T5 Swap and Engine Vibration

[95BlackTan50]

I've been reading a lot of posts from people that have done and AODE to T5 swap and have vibration problems after the swap. I did the swap in December and have a similar issue where the vibration starts at about 3500 rpm and gets worse with higher RPM. The vibration happens whether the car is stationary or moving. It also doesn't matter whether you are in gear, in neutral or have the clutch in or out so I think the driveshaft is out of the equation. It's not a terrible vibration, but it's bad enough that I stayed off the track this summer so I wouldn't break anything.

From what I've read, there are issues with imbalanced King Cobra Clutch parts, imbalanced flywheel and Tranny mounts. I've finally got time to put the car up on stands for a while to work on it and I'm getting a plan together to isolate the vibration.

Once I get to the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel, is there any way to tell if they are imbalanced or do they just need to be replaced with parts that are hopefully good? Has anybody got a good step by step process that they have used successfully for this?

It's a 94/95 T5 & Bell Housing with a 5-speed driveshaft, King Cobra clutch, Iron 50oz flywheel. The tranny mount is stock but I had to drill out the holes in the crossmember to get the mount to line up correctly.

Thanks for any pointers you can give,

Barney

 

[urban96]

hows your balencer look?

 

[95BlackTan50]

The balancer should be good. I replaced it last summer. There was no vibration before the AODE to T5 swap so I think I can count out the balancer.

 

[yellowstang1994]

I did a few clutch swaps on my car and ever since the very first time I took the tranny off it's had a vibration. Not bad, like you are saying. Mine comes in a little under 2k. Same symptoms... doesn't matter which gear or if i'm stopped or moving. I can sit in neutral and rev and you'll feel it just around 2k. I replaced the HB right when I first started getting the vibration and it didn't do anything. Right now i'm currently using a Ford Heavy Duty clutch kit, a brand new stock Ford Flywheel and ever since I put this poly urethane trans mount in, i been having vibrations. I got the Prothane brand and the holes didn't match so I reamed one side out a little more. I'm so tired of clutch drivetrain issues, the next time I do it, i'm going with centerforce dual friction a nice alum. flywheel and all new everything. Even though I did replace a lot the first 2 times. Anyone have any other vibration ideas?

 

[SeriousSN95]

i did the swap and dont have any problems like that.The only time i can say it vibrates is in 5th gear at 125-135 ish. Other than that mines smooth as an auto.

 

[Green 94 5.0]

i never had any vibrations either. mine was a t5 with t5 aluminum bell, fidanza flywheel, king cobra clutch, and frpp aluminum driveshaft.

 

[95BlackTan50]

UPDATE - NO MORE VIBRATION!!

After 16 months of living with my vibration, oil leak and speedometer problem, I finally decided to take out the tranny and take a look. I found a machine shop that could check the balance of my flywheel and pressure plate. The "brand new out of the box" flywheel was way out of balance and the pressure plate was a little bit off. Both were balanced and the engine revs up to 6000 RPM with no vibration.

I don't know a whole lot about balancing, but the guy that did mine had a pretty cool approach. Since the flywheel has a 50 oz. imbalance, he had to set it up with a crank and harmonic damper. Since I had done an AODE to T5 conversion, I had the known good flex plate that he could use to calibrate his setup to. All he had to do then was make the flywheel and pressure plate balance to be the same as the flex plate. Best $100 I've spent this year. Larry at S&G Auto Machine in Bristol, TN did an awesome job.

Now it's time to :Track:

 

[99FiveOh]

Funny you should say something about king cobra clutches. I've been having issues with their pressure plates. My brother runs a cheap advanced auto clutch and his car is so smooth it's sickening! I've eliminated alot of my vibes, but its' still not as smooth as I'd like it to be.

Glad you were able to get it fixed! I suppose any machine shop could do this?

 

[95BlackTan50]

Yeah, there are a lot of vibration related posts that have the king cobra clutch installed. In my case, the pressure plate imbalance was much less significant than the flywheel. He took what seemed to me to be a lot of metal out of the flywheel.

I don't know what kind of setup he used to balance my setup, so I can't say if it is unique to an automotive machine shop or any generic shop.