Any way to check if a truck has a dual-mass flywheel or the solid flywheel??

[XPLRN]

Hello all,

I'm looking at purchasing a 2WD 1995 3500 crew cab; 6.5L with a 5-speed transmission. It has 288K miles on it and I'm a bit concerned about what a money pit it could turn into. It does not have the injection pump driver relocation modification done and the other thing that I'm concerned about is the dual-mass flywheel issues. That is why I'm placing a inquiry here to see if anyone can inform me of a way to visually confirm whether the flywheel has been changed to a solid one. I do know that A LOT of the miles on the truck are highway miles. What is a decent price for a vehicle like this?? Pretty rust free and normal dents and dings........ Thanks in advance for any info you can share....before I fall in the diesel abyss. Sure wish I could buy the exact truck I want....however it seems that 1994-1999 6.5L/5-speed/crew cab/4x4 trucks are on the extinction or endangered species list!!

[redbird2]

I know when I took out my dual mast flywheel and put in single flywheel they told me i was to install the dampened rear yoke on trans which i did so if the person did the job correctly there should be a dampened rear yoke kinda looks like a engine balancer with a drive line yoke cast in the middle

hope this helps

[XPLRN]

I know when I took out my dual mast flywheel and put in single flywheel they told me i was to install the dampened rear yoke on trans which i did so if the person did the job correctly there should be a dampened rear yoke kinda looks like a engine balancer with a drive line yoke cast in the middle

hope this helps

Thanks for the info rb2!! Just curious......who was "they" that told you about the dampened rear yoke?? I've seen solid flywheel conversion kits that supposedly have everything you need to do the conversion and had not noticed the damped transmission output yoke!?? I'm still thinking about going to go look the vehicle over again and take it for another drive. I'll most certainly look for the damped rear yoke on the transmission output yoke. After looking at a '87 F350 crew cab dually tonight and seeing all the darn leaks that thing had.....and the Ford twin I-Beam front tire wear I started thinking about the 6.5L rig again. The bottom line is I'll want to do all the mods; trick fan/fan clutch, module relocation, hi-flow water pump, have the turbo rebuilt as PM, bigger exhaust, captains chairs instead of the bench and a host of other things I've thought up.......and I'll STILL be dealing with a vehicle that has 288K on the clock. So I'm really hoping some other low mileage vehicle shows up for sale that might more closely meet my needs/expectations.......it's a drag being picky!!

[john8662]

short answer = nope.

Doing this modification on a '93 Chevy, purchased the "kit" from a local truck gear shop and they had made no mention of a dampner for the rear of the trans.

A test drive will let you know the condition of the trans/clutch/flywheel.

Any wining or dry drum brake sounds and it's got issues.

J

[redbird2]

The dealer I purchase all my GM parts from is the one that told me about the dampened yoke we did all 3 of are 94 1ton service trucks at different times over the last 6 years every time we where informed to install the yoke. each one was done by a different locations.
thats what i remember anyway I have retired that truck 3 years ago when I overloaded it and broke the frame in half both sides over loaded from day one to the day it died.

[Hubert]

When I repaired my clutch I was doing research ....the guy at 1800 dial a clutch and a few other sources told me some buy the dampener some don't. Read a few places and talked to a few people and I THINK the dampener is to quiet the groaning at low rpm low speed use. Is it required I don't THINK so but probably better with than without. I hypothocise without it may lead to long term wear problems but not imminent catastrophic failure.

The uhhgg bad news is the solid flywheel trucks the oem clutch disc hub can fail so you are not out of the woods even if it is a SMF. Since most go back with a Luk (oem) SMF setup. I don't think there are many alternatives for the GM 6.5 NV4500 clutch. SMF trucks are however a little cheaper to fix than a new DMF/clutch if nothing else breaks.

For what its worth I would not recommend buying a high mileage 6.5 (>175Kmiles) unless its cheap, the truck body is really good, and you can turn some wrenches on it yourself. Otherwise it definately could get costly to operate over the next 100K miles. Consider a new motor at worst or a few thousand for maintenance and repair at best in a short time to help decide if its a good deal.

[6.5 Detroit Diesel]

When I swapped to a solid there was no mention of a dampener. Since install the truck has been running great with zero tranny issues after 25,000 kms.

[XPLRN]

When I repaired my clutch I was doing research ....the guy at 1800 dial a clutch and a few other sources told me some buy the dampener some don't. Read a few places and talked to a few people and I THINK the dampener is to quiet the groaning at low rpm low speed use. Is it required I don't THINK so but probably better with than without. I hypothocise without it may lead to long term wear problems but not imminent catastrophic failure.

The uhhgg bad news is the solid flywheel trucks the oem clutch disc hub can fail so you are not out of the woods even if it is a SMF. Since most go back with a Luk (oem) SMF setup. I don't think there are many alternatives for the GM 6.5 NV4500 clutch. SMF trucks are however a little cheaper to fix than a new DMF/clutch if nothing else breaks.

For what its worth I would not recommend buying a high mileage 6.5 (>175Kmiles) unless its cheap, the truck body is really good, and you can turn some wrenches on it yourself. Otherwise it definately could get costly to operate over the next 100K miles. Consider a new motor at worst or a few thousand for maintenance and repair at best in a short time to help decide if its a good deal.

I did stop by and do some more checking on the truck last night. It does have the dampener on the trannie output side.

Thanks for your thoughts regarding cost of ownership. I would ultimately like to have a 1993 2500/3500, 4x4, 5-speed, crew cab with captain chairs, short box truck with low mileage!! However the closest combination I've found is this 288K '95 crew cab long box with the 5-speed. It's not rusted up bad however does show 288K worth of usage on the body(dents/light hail damage and some slight surface rust) and door hinges. I can pick it up for $3500 however I've already figured 1000-1500 dollars worth of PM and performance stuff I'd want to do to it.

I did find a sweet one owner 1993 6.5L, regular cab, 145K miles, 4L80 transmission( of which I'm real real leery of) with a long box for $5000. Problem is it doesn't provide a place for the animals to hang out when we want to take them with us.

This isn't much fun looking for the needle in the haystack!!

[Hubert]

Yeah I know....

Good luck it took me over a year of seriously searching to find my truck. I subscribed to 3 auto/truck trader papers weekly(local and adjacent regions), read local ads regularly, and searched the internet sites every few days. Finally found it one Saturday night on cars dot com drove 100 + miles Sunday to look at it and went back with a buddy on Wednesday to buy it. It was an obscure ad too. Almost bought a similar truck sight unseen off ebay glad I didn't in my case patience paid off in a good clean truck. I probably paid too much but was tired of looking for sure.

Make sure you read up on limitations of the 6.5 and know what you are getting into with a 150-175K + milage diesel. IP, injectors, timing chain, water pump, new exhaust, gauges can add up to a lot of money and that just covers the big stuff.

[XPLRN]

Yeah I know....

Good luck....................make sure you read up on limitations of the 6.5 and know what you are getting into with a 150-175K + milage diesel. IP, injectors, timing chain, water pump, new exhaust, gauges can add up to a lot of money and that just covers the big stuff.

Yes, I've been a bit amazed by how the "add-on"/preventative meintenance stuff costs add-up!! In this pursuit of finding a truck I did research and test drive some 1st gen Dodge TDC 4x4 extra cab 5-speed trucks and was not impressed with the way they rode/drove or handled. The Getrag 5-speed didn't seen to shift near as nicely as the NV4500 with 288K miles on it did. I'm just hoping to run across some 'enthusiast' that might be upgrading to a D-max and wanting to part company with their decent 6.5L that has had the majority of the issues addressed!!