Just got off the phone with South Bend tech

[Hardline]

The guy over at South Bend was very informative and a super nice guy to talk to. For those who do not know my situation here goes. I bought a 97 F350 4x4 for a smoking deal with a broken ZF5. Ended up the case was bad and all internal parts so I had a complete assembly built with all new part$. I also had a South Bend CON OFE installed at the same time. While idleing the truck made a loud noise that sounded like a LOUD PTO on a dump truck. The tranny company pulled the tranny back out and went through everything again and assured me that nothing looked wrong. I had it listened to by 2 other professional tranny companies and we decided to leave it alone and run it that it was common for this clutch.

Fast forward a couple months to the DFW GTG and John Wayne has just installed the same clutch so I asked him to listen to his. His makes NO noise at all. So today I called the tranny shop and had a bit of a discussion with them about it (got a little heated). After I got off the phone with them I called South Bend directly. Apparently this sound is common. They actually have two versions of the CON OFE one with a HD disc and one with a disc like what is on the LUKE discs. He assured me that he has gone over this many times and that the disc in my truck will last longer and hold up better than the LUKE style disc but would just be louder. I can live with that as long as my tranny does not go South while on a road trip. I feel more at ease now. JJ

[MrJohnWayne]

well I'm glad that got smoothed over. It just amazes me the difference in the sounds between yours and mine.

As long as she stays on the road I guess all is well

[overl0rd]

Mine makes all kinds of noise at idle, and at low speeds in gear. The ZF is a pretty noisy box by itself, but without cush springs in the pressure plate or flywheel little engine vibrations can make it make noise too. Mine has a couple of not so hot injectors that I'm going to bet cause my noise.

[Hardline]

Originally Posted by overl0rd

Mine makes all kinds of noise at idle, and at low speeds in gear. The ZF is a pretty noisy box by itself, but without cush springs in the pressure plate or flywheel little engine vibrations can make it make noise too. Mine has a couple of not so hot injectors that I'm going to bet cause my noise.

YUP He did mention that also. He said that if you have any type of injector issue it will magnify the pulses on the crank and make more noise. I have a long list of parts that are going to be installed on the truck in the coming months so should take care of any of those issues I "might" be having. Umm Dirk