Teekass Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 I tested my new starter today (with the engine on an engine stand...no convertor or transmission), and noticed my flexplate wobbles a bit (from front to rear) when the engine turns over. I removed the flexplate and layed it on a flat surface to see if it was warped, but it didn't appear to be. I put the flexplate back on, and used a dial indicator to check the runout of the flexplate.....The runout is .040 total (I zeroed the dial indicator, and turned over the engine by hand to rule out the starter causing the wobble. The dial indicator moves from plus .020 to minus .020). My guess is that my crank flange is warped......I've run the engine for a while in another vehicle, and never had a problem. It must have been this way the whole time. My question is....Is this within tolerance? I'm no geometry major, but I would guess the crank flange runout wouldn't be more than .010. Oh yeah, it doesn't move enough for the starter to disenge (or even come close for that matter). I'm more concerned with the wobble causing problems with the transmission input shaft, etc. Thanks in advance, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 If your crank flange were warped that much, it wouldn't even rotate cause it'd bind in the main bearings. I've seen flexplates do that before. You need to get a SFI rated flexplate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teekass Posted March 20, 2007 Author Share Posted March 20, 2007 Thanks for the reply Doc. It was late last night, and I didn't even think to check the mounting area of the flexplate for warpage (I layed it on a flat surface, and checked the ring gear). If the flexplate were to bend, my guess is it would bend at the mounting area *crosses fingers.* For some reason, I didn't even think of that last night. I'll post my findings when I get my new TCI (SFI 29.1) one in there. Thanks again, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teekass Posted April 20, 2007 Author Share Posted April 20, 2007 Well if anyone is curious, I'm posting my flexplate results. I bought a new TCI flexplate #399273 http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=TCI%2D399273&autoview=sku and it wouldn't even bolt up without hitting the starter bendix. I called TCI, and we came to the conclusion that my flywheel was mis-boxed, so the one I had wasn't the one I needed. I called Summit, and they sent me another one (while I had them on the phone, I also ordered a Summit one #SUM-G100SFI http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SUM%2DG100SFI&autoview=sku ). After both the TCI and Summit Flexplates came, I tried to bolt on the TCI one and the same thing happened......it hit the starter gear. I then tried the Summit one, and it bolted up with no problem. As far as the wobble goes, the new Summit flywheel wobbled quite a bit without the transmission in place. Once I got the transmission mounted, and the flexplate bolted to the converter, the wobble went away......Mabye thats why they call it a FLEXplate . Anyway, I'm not suggesting anything bad about the TCI flexplate. I just wanted to point out that there was about 1/8th inch difference in starter clearance between the two. I have a Hitachi (or Tilton) style mini-starter, maybe thats why the Summit one was a better fit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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