08 Ram 3500 6.7 clutch removal

So got the truck in the air,barring tool in and spinning the engine over to get to the bolts that hold the flywheel to the flex plate but there are none!

Is there a clutch/flywheel kit that deletes the flex plate on these trucks?

I already spent the money on a clutch kit and wondering if I now will need to get a new flex plate and bolts to bolt it to the crank and flywheel.

Frustrating,thought I did all my research and was ready to do this.

Flex plate on a manual transmission?!? My 07 dually with the G56 trans had a dual-mass flywheel and I don't remember a flex plate.

there should be a plug on the front of the flywheel housing remove that and then turn the engine over by hand and remove all the bolts kinda like how a torque converter bolts up to the flex plate.

South bend clutch and Vilar both make a great Duall Disc clutch kit for the G56 transmission

Yes there is supposed to be a flex plate but it's not there,I already bought a new clutch that's a conversion to get rid of the dual mass flywheel but when I removed that cover and used the barring tool I discovered no bolts and looks to be no flex plate!

Dodge dealer wants nearly $900 for that flex,my new clutch,flywheel,pressure plate and throw out bearing were less than $500. Once again I am reminded of why I hate dealerships.

I have googled and googled trying to find a parts break down with a part number,any ideas on where to find this?

how are you looking for bolts when they have to be removed through the hole you have your barring tool in? I always use a prybar to roll the engine over to line them up for removal.

Figures, you realize the factory sets the prices don't you? So you don't know what you're doing but the dealership does, funny how that works.

What's that even mean?
I know what I am doing but somebody else swapped out the factory set up,I want to go back.
If you think $900 is acceptable for a flex plate then go ahead and pick one up for me :-)

The barring tool uses an 1 1/8 socket,I turned the engine over and there are no bolts to be seen,looks like the previous owner had a conversion kit in that makes it more what I think of as normal,flywheel bolts to the crank.

Let me break it down for you. The factory, not the dealership sets the retail prices for the parts, yet you hate the dealership for that. Why is it that it's OK for every other business to turn a profit (including whatever it is that you make a living at) except for a dealership? Do you know what it costs for one person for one day at Disney World? Over $100, and that is OK. You have no idea what it costs to run a dealership.

If you have someone come to your house and fix your A/C and they charge you $2000, that's OK, or $750 to fix your garage door. You're offering them iced tea and whatever. But charge someone $300 to fix the A/C in their car and you're a ripoff. Why is that? I turned 67 hours worth of work in the 50 hours I worked this week. I must be ripping people off right? Well, figure I don't get overtime, sick days or holiday pay. I worked on eight cars this week and not one of those customers paid a single dime and they got a free rental car. How do I sleep at night ripping peoples heads off like this?

And lastly if you knew what you were doing you would have already had the truck fixed instead of spending 3 days here whining that you can't find the bolts. If you had taken it to the dealership it would have been done 3 days ago.

It's nothing personal, I am just tired of the constant vitriol spewed at dealerships. I work hard, I take pride in my work, I am highly trained and well equipped. I do not try to sell unneeded repairs. I am good at what I do, like many, many other dealership employees. Are there bad dealerships? Sure, but show me just one field that doesn't have bad apples.

Sorry, rant over.

^^^ This ^^^ --I agree.

I knew you worked at a dealership!
Now if somebody had the answer I was looking for I could have been on my way to fixing the truck but nobody not even you mr dealership even tried to answer my question.

I have yet to find the part numbers needed instead got crap from some pinhead.


Last clutch put in this truck was over 2k according to the previous owners paperwork,so $1500 labor for part of one days work! I pulled the tranny today and put it back in myself.


It's ok to make a profit but raping the customer is not cool,our local Dodge dealer gives no breaks on anything that I have ever asked about,a good example would be the wheel stud I needed and happen to stop in with my Challenger to ask about warranty work,they wanted $20+ each,local parts store was $1.49. Thieves!

I don't work at a Chrysler dealership and do not have an answer to your question. Again, OEM parts prices are set by the manufacturer. If you want to use inferior Chinese made parts that's up to you.

The problem I have with dealerships is that THEY MARK UP PART PRICES FROM MSRP!

First ran into it at a Mercedes dealership way back in the '80s. My local Hyundai dealer does it as well. About 20%. If I want to buy a part from the dealer I have to bring in a copy of the part catalog page with the MSRP so they go down to what the manufacturer tells them to charge.

R.

I know some dealerships do this, it's not uncommon but also consider they are selling to shops and other wholesalers for 25% off list, 30% off to body shops is the going rate these days too. You don't know what they need to turn a profit or even how much that profit is. It costs a lot of money to run a dealership.

Larger markups are more common at higher end dealerships like Mercedes and BMW because let's face it a luxury car is just that, a luxury. A car may be a necessity but a BMW is not, neither is a Hell Cat though many on here bemoaned some dealerships trying to make some extra money on a specialty car. I've said this before, I bought a 69 Valiant grille for my Scamp for $15. Not one single person was willing to sell me a shark tooth grille for $15.

