My fiance has a 98 and I want to buy him a DD clutch and input shaft from valair for his birthday. Where is the best place to buy it from?

 

South Bend.

 

I bought mine from them direct, or you could try the vendors list on Cummins forum, or comp d where they are a site sponsor.

 

Where do I get a fiance like you? Any sisters? j/k

 

Pretty safe to say Southbend doesn't sell Valair clutches.

 

he's just try'n to save someone from buy'n a junky clutch.....

i'd give mine away if i had the $$ for a new SBC...

 

The lady didn`t ask which clutch to buy...She just wanted to know were to get a specific brand of clutch. Some people may just want a simple answer to a simple Question !

 

Just look up Valair on the web. I'm sure you'll find a phone # somewhere. They may not make the best clutch in the world, but I have heard their customer service is great.

 

Theres guys out there that would do the same with SBC's, don't be fooled into thinking that SBC hasn't had issues with their stuff before.

http://www.valairinc.com/contact.html

 

ok...simple answer....go to valair's website and talk to Dan.....then when he tells you to talk to one of his "best vendors" Holland Court Diesel...call him up, tell him what you need and that you talked to Dan, and he says ok, send him the $$ and your parts will be on there way.....well you get the parts, and of course you don't think to check the boxes, and send your truck to a great guy (not gonna say his name on here, but he has a 1000+hp 3rd gen out of VA beach) and he calls you say'n that all the stuff you ordered is wrong...then the hassle of dealing with the vendor and bla, bla, bla, bla....

sorry...i'm not fooled by it, just i've seen a heck of alot more trucks, including mine have alot better luck and overall quality with SBC....

but it all comes down to one thing...........it's your money, and if you get a product and it's junk after people warn you about it...to dang bad...cry a river to someone else....personally i like Dan at Valair, i called him during his Sunday dinner and told him what happened, and he overnighted me the correct products...

but why should i have to go through all that junk when i can just call Peter an get the right stuff the first time and be done with it....

and besides, i had the CON FE before the ceramic valair, and if i knew how junky the enganement was on the ceramic, i would have saved a few more pennies and got another CON FE....


anyone else want to call me out on this...feel free to pm so we don't take up more of the OP's thread....

 

Sorry guys, did not see the OPs selection of brand.

Didn't want to start another brand war.

 

don't worry...i already did for you....

but then again............since they are so set on valair.....get the biggest one you can and be done with it....it would be hard to outgrow it...

 

I have heard WAY more good things about both SBC and Valair than bad. I don't think you can go wrong either way. Both seem to have excellent customer service and good products.

That being said, I talked to Peter a couple of weeks ago, and instead of selling me a clutch that day, he instructed me to wait a couple of weeks when his prices would go down (dd and input for $1500). That sold me right there on SBC. That, and I have never heard a single bad comment on Peter as a person. I don't have any experience with Valair.

 

I personally have had nothing but problems with clutches. I had the biggest single that valair made when I first built my truck. It held everything I threw at it for about 1500 miles. Then started slipping. Took it out and it was destroyed. I expected that though with the setup I put together and a single disk. Put a SB 3600 in there. Took everything thrown at it for about 2000 miles. Then it started slipping in 3-5 gear. I broke a countershaft in 5 speed and when we pulled trans to fix we also pulled clutch. Material on disks is not horrible but several spots of missing material and the flywheel looks absolutely horrid. All cracked up. It is still currently in there and slips horribly. Now it has about 3000 miles on it. I know my truck does not make more that 650hp and Im pretty sure the 3600 is rated for 800. That in my opinion is junk. Maybe I got a lemon clutch? The valair single was abused way more than the SB and lasted almost as long. So a Valair single is as strong as a SX DD I guess. Trying to figure out what to do now.

 

Is that the bronze inlayed flywheel getting torn up or is it the ductile flywheel? Either way, contact southbend if the flywheel is cracking- doesn't sound good at all.

I ran a used 3600 DD I picked up for a good deal and abused the snot out it of for two and a half years before the floater plate warped enough the clutch didn't want to disengage. The flywheel and clutch pucks looked fine- I think I could have just swapped floaters and stuck in back in, but Peter had made me an offer I couldn't refuse on a new clutch.

I'm giving the ductile flywheel diaphragm operated/ dual disk a try now. Its rated for 550 hp instead of 650 hp for the lever styled version. I managed to slip it once when it was new, but it seems to be holding good now. I tried launching from third yesterday and it held great. Shifts twice as nice as the lever dual disks too =)