Engine miss turned into a clutch conversion on a Dodge Ram 3500 6.7 Cummins

Back-Story: Previously a customer (let's say "Jim") had gone to the local dealer complaining of an engine miss. The dealer only cited one cylinder as having a miss. They changed ALL the injectors, and it still had a miss. The dealer guessed the engine fan was bad.  "Jim" brought his truck into M.D.S. and Chris tore apart the whole front end, looking for a vibration in the belts and pulleys. When that did not yield results, he went for the clutch. And there was the issue. The dual mass flywheel had gone out-of-round and was creating an engine miss feeling.

A different customer "Bob" came into the shop complaining of an engine miss. We preformed a cylinder contribution test- we found #1 cylinder contribution malfunction. We preformed cylinder cut-out test, still missing on #1. Bob was ready to have his injector replaced and Chris informed the customer of the clutch defect. Upon inspection and test runs, we found the clutch vibration. We advised Bob that a dual mass flywheel delete would prevent this in the future.

The job would be the same for 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive, it would just have additional labor for removal and re-installation of the transfer case.

Left- Old clutch plate, Right- New clutch plate

Two weeks ago we completed a clutch conversion on a 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 2WD with a 6.7 Cummins engine. The truck comes stock with a dual mass flywheel and it was upgraded to a conventional flywheel. Dodge installs the dual mass flywheel to absorb more shock on take-off.

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Transmission and old clutch removal

Rear of transmission ready to be removed

Dual mass pressure plate

Dual mass flywheel with burn marks from clutch slipping and overheating.

Tool used to turn engine to remove flywheel bolts.

Center is out of round.

Pressure plate with heat marks and cracks

Organic clutch disk worn out- no wear grooves present.

Upgrade parts

Upgraded clutch master and slave cylinder, necessary for conversion.

New and old clutch components

Old and new clutch plate- the new clutch plate has less springs and is stronger!

New Clutch Install

New flywheel installed with pilot bearing greased

Aligning clutch disk before pressure plate install.

All bolted up!