I just got my new Southbend MU 1947 Con OFE and both the disk and pressure plate are stamped LUK. What all do they do to the LUK to make it a Southbend for the extra $$$? Is it just relined on one side with the Feramic lining and a heavier sping on the pressure plate. I see where LUK has a Pro Gold that is supposed to be 450HP 1000TQ like the Southbend I got, but for about $400 cheaper. Is this what they sell in a rebadged box? Did I pay more for the popular brand or was it money well spent? Jake
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Are all Southbend clutch's worked over Luk's
- Thread starter JFinke
- Start Date
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I had one of those Luks and it slipped. The Con O didnt and more power was helped by The OFE. I have a friend with the Luk and it works well for him and he has dynoed more than me but is running a 24 valve so dont know if the torque input is identical or not. I would go with the SB even as the cost is more because they will help you with problems way past the time any one else would have told you to forget it. I know from experience and was amazed at the willingness to "make it right" .
Mark:
I have farted in church, but it just was a very private moment.
As for the clutch, I had the con o fe in mine and I didn't like it at all. To much grabbing. I asked how to stop it , on TDR. Well Peter asked me to give him a call. The next monday I call and told him what I was doing with it and he told me what I needed. Now get this. The next day when I got home from work there was a new clutch on the back porch. And this was after 1 1/2 years with the fe in use. On the strip even, and towing 15K lbs most of the time. And Peter would not let me pay for it. I had bought one already and he wanted me to have what I needed. Said he wanted me to be happy. He said to save the other one for a spare.
Point is, yeah, its happened. Both things. but the difference is Peter made it right, past what was necessary of himself, and no one heard me in church.
So all is well.
. . Preston. .
I have farted in church, but it just was a very private moment.
As for the clutch, I had the con o fe in mine and I didn't like it at all. To much grabbing. I asked how to stop it , on TDR. Well Peter asked me to give him a call. The next monday I call and told him what I was doing with it and he told me what I needed. Now get this. The next day when I got home from work there was a new clutch on the back porch. And this was after 1 1/2 years with the fe in use. On the strip even, and towing 15K lbs most of the time. And Peter would not let me pay for it. I had bought one already and he wanted me to have what I needed. Said he wanted me to be happy. He said to save the other one for a spare.
Point is, yeah, its happened. Both things. but the difference is Peter made it right, past what was necessary of himself, and no one heard me in church.
So all is well.
. . Preston. .
Con FE here and had Zero problems and like the holding power at my level 450+/-... buy once and be done with it unless you power way up then buy twice LOL
WOW. that is impressive to say the least about the customer service. I was talking to a guy today that had an 03 HO, and he was wondering about the clutch. I told him the service at SBC got more than great reviews here on the TDR. If I ever get fuelled well enough to need one, I may give Peter a call.
Daniel
Daniel
Dan_69GTX
TDR MEMBER
Several questions regarding "LUK" on the parts.
I'm sure SBC doesn't make all the parts for a clutch - they just make them work right - so of course there may be markings other than SBC on the units they assemble.
If the stamping is important - The "stock" clutch is LUK - so why don't you just buy a stock clutch - "after all they are all the same" - BUT you already know they are not all the same or you wouldn't have bought the SBC clutch.
Yes, SBC sells cutches and parts, - why - to make money. But to make money they need customers - we are those customers. I haven't heard of anything bad about their product or customer service - to me that is more important than price!!
Talk about fair - I called Peter about a clutch problem - the stock clutch. He politely told me that the clutch wasn't the problem - just the way I expected it to work was the problem. He told me I didn't need a clutch unless I wanted the clutch to act differently. How many dealers say "don't buy from me you are wasting your money"??
Well, when I needed a clutch I went back, bought a clutch and input shaft from them - all because the pilot bearing went bad.
Yes, you can ALWAYS find a similar product chearper elsewhere (especially after you already bought it). BUT - are you just buying the product, or are you buying the product from someone who cares about you after they get your $$?
Dan
I'm sure SBC doesn't make all the parts for a clutch - they just make them work right - so of course there may be markings other than SBC on the units they assemble.
If the stamping is important - The "stock" clutch is LUK - so why don't you just buy a stock clutch - "after all they are all the same" - BUT you already know they are not all the same or you wouldn't have bought the SBC clutch.
Yes, SBC sells cutches and parts, - why - to make money. But to make money they need customers - we are those customers. I haven't heard of anything bad about their product or customer service - to me that is more important than price!!
Talk about fair - I called Peter about a clutch problem - the stock clutch. He politely told me that the clutch wasn't the problem - just the way I expected it to work was the problem. He told me I didn't need a clutch unless I wanted the clutch to act differently. How many dealers say "don't buy from me you are wasting your money"??
