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Flathead Fever · 06-07-2025, 09:17 PM

I replaced a lot of clutches at work that the discs were worn down to the metal, no lining left at all. Those phone co drivers "wouldn't" let us know when the clutch was staring to slip, only when the truck wouldn't go anymore and it was towed into the garage. The using department got the toe bill for letting he clutch go that far. The rebuilt clutches we used at the seemed to be pretty good in the 1980s. Except one time I got one boxed wrong. I replaced at least one clutch a week and there were five of us mechanics, lots and lots of clutches. We always measured everything, flipped the pressure plates upside down on the bench and made sure the machined surface of the pressure plate was level between the new one and the old one. Do not let go of the original clutch for a core until the job is done. I've seen people turn the core in before they had installed the new one, what if it's wrong clutch in the box. Now you don't have the original one to compare it to.

The rebuilds lasted as long as the originals with those crazy drivers. I had one driver that didn't get "one week" out of a new Chevy C-50 aerial boom truck clutch. The flywheel was machined; factory new clutch and he burned every bit of lining off the disc and then he tried to blame us. They took the boom truck away from him and gave him a ladder. The using department got the entire bill for that one.

We worked nights but we got off early on holidays. One Christmas we had everything done and there was just one guy left out, we were just waiting for him to come in and we could go home early. He comes in with a fried clutch, it had probably been slipping for a week. We were pissed. The boss said, you guys can go home when that truck is back in its stall. The whole shop jumped on it, somebody was inside taking the floor mat and shifter out while it was up in the air, another guy on the driveshaft, one guy was in the parts room looking up the clutch, two guys pulled the trans. We had that truck back in service in an hour. Normally it took about four-hours for one guy to do the job.

The drivers also blew up rearends, lots and lots of them. Blown spider gears, pinion gears broken in half, ring gears missing teeth, broken axles. Regardless of whether it's the clutch or rearend you're going to need remove the driveshaft. We'd pull the driveshaft and put a big pipe wrench on the differentials yoke and block it so it could not turn and then tried to rotate both wheels, if you could turn both of them at the same time in the same direction the rearend was blown up. We'd also would stick a magnet in the rearends filler plug hole and see if pieces of gears came out. That was usually a pretty good sign you'd found the problem; the magnet works on transmission to.

06-07-2025, 09:17 PM	#8
Flathead Fever Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Yucaipa, CA Posts: 1,359	Re: Clutch or not I replaced a lot of clutches at work that the discs were worn down to the metal, no lining left at all. Those phone co drivers "wouldn't" let us know when the clutch was staring to slip, only when the truck wouldn't go anymore and it was towed into the garage. The using department got the toe bill for letting he clutch go that far. The rebuilt clutches we used at the seemed to be pretty good in the 1980s. Except one time I got one boxed wrong. I replaced at least one clutch a week and there were five of us mechanics, lots and lots of clutches. We always measured everything, flipped the pressure plates upside down on the bench and made sure the machined surface of the pressure plate was level between the new one and the old one. Do not let go of the original clutch for a core until the job is done. I've seen people turn the core in before they had installed the new one, what if it's wrong clutch in the box. Now you don't have the original one to compare it to. The rebuilds lasted as long as the originals with those crazy drivers. I had one driver that didn't get "one week" out of a new Chevy C-50 aerial boom truck clutch. The flywheel was machined; factory new clutch and he burned every bit of lining off the disc and then he tried to blame us. They took the boom truck away from him and gave him a ladder. The using department got the entire bill for that one. We worked nights but we got off early on holidays. One Christmas we had everything done and there was just one guy left out, we were just waiting for him to come in and we could go home early. He comes in with a fried clutch, it had probably been slipping for a week. We were pissed. The boss said, you guys can go home when that truck is back in its stall. The whole shop jumped on it, somebody was inside taking the floor mat and shifter out while it was up in the air, another guy on the driveshaft, one guy was in the parts room looking up the clutch, two guys pulled the trans. We had that truck back in service in an hour. Normally it took about four-hours for one guy to do the job. The drivers also blew up rearends, lots and lots of them. Blown spider gears, pinion gears broken in half, ring gears missing teeth, broken axles. Regardless of whether it's the clutch or rearend you're going to need remove the driveshaft. We'd pull the driveshaft and put a big pipe wrench on the differentials yoke and block it so it could not turn and then tried to rotate both wheels, if you could turn both of them at the same time in the same direction the rearend was blown up. We'd also would stick a magnet in the rearends filler plug hole and see if pieces of gears came out. That was usually a pretty good sign you'd found the problem; the magnet works on transmission to.