My question: How urgent is it that I change the clutch?
1) Tomorrow - urgent
2) This week - urgent but not dire
3) This month - not critical, she probably can keep on pulling for a few thousand if you baby it
4) Several months - You can probably get 10-20K more miles of towing and she will be fine for daily driving

BACKGROUND: 205K miles on the original clutch, probably 90-100K of it towing my 13.5K fifth wheel.

Just got back from a trip to WA (3700 miles total).

While on the trip, the clutch slipped slightly twice (both times on an on-ramp). I was trying to get up to speed fast, towing the 5er. Both times was about 1900-2000 RPM in 4th gear.

Today it did it twice again while pulling, once on an on-ramp in 3rd gear. The 2nd time, I floored it at 55MPH in 4th gear.

She did fine pulling all the mountains and grades with no slipping. Same today. Pulled the El Cajon grade with no slipping.

Thanks for any insights/opinions.

 

if you baby it and dont get on it, then i am guessing you could get another month outta it. but pulling a trailer will make it slip easier. i dont think it needs to be replaced asap, but it should be done soon.

 

How much do you respect your flywheel? Normally a clutch replacement does not include changing the flywheel as well.

 

You're out of time. Once the clutch starts to noticeably slip, it's done. It's now overheating and - as said above - will kill the flywheel.

Normally, you don't need to replace the flywheel. But you do need to resurface it. Otherwise, you're likely to get a lot of chatter.

Also, at 200K+ miles, plan on replacing the pilot bushing in the crank shaft.

 

Mine lasted almost 6 years after I first noticed it slip. After I noticed it slip the first time, I would nurse the clutch since I thought the upgrades were causing it to slip. When I would feel it slip, I would back off a bit on the pedal. I did tow over 10k pounds constantly and over 7% grade mountains and did just fine. Never did win a race though. Now with this said, you are burning up your flywheel and pressure plate each time it slips. If it is the stock clutch, you have the LUK DMF on there and to my knowledge, they cant be resurfaced anyways so you will need to replace with a new one at the time of replacement. I say take it easy and replace it when you get a chance. I just replaced mine with the SMF LUK clutch and enjoy it very much.

 

Taking it in next week to get it replaced. One more mountain tow between now and then...