I don't understand how people on here can judge what a reasonable amount of profit is to a dealership when they have no idea of their operating margins. I was a service manager for 12 years so I saw the financial statements every month for those years. You guys have no idea of what it takes to operate a dealership. I know several dealer principles personally, are they rich? Not really, Are they well off? Sure but they also invest their money in other ventures as well. If any dealer is getting super wealthy it's because they have several dealerships. They aren't making it off just one, especially the small town dealers.

I had my garage door at my house fixed last year, 14 rollers, 2 springs and about 2 hours of work, $750. Does that sound like it's too much money? Let's ask Stu. I'm going to have a plumber come out next week, clean the main drain (I have a clean out too) and two roof vents. I've been quoted $685, they will probably be there 2 maybe 3 hours tops. Is that too much profit?

CEO's of large corporations are pulling down 8 figure incomes, Michael Eisner the former CEO of Disney was making in excess of $40 million a year. Who is zooming who?

When I go to the grocery store they don't give me a discount, neither does the power company, the water company, the hardware store, the restaurant, the liquor store, the gas station or any one else for that matter.

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Yes,

I feel you are ripping people off. DO 50 hours worth of work and charge 67? Dealership doesn't care because they are passing it on to the customer. No one is forcing you to stay at that job. Go find one that offers benefits, you dont have to stay there. And you wonder why people think dealerships are over priced. This right here is why the dealership has to charge more because you are inflating the work you are doing. This is the very reason unless the work is under warranty I wont go back to the dealership. Even then I hate it, because in my limited experience 90 % of the time, they have no clue. The very reason I learned to work on cars.

If I have a guy at work that lies about his hours, he gets fired. Flame on.

You also have no clue. Nearly every auto mechanic on earth is paid by flat rate. If it pays 3 hours to replace a water pump and takes me 1 hour then I still get paid 3 hours. If it takes me 5 hours I still get paid 3 hours. I don't make up the times, they come from either a flat rate manual, for customer pay, or the warranty labor time guide for warranty work.

All 8 vehicles I worked on last week were covered under warranty. This means I beat the factory book time which is generally considerably less than customer pay time. Independent shops are all customer pay time.

One example is replacing cam phasers on a V6 vehicle. The warranty labor time guide says 5.4 hours. That is what I would get paid for the job under warranty. The Motors labor guide says 21.0 hours. That is a big difference. At an independent shop you would be charged 21.0 hours. At our dealership we use warranty time plus 40% for customer pay work. So you would be charged 7.6 hours for that job if you had to pay out of your own pocket.

That is a huge difference. So would you rather pay less at the dealership where a factory trained professional fixes your car for less or take it to someone who doesn't really know your vehicle well and charges you more?

I get it, its the system, and you are taking advantage of what the system offers. still doesn't make it right if the techs on MArs are doing it. Factory trained professionals??? Yes, I know there is always that one exception. But, Ive had too many of them. Let me give you an example. I had a company truck, Ford 350, 7.3 diesel, had 35000 miles on it, bought new. I serviced that truck religiously. It started smoking on start up and then would slowly stop when the engine got warm. Took it to the dealer and get this, I was told i didn't know how to change the oil, that was the problem. REALLY?? Took it to another dealer, they found one of the cylinder bores was out of round. They replaced the short block. All is well. But to have a service tech and the manager of the dealership tell me changing the oil was a problem. Good Grief. Even you would have to laugh at that.

Let just agree to disagree.

We can agree to disagree but you should know the flat rate system was developed to protect the consumer. Otherwise mechanics were charging what ever they wanted. They could charge you 10 hours for a 2 hour job. Like some trades are able to do like electricians, plumbers, general contractors, HVAC techs, etc.

As I said before, I work hard and I'm good at what I do. If I only got paid for the time I spent on a job I wouldn't make much money. There is a lot of stuff I do that I don't get paid for. It's part of the job.

As for your Ford, well, you found a couple dumbasses at the first place but the second dealer found and fixed your problem didn't they?

Wow, guy comes here needed help with his truck and gets a bunch of nonsense about dealership pricing.

Brian, go post it over in the Q&A section. When I had trouble with my Dak, I got better responses over there.

He might have gotten more responses without the dealership hatred comment as well. It's a two way street.

And if you had actually read the thread you'd find he has already fixed it.

Dealership hatred is justified as there are a lot more bad dealerships than good.

Re-re-read this thread, I know my eyes are bad, but I don't see where he said he got it fixed.

I seriously doubt there was $1500 of labor there either. Looks like he is basing that figure off what he just paid for an aftermarket clutch. He likes to make assumptions anyway so I will make one too.

I saw that, but, he doesn't say he fixed it.