Here's why you don't use a plastic throwout bearing (and how clean should I get the bell housing?)
- Thread starter RiverDawg24
- Start date
That would be disturbing, as National is an aftermarket brand of Federal Mogul (Now DR1V). Every National brand bearing I've bought in the last 20 years has been chinese.
My Luk clutch kit came with a TOB that was milled radically off center. It had an elliptical orbit that was ridiculous. Luckly I had ordered the National at the same time and it was all steel and works fine.
Certain forum members have a cult following and repeatedly tell people to buy the LuK kit when the ToB is known to fail - Amazon has a ton of negative reviews on the LuK kits ToB. When I replaced mine I used, and have always recommened, the Sachs kit and/or Mopar to use as a replacement.
http://specialtypartsdirect-com.3dcartstores.com/SACHS-Clutch-KitJeep-Wrangler1997-0640L-_p_274.html
Just like they have a cult following to tell people not to use plastic TOB and replace it with timken/national.
This is incident #2 where plastic fantastic have failed that i am aware of. I have seen a cult bashing of it, and justification for it that i have seen was based on feelings and opinions for the most part.
That same cult swore up and down that national/timken is the way to life, but if you do a little digging on it, it is a shit show.
Like i said, my Jeep was on jack stands for 5 extra days cause i kept receiving defected tob's from national and timken.
Multiple times question was asked, why not mopar tob? Because mopar doesn't make it, they outsource it from someone else. I have seen it many times people stating that national is identical to oem. If that is true, that is like asking "why LUK, when you can get mopar!" ... LUK is the oem.
Certain members are part of the cult, and you are part of the cult that preaches Mopar without understanding what that is.
I am part of the cult that believes in reading reviews and performing the proper diligence before buying or recommending an item.
I recommend Sachs for the Wrangler's clutch, or Mopar as a secondary option if available, not Timken/National.
After seeing the LuK TOB that came with the kit, I immediately bought a Mopar TOB to use instead. I didn't want to drop the tranny again to fix something I thought wasn't right from the get-go. Those few extra bucks, as insurance, are a lot less than the time it takes to replace it later.
ordered "mopar" tob from RockAuto, if i receive another crooked national tob you guys will receive a few not very nice words 
Check it again when you have time...(if you still have it) ... I've seen a whole lot of throwout bearings that sort of "float" on the hub to help it stay aligned and self center through the range of motion of the fork. That might be what you're seeing.
Nope. Milled off center, tossed it out. I wasn't going to use it anyway, but was shocked at the defect. I expected it to sub-standard quality, but not as bad as it was. Obviously no QA/QC in the manufacturing process. The National Bearing is holding up. I assume Luk has different suppliers for components. Their disc, pressure plate, and flywheel were good quality.
