Breaking Clutches

[Kent Kuykendall]

Is anyone else having trouble keeping clutches in their trucks when towing with a bombed truck? Below are my mods. this last clutch only lasted 3 months and the hub busted.



maybe de bombing is the answer.



Kent

 

[Sled Puller]

You may want to check into www.enterpriseengine.com



Proably overkill for trailer toating, but it will last.



Their clutch is also easier to drive than my last "Hi-Po" clutch was. Very smooth engagement.

Gene

 

[D Factor]

GIVE ENTERPRISE ENGINE A CALL THEY HAVE CLUTCHES BUILT FOR TRUCK PULLING BUT ALSO HAVE VERY GOOD ROAD MANNERS. I HAVE HAD ONE IN MY TRUCK FOR CLOSE TO TWO YEARS WITH NO CLUTCH RELATED PROBLEMS. THESE CLUTCHES HOLD SOME SERIOUSLY BOMBED TRUCKS AND I AM SURE THEY WILL WORK FOR YOURS. CHECK OUT THEIR WEB SITE AT www.ENTERPRISEENGINE.COM. HOPE THIS HELPS.

 

[BV]

Do a search on South Bend

 

[D Factor]

He already said he has a south bend.

Is that better Gene?

 

[Kent Kuykendall]

I called those guys at Enterprise and, when I do this again I think I'll go with a Dual disk set up that won't break.



Kent

 

[DEZLPWR]

How do you keep breaking clutches?

Kent,

Enquiring minds want to know... . I thought that SBC clutches were pretty indestructable. Peter, wanna chime in here? How much weight are you pulling, and what are you doing to the clutch to cause it to wear out so fast?

 

[Kent Kuykendall]

I drive it just like I have every other truck I have ever owned. I tow 5-9K trailers. I am around 350 HP and I did not expect the SB to break like the Centerforce did. Peter and Chip have been fine through the whole thing but it still costs me labor and my time each time I have to put in another. Hopefully the first SB was defective and the hub on the replacement won't break.



Kent

 

[Sled Puller]

Originally posted by exhausted

He already said he has a south bend.

Is that better Gene?

In case anyone is wondering, I informed Exhausted about the caps and yelling bit out here. (his first post above, all caps)



You forgot to cap South Bend!!





Now I need to tell him about the "edit" feature!LOL!

Gene

 

[Turbo Trucker]

5-9,000 pounds isn't very much. My motor is stock, but I pull up to 20,000 pounds. My stock clutch broke, but my South Bend has worked pretty good so far.

 

[South Bend Clutch]

I have done some major investigation on the problem with disc breakage... ... . why, where, when. If it is not a misalignment problem, this is what I have found. I have contacted the Manufactures and the designers for your trucks and I have been keeping notes on which ones it has happened to. The pattern became obvious. The problem is happening more then 80% of the time with the 3500 series. Everything is bigger, weight, size truck and the drive shaft. I pretty much pinned them down to say that they should have built a larger clutch for the 3500 series. The 12 1/4" clutches will work if the truck does not exceed factory specs and not used to hall past the recommended weight. Now, put the two together and the problem can exist. To resolve the problem was easy, go to the ETH clutch. The problem with this is that it has a 1 3/8" shaft so we found that Luk makes the same disc in a 1 1/4" spline for the Ford conversion assembly. Now the problem of the Flywheel, we first thought to have the customer purchase the ETH flywheel and starter spacer and the clutch could retrofit with out a problem. This could be a little expensive so we decided to purchase a slew of non-ETH flywheels and redrill them to except the 13" clutch for exchange. Not to nock the Mitchell's, they are providing a great setup for extreme use for a pretty penny. Doing the 13" upgrade will cost the consumer about 1/2 of what they are asking.



