Just bought a '95 F350 crew cab 2wd PSD w/ 5 spd, 211,000 miles.

Sometimes upon startup, there is a shake and rattling noise that lasts a few seconds, and will stop when you give it some fuel.

There is a similar sound (brief) after I shut down the motor.

The counsel I've gotten from my mechanic is that the dual mass flywheel is acting up and may break at any time.

I am having a vibration noise in the drivetrain at 50 mph --> hmmm...hmmm...hmmm in 5th gear. The noise stops when coasting in neutral at the same speed.

Could the flywheel problem be the cause of the vibration?

 

YES. ditch the dual mass and get a single mass conversion clutch. Val-air has some good stuff from what I hear.

 

I'd say your mechanic is right on target. But you may have 2 tings going on. If you decide to replace the clutch then the tranny is already out, ready for inspection. 5th gear has been know to vibrate from a bearing going bad. Most guys here use a single mass FW when the time comes for replacement. There are others here with more experience with manual trannys that may have more info for you. Search this forum for DMF (Dual Mass Flywheel)

 

My son and I installed the Valair SMF kit last weekend. The dealer in Iowa said I would probably have some clutch rattle in neutral-he was right, I do--> quite a bit! I also get the rattle at RPMs < 1300.

Have others had the same problem? Is this to be expected?

 

Hello to yall. I did a Valair smf/clutch install last week, and yes, there is some idle in neutral noise to be aware of. Some say rattle, mine sounds more like a constant rub or grind. Talk to Valair, Kevin at the shop can explain why and what for about the noise, and that it may lessen as it breaks in. So, not to be alarmed, it's just a different set up from the dual mass that was meant to quell vibrations, noise thru the driveline, etc.
Looking back, the reason I went with a SMF, was because it was about one third of the cost of a dual mass replacement flywheel, best I remember. I'm not into performance, or big horsepower, I just want a smooth,quiet drivetrain, that will last a hundred thousand or so.(I got 196,000 mi. on the stock ford DMF, which by the way was smooth, quiet, and strong till it came apart) I'm still in the guinea pig/test mode on the SMF set up, I hope it works out for me, and for yall. Good luck, and keep posting as to your progress, Jay

 

plgebbia, If it doesn't quiet down once it's broke in. Call Dan and tell him what's going on. If there is a problem, I'm certain he will make it right. But yes, you'll here more noise than usual. But it shouldn be real bad. if it's really making a racket, There may be problem. I don't think so, but if it's not, I'm certain Dan will take care of you.

Jay, Dan and everyone is down for this weekends dyno event. I actually drove Kevins truck on the dyno for him. We're having a ball. We're back at it in the moring.

 

I order a Valaire clutch just last week and Dan at Valaire was right up front with me and said his clutches make a little noise mostly in neutral, if its not too bad I will buy another Valaire for my 97 DD........ BTW a stock flywheel ONLY is 1300 dollars thats some serious money for a hunk of metal

 

I did mine in January. There's definitely a good rattle at idle. At least there's not that awful shaking! SOmeone from valair posted on here not too long agao with some suggestions for the rattle. SOme kind of tranny lube. Not sure what it was exactly.

 

Hey FullCrew, how is that rattle as in loud enough that its annoying or after awhile ya won't even no its there? Did ya do the clutch job yourself? I started another thread on doing a clutch job , check it out ifn ya got some advice..........

 

Yup, I did it myself. Just a bottle jack and a floor jack. As for the rattle, it's really only at idle. If you listen for it, you can hear a bit while driving, but it's not really noticable then. It is kinda annoying at idle though.

 

I changed my dmc a few years back with one I found on the internet. the brand was LUK I believe. It came with the clutch and flywheel. It was around $650 at that time. I get no vibration or noise and it has worked great for about 50k miles now.

 

I did the same thing with my first powerstroke. But once I got Powerstroke Mod Syndrome (PMS) I started making way more power than the LUK could hold. So that's when I started looking for options. LUK was a great clutch. And I've got nothing bad to say about them. The just couldn't hold the power. Then there is South Bend. Again an awsome clutch, but high as giraffe ***. My best friend came across Valair, and they were half the price. At this point, Dan the owner was just starting in the performance diesel market. But he had been doing Big rig clutches and a/c clutches for something like 25 years. Building them, not reselling other brands. So my friend and I decided to try them out. But right before we were gonna buy them, one of his beta testers started bashing his clutches on line. Well, the guy didn't tell everyone that he was a beta tester. Which means he got it free and full well knew there could be design issues. I called Dan and told him about it. He immediately put that line of clutches on hold and re-designed it right then and there. Then on top of it, offered a free clutch to my friend as well as the install. We gave him a shot, and have never looked back. Dan has a great product and second to none customer service. And he has a full line of clutches for us, from stock replacement to ***** strong. So if PMS starts working over your clutch, or if you wear out that LUK, give Valair a try and I promise you'll never buy another brand.

 

It's been around 10 days since we replaced the clutch and flywheel (Valair)- noise is certainly not getting any worse; we will just drive it for now and see how it goes. If it improves or gets worse - we'll let everyone know.

 

All this talk and the newness of Valaire clutches to the psd market is making me nervous , imop a clutch should not chatter in neutral or any other position, something not right and bad for me cause today my Valaire clucth arrived,,,,,,,,,, wishin I bought the Luk I, I called them and they are the exact same price as Valair and they claim 1,000's of customers and zero compliants on chatter.............. I may send my Valaire back and get a Luk ...

 

Chatter not to worry....... Dan at Valaire says the chatter is actually transmission gear chatter and silencing it was the objective of Ford when the decided to use the dmf over the conventional, Dan says if ya add a extra pint of oil to the trans you can quite it down some also its only in neutral so not all bad.....