Well, when I needed a clutch I went back, bought a clutch and input shaft from them - all because the pilot bearing went bad.
Yes, you can ALWAYS find a similar product chearper elsewhere (especially after you already bought it). BUT - are you just buying the product, or are you buying the product from someone who cares about you after they get your $$?
Dan
I'm another very satisfied SBC customer. Their customers posting here on the forum convinced me to buy one. When I bought my clutch they could of easily sold a more expense one but they said I did not need it. Yeah, it cost more than a LUK or some of the other clutch of the week special, but after seeing how much better a SBC clutch is over stock I feel it was a bargain.
Kent
Kent
These clutches are an aftermarket mod and can give you problems. You can buy a cheap one and have problems or you can buy an expensive one(twice the price+) and still have problems. Or have good luck with either. SPELLED OUT GOOD ENOUGH ? I was not so fortunate to get a good one the first time and couldn't "see eye to eye" with Peter so I took the loss and moved on. Just don't bank on customer service as it is not always a 100% I am not the only one but due to not wanting to get flamed others don't post less than glowing reviews.
Craig
Well this deserves a reply!
Craig, lets go through the chain of events concerning our encounter. You purchased the (MU 13-1. 25 CON OFE) from me. After the install you experienced some shifting issues in 1st and reverse which you relayed to me over a phone conversation. I asked you to try a few things to see if it could be remedied. A few months passed by and I was having the Great Lakes TDR members coming to our shop for the day on a weekend. You showed up. We got into your truck and took it for a spin. I agreed with you that that was not acceptable and asked if you had done the suggested things to the truck that we had discussed. You did one of them but did not try the transmission fluid change. I said why don't you try the redline transmission fluid and see if it helps, if it does not help give me a call and lets get the clutch changed out. During this time I was seeing post after post of comments about your dislike of the clutch. Now the clutch was holding your power fine (400+hp) and operated smooth on engagement, the issue was the stiff shifting. I ran across a post where you said that you had tried the fluid change and it helped some but did not fix the problem completely. And the negative posts continued. Mined you... never a phone call to me. After the repetitive bad posts I sent you a private email asking you why you are doing this. I said all you have to do is give me a call and it will be taken care of. I said this is not how you go about getting help from me and I was wondering if you were going to be happy no matter what I did to correct the problem. You replied saying that you wanted to start sledpulling and were considering a double disc clutch. I then saw another post from you saying that you were going to go sled pulling with my clutch and try to smoke the piece of @#$%. I sat back in my chair and thought WOW! Then I get a phone call from you asking about our double disc. Even with all of your negative remarks I still felt bad that you had issues and offered you as screaming deal on the DD to help offset the cost of the 1st clutch. That was the last I heard from you for some time. I then read that you purchased another brand DD clutch. My feelings were not hurt at all. I then contacted you and asked if there was anything I could do to help offset the new purchase. You told me that you had gone sled pulling on the clutch a few times and didn't know what kind of shape the clutch was in. I said lets take a look at it and go from there. You said that you were going to be in the area and would stop by. You showed up and the clutch was pretty toast. I offered you almost 1/2 of your money back just for the flywheel as there was nothing I could use out of the clutch parts. You excepted and went on your way. Since then, every time there is a clutch thread you jump in (and I must say in a professional way) say that there are other brands of clutches out there and they should way all of their options. But you keep referring to the TDR members as some sort of cult when concerning South Bend Clutch and I don't think that is fair to do. I feel I treated you with respect and did what I could do to make things right with you... you feel differently. As for the others that you made reference to (unhappy customers) afraid to post for fear of being attacked is dead wrong of you. I know that I try my hardest to please people and make them glad they chose our company to the best of my ability. I know I can not make everyone happy and base a lot of my decision on how they treat me as to how I treat them. If that is wrong then tell me now. We sell many many clutches and yes there are going to be some issues. The power levels are climbing rapidly and we are doing our best to stay up. Not even two years ago 400hp was amazing. Now it is plug and play.
Craig, I would like to say at this time... I am truly sorry that your experience with me was was not up to par and I will work harder to make sure it does not happen again.
