94 turbo 7.3 idi clutch problems flywheel help?
 

Hello,
350K miles on the 94 turbo and it is finally time to change its first clutch. I pulled everything apart and stuff is worn to be expected. However the flywheel is a sprung flywheel and the bushings on the end of the springs are coming apart and stuff just isn't good.

My question is: is there a place that can rebuild these sprung flywheels and put new springs and bushings and whatnot in? Can I order a rebuild kit from somewhere? The reason I ask is because the flywheel is in perfect shape, hardly any wear on the disc mating surface and it is strait and true oh and ford wants $1400.00 for a new one. :eek:

Second option would be if anyone knows of a different setup that could work IE a flywheel, pressure plate, disc, throw out bearing, etc. from a different year that is cheaper and or easier to get?

The truck is old and we don't plan on having it on the road for many more years. But we can't just say hell with it and put the old junk back in and leave it.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance! :-drink

Why don't you just trow the truck away...in my direction! LOL
Mine has 372K now so yours is practically new!

Seriously thoough you have a Dual Mass Flywheel (DMF)
The best thing to do is replace it with a Single Mass Flywheel (SMF)

There are kits to do this available at a lot of parts stores and on the internet.
I'm sure you can also do it with parts off of earlier factory equiped SMF trucks but you'd have to know what to use and how to do it.

I'm sure someone will post on how to do it and what "kits" they used. It's a fairly common swap. The next time mine has to come apart I'm swappin' it over.

Basically it swaps the springs out of the flywheel and back into the clutch disc.

Yes! I went to a local diesel shop and they gave me napa part numbers for the parts I needed for the smf assm. The entire flywheel to throw out bearing assm. was in one box. I can post up the part numbers later for future searchers.


Now that I have the tranny off I see the truck also needs a oil pan and oil cooler... lol I swear ever since they switched over to the new liquid salt here in wisconsin 90% of the maintenance I do is rust damage repairing.


Which if anyone knows of cheaper than dealership place to get a 7.3 oil cooler please let me know. The last one I got from the dealer I think was 400 bux.

Thanks!

I've never priced the cooler but I've heard the horror stories about the price.

I'd be interested in the #s and price so I can be prepared. LOL

Haven't found anything yet on the oil cooler. I lost my bid on the 7.3 oil pan on ebay and have to wait 4 more days for the next one to end. I am surprised by the lack of parts for these motors on ebay. All of the part supply websites I normaly go to don't list it or can only get it threw ford.

i got a oil cooler it is on a 89 7.3l pm me if u want it

The problem is because of a couple reasons.
Metal prices are high.
Most of the engines are still running.
And if someone has an engine sitting around in running condition, they don't want to remove critical engine parts and turn it into a non running engine.

At Ford, the rear oil cooler header was about 350 in round numbers.
Oil cooler bundle close to 1000.

What you should be aware of is that a SMF conversion will make the transmission noisy at idle in neutral and when chugging around in gear below 1500 RPM. I did a conversion on a 1995 powerstroke and it was no big deal with the noise still being quite civilized after the conversion, but there are times when it sounded like a dozen bolts were rattling in the oilpan. I would not hesitate to do this on a powerstroke after that experience, but I have heard of a few members that had problems with gear clatter being excessive with their conversions on IDI diesels.

I am at a loss to explain the reason for this except maybe I was the only one to use a valair SMF kit (as recommended by some one on the powerstroke forum) and everyone else used the Luk kit. But its still an apples to orange comparison since the IDI is a different animal.

I.D.I. flywheel
 

snowseeker---- The dmf flywheel is made by a company called Valeo. They make parts for manufacturers like clutch parts, radiators, parts for high performance manufacturers, and more. I talked with them a couple of years ago about a flywheel that would take more torque than the original. The guy I talked to said anyone set up as a valeo dealer, such as a radiator shop, could buy one from them direct for around half what Ford wanted. I finally locked up the slip clutch feature, but retained the spring cushion part, as mine was slipping in the back of the pressure plate, but the cushion part was ok. I talked with the guy at Valeo a couple of times, he wanted to know how the lock-up worked out. call them and ask for a dealer. Very nice people. John D.

Is it rust free? No surface rust or bubbling or anything?




What I was getting at is I am surprised there are no aftermarket companies that make the oil cooler center section. Normally like the flywheel here is always some company somewhere that makes and aftermarket part for just about everything. But I guess not in this case?

I assumed there has to be some downfalls to the SMF over the DMF otherwise I would hope ford would have went with the SMF from factory. But if the noise is the only problem we will have no problem with that. The truck was making all kinds of funny noise already with the spring ends in the DMF coming apart and all the slop in the second part of the fhywheel banging back and forth.

My worry with the SMF is that it didn't have the engine dampening carristics of the DMF. Which I thought would make the motor run very rough a idle and even maybe be hard on rods, bearings, etc.




I seen the Valeo on the stock pressure plate when I pulled it out. Thats good stuff to know! I am already into this flywheel/clutch assembly though and will be going this route this time.

no rust as far as i can tell it is still bolted to the moter if u can't pm me here is my e mail b.jorianatyahoodotcom

i have the smf on mine and don't have any transmission rattle

i had a smf installed at the same time i had the oil pan changed. i never once heard any thing like you talking about (nuts ratttling around in the oil pan) i had put over 30,000 miles on the smf, and it worked just fine maybe slightly noisier but that would be about it.

The only time I could make that truck to that was at low speed chugging along in 2nd gear. You know how stick shift trucks can bounce back and forth a little when idleing along at light power settings? well that was when it would do that, definitely not a deal breaker for me. Everywhere else, it was smooth as butter.

What brand of kit did they use on your truck?