Good call on the release bearing, the one I had surely clapped out very quickly.

will check for that with new kit.

 

I bought an AZ clutch kit for my 05 ram 2500, lasted 2 years. It chattered from day 1. Throw out bearing went and was grinding on the pressure plate fingers, and the springs in the clutch disc were falling out. I bought a luk clutch kit (oem supplier) and a new flywheel. No chatter, and smooth shifts. Won't be buying another AZ clutch kit ever again. Now I gotta drop about $1,700 on a clutch for my wife's 07 Shelby gt500, ain't even got 20,000 miles on it, but I heard the 07-09 clutches were junk from the factory, Ford upgraded them in 2010. But so far so good on the clutch kit from AZ in her nitro, changed that shortly after my ram clutch (the first time) if it goes out I'm going with a LUK kit. I shop at AZ very frequently but there is allot of stuff I get from summit, or I'll get good stuff when I do get parts (timken/Moog) I try to stay away from their duralast stuff if I can help it.

 

What sucked was the LUK kit they show on rockauto shows a oem style bearing not the half plastic one.

It looks like good clutch kits are hard to find so much China crap.

LUK clutch kits are a German company now that still doesn't mean its not from China.

https://vehiclemaintenanceandrepairs...e-best-review/

 

I went to rock auto, and found the mid-way one that looks like it has the metal throw out...not LUK, but AMS. Seems like a solid kit, and will surely be better than the AZ version...what a disappointment and time suck!

Will be here Thursday, so I'll pop it in and see if it goes! I'll update soon.

 

Good luck, doing it once is bad enough, but twice really sucks. Especially if it's 4 wheel. Front driveshaft, exhaust if it's in the way. 2 wheel isn't as bad but still doing it twice sucks.

 

Thanks for the sympathies. Thankfully it's just a straight 2WD version, and I've got a transmission jack. So it's mostly busy work and not terribly hard...we'll know Thursday!

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed the thoughts and suggestions. I went with the AMS branded clutch from RockAuto, and it did come with the nice cast/machined throw out bearing. Installation was relatively trouble free and when the new clutch was installed all the issues we were seeing completely evaporated. Great pedal feel, no shifting issues at all (was worried syncros bit the dust), and it's up and running like a champ!

Appreciate the community and contributions here!

Thanks again!


-DakotaDunn