Peter
Craig, lets go through the chain of events concerning our encounter. You purchased the (MU 13-1. 25 CON OFE) from me. After the install you experienced some shifting issues in 1st and reverse which you relayed to me over a phone conversation. I asked you to try a few things to see if it could be remedied. A few months passed by and I was having the Great Lakes TDR members coming to our shop for the day on a weekend. You showed up. We got into your truck and took it for a spin. I agreed with you that that was not acceptable and asked if you had done the suggested things to the truck that we had discussed. You did one of them but did not try the transmission fluid change. I said why don't you try the redline transmission fluid and see if it helps, if it does not help give me a call and lets get the clutch changed out. During this time I was seeing post after post of comments about your dislike of the clutch. Now the clutch was holding your power fine (400+hp) and operated smooth on engagement, the issue was the stiff shifting. I ran across a post where you said that you had tried the fluid change and it helped some but did not fix the problem completely. And the negative posts continued. Mined you... never a phone call to me. After the repetitive bad posts I sent you a private email asking you why you are doing this. I said all you have to do is give me a call and it will be taken care of. I said this is not how you go about getting help from me and I was wondering if you were going to be happy no matter what I did to correct the problem. You replied saying that you wanted to start sledpulling and were considering a double disc clutch. I then saw another post from you saying that you were going to go sled pulling with my clutch and try to smoke the piece of @#$%. I sat back in my chair and thought WOW! Then I get a phone call from you asking about our double disc. Even with all of your negative remarks I still felt bad that you had issues and offered you as screaming deal on the DD to help offset the cost of the 1st clutch. That was the last I heard from you for some time. I then read that you purchased another brand DD clutch. My feelings were not hurt at all. I then contacted you and asked if there was anything I could do to help offset the new purchase. You told me that you had gone sled pulling on the clutch a few times and didn't know what kind of shape the clutch was in. I said lets take a look at it and go from there. You said that you were going to be in the area and would stop by. You showed up and the clutch was pretty toast. I offered you almost 1/2 of your money back just for the flywheel as there was nothing I could use out of the clutch parts. You excepted and went on your way. Since then, every time there is a clutch thread you jump in (and I must say in a professional way) say that there are other brands of clutches out there and they should way all of their options. But you keep referring to the TDR members as some sort of cult when concerning South Bend Clutch and I don't think that is fair to do. I feel I treated you with respect and did what I could do to make things right with you... you feel differently. As for the others that you made reference to (unhappy customers) afraid to post for fear of being attacked is dead wrong of you. I know that I try my hardest to please people and make them glad they chose our company to the best of my ability. I know I can not make everyone happy and base a lot of my decision on how they treat me as to how I treat them. If that is wrong then tell me now. We sell many many clutches and yes there are going to be some issues. The power levels are climbing rapidly and we are doing our best to stay up. Not even two years ago 400hp was amazing. Now it is plug and play.
Craig, I would like to say at this time... I am truly sorry that your experience with me was was not up to par and I will work harder to make sure it does not happen again.
Peter
OK, let me tell my South Bend clutch story. After installing the DD2's and slipping the stock clutch, I ordered a Con OFE from SBC and had it installed per South Bend's instructions by a local shop that's close to my home. When I picked up the truck, the clutch worked fine, but I had a pronounced first order vibration (i. e. , at engine RPM) that wasn't there before. You could sit in the truck at idle and feel the seat and floorboards shake! 
I called Peter who assured me that all of the components of the OFE are carefully balanced, as I would have expected. I then asked my local shop to get in touch with Peter and work together to get the problem fixed. According to my local shop, Peter agreed to pay for corrective repairs if the problem turned out to be his - fair enough.
After tearing it down, the local shop found out that the machine shop that ground the flywheel had screwed up, and the flywheel had 0. 047" runout on the face. Even though they didn't perform the machine work, the local shop had sent the flywheel out to a shop of their choice for the work to be done, and obviously they had not put a dial indicator on the flywheel before assembling everything the first time, so they stood good for the repairs.
My point - unfortunately, stuff happens. When it does, all one can hope for is that he is dealing with upstanding, reputable business people who will fulfill their responsibilities to make it right. In my case, I feel that both SBC and my local shop did all that I could reasonably expect of them. That makes me a satisfied customer.
Rusty
I called Peter who assured me that all of the components of the OFE are carefully balanced, as I would have expected. I then asked my local shop to get in touch with Peter and work together to get the problem fixed. According to my local shop, Peter agreed to pay for corrective repairs if the problem turned out to be his - fair enough.
After tearing it down, the local shop found out that the machine shop that ground the flywheel had screwed up, and the flywheel had 0. 047" runout on the face. Even though they didn't perform the machine work, the local shop had sent the flywheel out to a shop of their choice for the work to be done, and obviously they had not put a dial indicator on the flywheel before assembling everything the first time, so they stood good for the repairs.
My point - unfortunately, stuff happens. When it does, all one can hope for is that he is dealing with upstanding, reputable business people who will fulfill their responsibilities to make it right. In my case, I feel that both SBC and my local shop did all that I could reasonably expect of them. That makes me a satisfied customer.
