Lakewood Bell Housing Alignment

[Jsprint68]

I’m trying to align a 15200 bell on a 302 and well I can’t believe it’s off by this much.

When I run a dial indicator on the crank and fly wheel I only get 0.002” fluctuation.

When I run the dial on the inside the bore I get 0.018” fluctuation (I can get offset dowels for this).

When I run the dial on the Face (bell where the trans mounts) I find the lower half needs to move forward by 0.015”.

I have a 164 tooth flywheel and it doesn’t rub anywhere so could the hole on the bell be off? Do I only accept that Lakewood has the hole in the perfect spot? I can get the dowel pins fpr the bore but I started to think that maybe it’s the bell and not my engine. The bell is new and the mounting surface on the engine is perfectly clean with no burrs. I even went as far as sanding the paint off on the bell but all that did was get red dust all over me.

The Ford manual says that you could shim the bell but I don’t know if that such a good idea. I’ve been farting around with this for 3 days on and off trying to see if I missed something but all seems ok.

 

[Jsprint68]

This is what I got back from Lakewood/Mr.Gasket! Do you agree?

The only proper alignment check should be taken from inside the bore.

I responded with this,

According to the factory Ford manual the Face Alignment must also be checked. This is done to ensure that the flywheel is parallel to the transmission mounting surface. The check is done by attaching the magnetic base to the flywheel and running the dial indicator on the outside face one inch out from the bore opening. 0.005” is the maximum variation allowed.

It's been about 4 days now and no responce from them.

 

[1320stang]

I put a Lakewood on my race 289 and never aligned it, never thought about it or knew that you could/had to. Never had a problem.

Since learning of this, I became a little concerned about it if I do it again.

BTW, Robb at Blue Oval Performance in Englewood, CO makes some cool alignment pins for aligning the bellhousing.

BLUE OVAL PERFORMANCE ENG.
3761 Kalamath St.
Englewood, CO 80110 …… (303) 762-8298
Ford oriented engine building and parts.

 

[blue66tang]

I have a lakewood bell too. When I put it on my first engine, i spent hours apon hours getting it where it should be. I had a set of ofset dowls. When i put it on my new engine about a month ago i decided that I didnt want todo that again, so I got it within .015 and called it good. I ended up just using the ford strait pins. I cant tell the difference, tranny is just as quiet as before.

 

[Jsprint68]

Like I said, I don’t have a problem getting offset dowels for the bore centering but have a problem with the face alignment. Has anybody run into this problem? Ford said you have to check it where Lakewood says no.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Are you getting .018 total variation, or is that on each side of the bore? I thought .010 was the max on either side. Also, you ARE supposed to remove the paint from the center hole bore.

I have a McLeod and didnt need offset dowels. I think it had ~.014 total/.007" per side, so I had a few thou to spare.

Hard to imagine someone standing at a manual mill back in the mid '60s building a more accurate factory part than Lakewood can with CNC equipment.

 

[Jsprint68]

Yea, 0.018” is the total so divided by 2 I get 0.009 and the 0.007 offset dowels will work on centering the bore. The center hole or bore had some flash on it so in order to get and accurate reading I removed it along with any paint that might have been built up. I know that they say if the bell is altered in any way that it would void the SFI rating but I had to get a true reading. I have heard that the McLeod bells where more accurate and they give you a sticker giving you how much it was off center.

Still need to know about the face alignment though. I would think it would be just as critical to get the trans parallel to the block, as it would be to have the bore centered on the crank or pilot bushing.

 

[dennis112]

Hard to imagine someone standing at a manual mill back in the mid '60s building a more accurate factory part than Lakewood can with CNC equipment.

I know that they say if the bell is altered in any way that it would void the SFI rating but I had to get a true reading.

When I did my Lakewood 15200 installation, I found that the RAM SFI flywheel's starter ring gear wanted to rub the inside of the bell, just as I was getting it aligned. I spent hours trying to get everything centered but it always wanted to rub. Ended up taking a grinder to the inside of the bell where it wasn't formed just right (where the paint was rubbed off.)

Then when I installed my custom headers, one tube hit the bell to spacer plate mating surface, right by the starter. Why there is 1/2" of extra material there, I'll never know. Anyways, I ended up removing about 1/4" from there. Otherwise, the install was a breeze. . . . .

I too have heard that McLoed had a better setup.

 

[Jsprint68]

Am I the only one that has checked the face alignment?

 

[4MuscleMachines]

I too have heard that McLoed had a better setup.

FYI, IMO everybody should be looking first into McLeod. My experience has always been that McLeods are much better aligned to factory blocks than the other brand by far.

 

[blue66tang]

How do you check for face alignment?

 

[milner351]

Well, I must have been the exception.
I got a McLeod through Ford Motorsport when I was building my 5.0 project, and it didn't line up at all, I sent it back, and got the Lakewood, which checked out fine.
Bore center, and face parallel.

 

[Jsprint68]

According to the factory Ford manual the Face Alignment must also be checked. ..... The check is done by attaching the magnetic base to the flywheel and running the dial indicator on the outside face one inch out from the bore opening. 0.005” is the maximum variation allowed.

I sent another email to Lakewood two days ago and haven’t heard back from them yet. This makes 4 emails over a two weeks time that there is no response to. This does not include the first one that wasn't answered fully.

 

[Jsprint68]

So what should I do about the face alignment? I’ve sent 5 more emails to Lakewood but they are not responding to them. I’m going to give them a call on Monday because I’m off from work.