best SMF kit?

superpsd

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Well my dual mass is worn out again. Time to go single mass this time. I hear pros and cons about all the kits available. Leaning towards the LUK kit as price is great. Anyone to steer me toward any other brands. The Valair and South Bend come at quite a higher price.
 
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Depends on HP / Torque you are putting out. Stock you can use what you want. Over stock pretty much Southbend or Valair.

On the 96 I had a Southbend for for around 100k miles and the disc hub dampening springs started coming apart which I thought was premature. Went back with a Valair and have the same operation but more noise. It has more HD appearing springs in the hub. Durability vs noise I guess. Either is good. If I knew about the noise I might have gone SB again. Valair was cheaper shipped.
 

superpsd

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Well my power level is mild and I dont race, burnout, launch, or tow heavy so I just went with the LUK kit. 300 shipped is far cheaper. I think some of the other brand clutches will work with the LUK flywheel so I can upgrade latter if the need arises.
 
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I also had a SouthBend with the same hub damping spring issues as Garbage Mechanic. The replacement disk I got from them was a much heavier/better design than the earlier version. I didn't get a chance to run that disk very long before I sold the truck. Cheers!
 

ghohouston

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Bump for you. Another question, where have yall bought the luk clutch kits? I asked a shop I know the owner of, and he told me his cost on it was over $700.
 

superpsd

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The standard Luk SMF clutch kit ran me just over 300 thru amazon. Goes in Saturday.
 

superpsd

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Well the Luk kit is in and I am happy with it so far and I don't hear any gear rollever noise but I will have to get use to the Honda like clutch feel. If I ever have a clutch problem at least later I can resurface the wheel and upgrade the clutch. Thanks.
 

redneckabbott

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I may be going with a luk sometime soon. I went with valair and hate it. I have a bad shutter that vibrates the whole truck on engagement. I wouldn't say this is common with them but I've seen several posts with the same problem. I contacted them and they said cleanliness on the install and break-in plays a big part in how it engages. It sucks to drive so I'm looking at other brands to replace it with.
 
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Same results here with Valair shuddering. Surgically clean on install, very careful not to "tweek" the center hub with trans misalignment during install, broke in as instructed. Shuddered. Found an unintentional fix for it though. Blew the back cover off the HPOP one day, dumped a couple gallons of 15W40 into the valley which of course exited through the valley drain out the bellhousing. Not much shuddering now, just slipping at high boost in 4th gear! Must have got oil on the disc. So I guess it will get swapped again. Back to Southbend if I do.
 

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