Gene, I know the 1 3/8" input shaft is heavier duty but really only needed when going to the rigged style of disc that they offer. When using a dampened or sprung hub disc the 1 1/4" shafts "WILL NOT BREAK"



This style of clutch with our tweaking has proven to hold over 600hp and 1300 foot pounds of torque and done well in the sled pulls ( I still don't recommend sled pulling)



I hope this sheds a little light and we have worked hard to give you a quality product so you can enjoy all that power without emptying the wallet.



Peter

 

[Newf Limo]

Wow, I wish more people in business took the time to help there customers. Education is key! My hats off to you South Bend. Looking forward to "needing" your products

 

[Sled Puller]

Originally posted by South Bend Clutch

When using a dampened or sprung hub disc the 1 1/4" shafts "WILL NOT BREAK"

.



Peter

Peter!

That is a BRAVE statement on this site! "Will not break" should not be in any vendors vocabulary. LOL!







Are you saying that the sprung clutches will slip or rip the centers out before the little input shaft breaks?



And whos/what truck with that clutch held 600 hp? Driving in and out of the garage to the dyno doesn't count either!



Gene

 

[Cliffman]

ETH 3500

I have an ETH 3500 with the SBC installed. I pull a 15,000 5er and I'm not afraid to give it all 400 HP . My clutch is holding just fine thank you very much Peter

 

[HC]

South Bend - Centerforce?

Centerforce - South Bend?

Centerforce - seems to have been around longer...

The scales are tipping...



Wait - new information, right here on the TDR!

Those scales are tipping back the other way...



Thanks for the additional insights!

 

[Sled Puller]

HC,

I have a wonderful rebuilt Centerforce with the updated disc, should be good for 300 hp,NO sled pulling! 1/2 price of new.

It needs a new home, besides the spare parts shelf in my garage!



Gene

 

[CUMINNTSTRKN]

Originally posted by MGM











And whos/what truck with that clutch held 600 hp? Driving in and out of the garage to the dyno doesn't count either!



Gene

gene



trust me the clutch will hold 600hp while towing a 18k# trailer, i just had to try it. once the con-fe eth clutch is engaged i think it's pretty tuff to break that baby loose.



jim

 

[Kent Kuykendall]

South Bend Service

I wanted to let you guys know what Peter has done for me so far. The clutch that broke was the Con O, I guess it is a 12 or 12. 25 or something like that. Well he sent me a replacement just like that without even inspecting the broken one did not even want to see it. Well after I agreed to that and it arived, I decided that I would like to go to the HO 13" set up that he had posted about in this thread. So yesterday (sat. ) I sent Peter an email with my phone #'s. And today on sunday, he called me and offer me the 13 inch HO Con FE clutch with an already modified flywheel. All I have to do is send him my flywheel in trade for the one that he will have drilled to except the 13 inch clutch. So I ask him how much this will cost me and he said nothing. That he will just send it to replace the original one. So I still have the Con O that he already had sent me (just clutch disk, I was to use the presure plat off the broke one as it only had 3 or 4000 miles on it). So I asked him if I should send him this one back and he said that I could just send the clutch disk because the pressure plate was used and he only sold new stuff. I then went on to say that my brother needed a clutch for his 93 3500 2x4 and he said that it would fit and work for it as it was stock and would remain that way with over 200 K on it. I ask him how much I should have my brother send him for it and he said just get for it what you can and it would help offset the labor cost that I had had to do my clutch change. How do ya like that.



I



I will let you know how this all works out after a few miles.



Thanks to all that helped educate me about these clutches.



Kent

 

[DEZLPWR]

SBC Customer Service....

It doesn't get any better than that!

 

[HiPerf360]

Kent, I had a similar problem with South Bend's customer service... LOL For some reason the CON-OFE just wont hold in my truck, We (Peter and I) think it is my stomp-shifting problem. He has been so helpful with this problem and even decided to build a custom clutch with come kind of counter weight system to help the clamp load at higher RPMs and all I have to do is drive the ____ out of it. Hopefully this will work or we will try again. I would suggest SBC to anyone.



Peter is the best!