wow, i guess i'll quit launching in 3rd gear in my truck....

 

yea i welded my con fe but luckely it popped loose and i still drive it every day and works great

 

I am surprised that two thing have not been mentioned. First and foremost the pilot bearing may have siezed. Dodge has problems with them. The other may be the problem, I had problems with the ofe cutting off the clutch fingers, seems they like to ride constantly with too much pressure. You have to tear it down to find out. The stock clutch has a very weak center section with plastic parts. It is first to go with heavy work. Seriously doubt that the Southbend went from that failure.

 

I dont really think its the pilot bearing jsut cause he launched in third gear and that is kinda know to weld a single disk clutch. Second the pilot bearings that SBC provides are pretty dang good. Not that they cant fail it just doesnt seem likely to me, not in this case.

However I have welded a pilot bearing to the input shaft on my jeep before, so I supose this could be the case here too.

 

my friend has a diesel products company here locally i am going to have him look into it for me about getting it taken care of and what we are going to have to do to fix it... I am thinking this clutch should have held that... m stock one did just fine.... i think the deliberate slipping to make the clutch act as a trans brake to let me build boost is what caused the problem. it never acted wierd doing just normal tach up and launch 3rd launches. These dang trucks are too much fin but can break stuff fast... lol.

 

I agree. I mean come on now with what he did slipping the disk against the flywheel and pressure plate like that I would bet money he's welded it all together. Call South Bend and ask them if they would approve of that type of abuse. You put that kind of clamping load on it, that much engine/flywheel speed and the resistance of 3rd gear vs first or second and it's going to heat up really, really fast. As for "I thought a south bend would hold this" well.......the material they use for them is grabby and holds very well, but may soften a lower temperature than the stock disk's material.

 

I had a Mcleod in my 01 and beat the daylights out of it and never had any problems like this... oh well... stuff happens... lol

 

I welded my OFE and a con fe together both eventualy came loose with some coaxing and were fine. I welded them exactly as stated above and just kept toying with them until they came unstuck. Dont be so quick to give up keep messing with it I bet it comes loose.

 

I got it loose. thanks tbarbee1. I read your post and went out and tried messing with it more.. put it in 5th gear in 4wd going down a hill in my field and kept bumping the key and shoving the clutch in and it started working again and is working fine.