Rusty
SBC have to be good or people would say so here. i believe that SBC makes the best clutches and also the most expensive. When i get my 97 and its time for a clutch i will give SBC a hard look but i am going to look elsewhere also and see if i can save some $$$ b/c i have too. if money was of no concern i would not even look anywhere else. I will say this about Peter i have never met him as i am a long way from most of yall but he is a stand up guy and it bothers me to see someone flaming him. He has set the bar high and no one is perfect but Peter sounds like he knows how to run a business. Whiners are not needed on this site. If i buy a SBC i will say whether i like it or not. and if something is wrong and peter is helpful i will give the full story.
You can ABOLUTELY, POSITIVELY Bet MY next clutch will be from Peter at SBC!
No IF's or BUTS about it - a guy can't possibly get this much support, both here publicly, and casual comments at various events, without putting out a GREAT product, and then STANDING behind it to the max!
Call me a "cult member" if ya like - but *I* want what has been well proven to WORK in MY truck!
No IF's or BUTS about it - a guy can't possibly get this much support, both here publicly, and casual comments at various events, without putting out a GREAT product, and then STANDING behind it to the max!
Call me a "cult member" if ya like - but *I* want what has been well proven to WORK in MY truck!
I need an education on these Double disc clutches
peter, help me out
I had a sb ofe in my last truck
it was a bit grabby for backing something up slowly but did what I bought it to do - hold the power
im planning on about 400- 450 hp in my 03
what is the recomendation for this hp
and towing 13,000# occasionally
is the double disc more grabby?
would it make it easier or harder to do that slow backing of trailers?
I agree that some people are a little quick to flame on this site
while yet others will not flame when they should
peter has always been good to everyone I know
peter, help me out
I had a sb ofe in my last truck
it was a bit grabby for backing something up slowly but did what I bought it to do - hold the power
im planning on about 400- 450 hp in my 03
what is the recomendation for this hp
and towing 13,000# occasionally
is the double disc more grabby?
would it make it easier or harder to do that slow backing of trailers?
I agree that some people are a little quick to flame on this site
while yet others will not flame when they should
peter has always been good to everyone I know
My point is kinda proved by this these replys
Heres what I am saying people I am the 1 in a 1000 that had a problem. It may not be often but it can happen, when I searched for my first clutch I found nothing that was negative about SBC so I felt that buying a clutch from there would be a "sure thing" and low and behold I had a bad one. This board is no good if people don't post the good and bad, now if ya post something bad people think you are flaming them automatically and it is apparent to me by the above post people can even accept that someone could have a bad experience with SBC. I have never said Peter doesn't build good clutches the ofe I had held the power but I DID have a shifting problem. I was contacted by some one the very first night about his clutch that he was having the same problem with but was affraid to post and get flamed we kept in contact while both of us dealt with our problems. He chose to "put up with" the shifting problem and I did also till I could afford to get something different.
After reading Peters reply it is very apperant that we still don't remember/agree on how things went and that is fine people see things differently and that is that.
When new people do a search on the tdr they need to find all the info good and bad this thread helps to balance out the million good and a lonely 1 bad experience.
Let me say it again NOT all of SBC clutches are bad, the ONE I got was and couldn't work it out thats it.
Craig
Heres what I am saying people I am the 1 in a 1000 that had a problem. It may not be often but it can happen, when I searched for my first clutch I found nothing that was negative about SBC so I felt that buying a clutch from there would be a "sure thing" and low and behold I had a bad one. This board is no good if people don't post the good and bad, now if ya post something bad people think you are flaming them automatically and it is apparent to me by the above post people can even accept that someone could have a bad experience with SBC. I have never said Peter doesn't build good clutches the ofe I had held the power but I DID have a shifting problem. I was contacted by some one the very first night about his clutch that he was having the same problem with but was affraid to post and get flamed we kept in contact while both of us dealt with our problems. He chose to "put up with" the shifting problem and I did also till I could afford to get something different.
After reading Peters reply it is very apperant that we still don't remember/agree on how things went and that is fine people see things differently and that is that.
When new people do a search on the tdr they need to find all the info good and bad this thread helps to balance out the million good and a lonely 1 bad experience.
Let me say it again NOT all of SBC clutches are bad, the ONE I got was and couldn't work it out thats it.
Craig
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Issue 128 – Digital Version
Digital Magazines
FREE!
TDR Test Drive - Digital Edition
Renew
Subscribe
Gift Subscriptions
Back Issues
Subscription Status
Address Change Form
Buyer's Guides
Ram Diagnostic Trouble Codes
The Perfect Collection
The Perfect Collection Vol. II
TSB Updates
Dodge/Cummins Historical Overview
Cameron Collection
What Makes Us Tick?
Product Showcase
Advertising
