Kevlar Busing or Needle Bearing Good or Bad??

[BigRedWeather]

In the past 3 months I have put 2 complete clutch kits with the Kevlar pilot bushing and SM flywheels (replaced the original DM) from South Bend. The first job gave me huge vibrations, the second one leaves me with only bad vibrations mostly at 2400 - 2800 RPM. I just dropped my truck off at the Diesel Shop (a Sound Bend distributor) and the owner said THAT'S your problem- the Kevlar pilot bushing.

I would appreciate hearing from guys who have experienced problems or good results with the Kevlar, or brass pilot bushing or the needle bearing in these trucks. The web has a lot of good and bad to say on the part in lots of applications, but the results might be different in trucks like ours.


Thanks,


BigRedWeather

 

[Patrick Feeley]

Hard to say for me. I'm on my second Kevlar bushing, but the first one went bad when I had 245k on the tranny. The input shaft did have quite a bit of play, so maybe that had something to do with failure. I would probably opt for the needle bearing over a metal bushing. Cheers!