging as I feel certain that shops get a discount on purchases so why gouge the client?

I've worked as a mechanic and I never liked the mark up on parts. Its ok to charge 300% on a headlight or similar part you have setting around waiting for a customer. But to charge 100% plus for something napa just dropped at your door on order, and the customer will pay for before you do, seems wrong. If labor does not pay the bills then charge more. I dont like to be deceived, even if the end bill is the same at least its all in the open. JMHO

Auto repair shops make their money from the sale of parts and labor. They are under no obligation to price-match. When you are given an estimate, it includes both labor and materials. You can chose to sign it or not.



100%? Come on! If they charged you more for labor, you'd bitch.

Do you go to the butcher shop with your own cow? What friggin chiselers!

I have no problem paying shops retail for parts, but the shops should and probably do get parts wholesale or at a big discount. My problem is when they mark them up way above retail. That is a bad business practice.
Example. I can buy a Dodge front end stabilize bar from Adavnced Auto for about $350. Shops can probably get it for less than $300 The last quote I got, the front end shop wanted $450 for the exact same bar. That shop does not get my business any more.

When I ran a shop - we didn't care if customers bought parts elsewhere so long as they understood we warranty what we do - the labor. Up to them to fight the parts.

Parts dept didn't like it but it forced them to be competitive. More than once I went into the parts mgr's office and told him to sharpen his pencil because if he doesn't - we lose parts AND labor. He did and often.

Years ago when I worked for an LTL trucking company, we had a regular stop to deliver parts to the local Chevy dealer. Box after box would be labeled JC Whitney. I bet they didn't charge JCW's prices, though.

i do most of my own work. If lift intensive i go to my former employer and we do it, i buy my parts through their store. I guess i should say my part time employer, since i still do casual driving for them. And yes sometimes 100% since shops dont pay over the counter retail and often charge suggested retail.