If you've ever installed the wrong flywheel, come in!

[99FiveOh]

I got my 5 speed conversion all finished up and when I started the car it vibrated like mad! It has to be the flywheel because the motor purred like a kitten before the swap. And the only thing capable of making this kind of vibration in the driveline is the flywheel, at least in my way of thinking.

Yes, the pilot bearing was installed and is the correct one. And yes, the flywheel is aligned correctly, it will only go on one way.

I'm going to order up a brand new flywheel tomarrow and install it sometime next week and we'll see what happens.

 

[HISSIN50]

I'm sure it was covered Mark, but redundant thinking can't hurt....

Block dowels and clutch dowels were installed?

 

[99FiveOh]

Yes, they were installed. The only thing that "could" have went wrong is the flywheel didn't bottom out completely as I was tightening the bolts. Even though I torqued them down correctly, it may have seated completely when the engine was fired. I seriously doubt that though.

I called the guy I bought the flywheel from and he assured me it came out of a 5.0, but he said to have it turned. In all my years of driving these cars and using some pretty crappy looking flywheels, I've never seen one warp! And this one is a billet steel SFI unit! I doubt it would warp very easily.

 

[str8stang036]

What condition is the balancer in?

 

[99FiveOh]

My balancer is brand new and as I said, all was perfect before the 5 speed conversion so it's definately something to do with that. The only two spinning masses in the system are the flywheel and the pressure plate.
I purchased a brand new flywheel on the way to work today and I'll install that on tuesday.

 

[str8stang036]

I had a vette once that I did a clutch swap on. It gave me some vibrations at first and then after a week it wouldn't even go into gear. It turned out to be the pressure plate to flywheel bolts were loose.

 

[fastgtfairlane]

make sure to properly torque the pressure plate.

 

[99FiveOh]

The pressure plate doesn't really get that much torque. It relies on lock washers and loctite to keep the bolts tight. Anyway, This thing vibrated from the moment I started the engine. Those items didn't have any time to come loose yet.

I got the new flywheel and it looks just like a stock flywheel. The one in my car has some weight on the rear side of it, nothing like a stocker. I'll bet money the guy sold me a 28oz flywheel. I mean, who would sell a 200$ flywheel for 30 bucks if it would have worked in his own car?

 

[HISSIN50]

IIRC flywheel bolts get close to 100 ft-lbs of torque (one of the repair manuals out there has a wrong torque spec BTW. Their listed spec is too low).

 

[99FiveOh]

Yes, it's actually comparable to the torque of a car wheel. I used to work in a tire place for a few years so I'll bet my feeling for 100 ft lbs of torque is pretty accurate. I'll go ahead and use a torque wrench when I do it this time.

 

[revhead347]

The pressure plate doesn't really get that much torque. It relies on lock washers and loctite to keep the bolts tight. Anyway, This thing vibrated from the moment I started the engine. Those items didn't have any time to come loose yet.

I got the new flywheel and it looks just like a stock flywheel. The one in my car has some weight on the rear side of it, nothing like a stocker. I'll bet money the guy sold me a 28oz flywheel. I mean, who would sell a 200$ flywheel for 30 bucks if it would have worked in his own car?

That sounds like sound judgement to me. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I think stock torque is 85 ft. lbs. I don't have book in front of me right now. The reason your flywheel has weights on it, is because all flywheels are generally balanced from the factory. That is the best way to do it if you can. When I build my engine, I had the crankshaft balanced, and then had the flywheel, crankshaft, harmonic balancer all balanced together. They took a good deal of weight out of one side of the flywheel, and a little weight out of the harmonic balancer too. It's just not practical to do this everytime you get a new flywheel, and generally you can get away without doing it. Those flywheels do warp a little bit, but never enough to cause a balance problem, and usually not enough to cause an engagement problem. I did a clutch job on an 01' GT last year for a friend, and I was amazed how out of round the flywheel was when they resurfaced it at the clutch shop. They guy who owned the place let me watch him do it.

Kurt

 

[99FiveOh]

On the up side, I'm sure there's folks out there who would like to have a 28oz billet SFI flywheel! I just need to take it somewhere to confirm that it is in fact a 28oz. I'll be pretty sure of that as soon as I get the new one installed.

Does a machine shop have the ability to check the balance/imbalance of a flywheel?

 

[revhead347]

Does it have a part number stamped on it anywhere? That would be the fastest way.

Kurt

 

[Stang D]

Years ago I accidently used a 50 oz balance when a 28oz was required. Thought my windshield was going to pop out when I revved it much past 3000 rpms.

 

[99FiveOh]

No number stamped on it anywhere. There was a sticker on it with some number, it's in another post I made trying to figure out what kind it was before I installed the setup. Unfortunately nobody responded to that thread

Here's the numbers on the sticker: A 060827 SFI Spec 1.1

I couldn't find any info on those numbers anywhere.

 

[99FiveOh]

The flywheel turned out to be my problem. Got it all back together now and it's smooth as a baby's a$$!