New Valaire smf clutch kit is in and loud in neutral and while driving its loud when the rpms drop low. I heard they tend to get queiter as they get used,,,,, but this thing is LOUD it sounds like my dumpbody PTO is engauged,,,,,,, Anyone else have a Valaire clutch ? is it loud too?

 

I dont have a Valair Clutch but i do have a southbend. And my clutch is loud aswell in neutral. So loud that when im sitting at a red light with the truck in neutral every person around the truck is giving me weird looks.

 

sure you seated it properly in the crank?

 

Yes I put one in my dads 95 and it is louder than the engine in neutral!! They say it is gear-roll-over!!!

 

I doubt it has anything to due with the brand but I just put a Sachs in my F superduty and Ill be hanged if I can tell one bit of differnce in gear noise at idle. It will chatter when lugged a bit but that is tobe expected. I may get more noise when it warms up some too due to thinner fluid.

 

Its seated right and everything related to the clutch is new, the noise is diffenitly gear chatter its not there at all in the am when truck is stone cold but once it warms up its loud and like 57f100 people do notice one guy even called "dude you got a bad bearing in that thang",,,,,, anyway the guys at Valaire says it when quite down with use but dang this thing is just plain loud makes me think some thing not right....

btw on the Valaire site they list the Sachs clutch also for the PSD

 

It is gear roll. My Valair does it too. sometimes louder than others. I put 5 quarts in the tranny instead of the 3.4 they call for. Try that. You can add it thru the shifter hole when the shifter is removed.

It will do it when in neutral and the clutch is out and when lugging it. It is perfectly normal. The noise is from engine noises that transfer thru the flywheel and resonate in the tranny. The DMF suppressed those noises.

 

ive got one in all of my trucks and its definately louder than the dual mass clutch but dont really notice it being REALLY loud

 

I just recently put a Luk SMF and heavy duty clutch in my truck and I notice a little noice when letting off the fuel in lower gears, but other than that, no real difference, you might want to add a bit more fluid to the tranny, I've heard that can help.

 

i have a south bend clutch "con-o" and does exactly that same noise.they even give you the whole explanation on a sheet of paper with the instructions,but not on the website when you are shopping!still i called them and they told me it was normal and it should get better after 300 miles or so.im almost there and its still loud,sucks.if it doesnt go away i will post again here to not recommend this kind of clutch.

 

Nikwave , I don't think this is a noise related to any brand of SMF, its just the way it is according to the people at Valaire Ford went to the DMF cause the ZF was loud using the coventional style SMF,,,,,, the real complaint should go to Ford for not building a better tranny their older truck trannies were quiet but this ZF , wish I had an old 4 speed instead,,,,,,,,,, and btw what in t he world was Ford thinking when they decided to go with the DMF,,,,,,,, just looking at the flywheel its obviuos that this thing is going to come undone a lot faster than the old stlye SMF.....


Anyway my original reason for the post was about how loud it is to me not haveing another to compare to it seems too too loud, but reading the replys and other topics it seems the run of the mill for a SMF, I will run it a little longer and see ifn it quites down some and then maybe try the extra ATF,,,,,,,,,,, One thing is for certain this Valaire as loud as it is still sounds a heck of a lot better than the old DMF hammering away and shaking the bedoggoles out of the truck...

Thanks all

 

I'm sure there is a better way to make a DMF work better.

 

I doubt it, the idea of a a DMF is just stupid engineering covering up another piece of bad engineering (the ZF)...

 

here i found the sheet with the explanation from south bend clutch:

we are now building our clutches with a heavy duty spring design.this,however,may contribute to idle noise or too low of rpm exceleration noise.it is referred to as gear rollover.some vehicles may experience more than others depending in the performance mods to the truck or type of truck.also,vehicles that are not running correctly (i.e.problems with injectors,pumps performance mods,transmission,exhaust)may also contribute to additional noise.this is not always the case.with the new modifications that are being produced for the diesel pickups,and the conditions that the trucks are being used for,we have seen premature failure with our original design,which has forced us to increase the strength of the clutch disc center.the clutch disc center failure is not only a problem that we are incurring but has become wide spread through the industry,from the oem designs through the after market design.our new design will be able to withstand high torque at low rpm in heavy workload conditions.

please inform your customer prior to install that this is a possibility.nothing is wrong with the system.the new disc design is a free travel,diesel center with heavy duty springs,and is protecting the transmission from the diesel spikes.the free travel of the disc is not as great as the oem design thus causing the idle noise.we do,however,still have available the original design upon request.

 

Good post ,,, good of southbend for trying to improve the gear rollover condition....... I have another PSD and it too will need a SMF I will give Southbend a good look ifn the Valaire does not improve on the gear rollover, time will tell I only have a couple hundred miles on it so far...

thanks jack