clutch facts
The original Sachs clutch I still think is the best deal going for the first gen trucks... The fleets used to get 3 to 400,000 miles out of them... Even then most of the failures were throw out bearings locking up then melting the fingers on the pressure plate... Hardly the fault of the clutch. Greasing the throw out would have saved most of them.
A year and a half ago I took the original clutch out of my 93 daily driver to inspect it and replace the throw out bearing and the leaking rear main seal.
It had 223,000 miles on it. . I measured the friction material on the disc and found that it was only . 006 thinner than the new disc I had. . I just put it back in...
Granted I take care of my truck and do not over load it... I also know how to drive a stick. But most of the miles were city miles which are hard on clutches...
There has never been a clutch ever come out of Detroit in a light vehicle that has had as an outstanding service record as the one that was put in the first gen trucks... Not ever !
The 12" that came in the 94 up trucks was redesigned in 94 because it was obvious that the Sachs 13 was made too well and cost us too much...
There was a service bulletin put out on the change... It said that the new smaller lighter clutch was the "new improved model " to stop clutch chatter problems... It also said that it was to be used in place of the 13" in the early trucks for better performance...
It was all a lie ! The purpose of the redesigned 12" was to save cost and weight... The only thing that really improved was Chryslers profit margin...
The newer 12 " cost 1/3 of what the 13" did. . Interestingly enough the list price never came down in the dealers price list...
One last thing I will mention is that ... When the trucks were first being developed we tried all the clutches that we had used in the gas trucks + a whole lot of others... None of them held up well enough during testing to be used in production... It was decided that a whole new clutch needed to be developed if we were going to get the trucks threw warrantee with out failure.
Chrysler and Sachs engineers both worked for 3 years developing the clutch we used. It was over built due to the fact that we did not know what to expect. As you all know the Cummins engine just does not quit... The clutch is the weak link... We just made sure it was not ... By the 93 model we knew that the clutch was too good. . It had less than 2% failure rate in the first 4 years it was used... . Another thing to note is that the 13" first gen clutch
was never used in any other truck , tractor or machine on the planet except
our 89 to 93 diesel trucks... It's been 14 years since it was last used. I suspect that it will soon be discontinued... . Or in Chrysler lingo... . they will be
"NS1" Sadly enough... A term that all the first gen guys are going to be getting well acquainted
with in the future
MMiller said:
I wondered why we had not heard from you lately. I was wondering if you had let your susbcription lapse. I hope and pray that you have a quick recovery so you can continue to restore and save old dodge trucks.
AS far as the clutches, I just ordered a new South Bend Con O today. FWIW the Sachs clutch has put up with lots of abuse and is a very good clutch, even at twice the power they were hit with stock. Mine is making noise, and sense I have the getrag out again, I'm putting in a new SBC.
Michael
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
