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by Christopher Douglas |
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After I got all of the parts, the first step is to install the new flywheel. Make sure to put the bellhousing dust cover on before the flywheel. Use Loctite on the bolts and torque them to 85 ft/lbs.
Now the hard part. The steel bellhousings are not perfectly aligned with the crankshaft when they are produced. That means you must align it yourself.
The tools and materials I used are (links are to pictures): The following text The following text was sent to me by a fellow Corraler and written by Preston. It explains it very well so I am just going to copy it and add pictures. My additions are in italics Its strange how they don't emphasize this procedure when you're buying one, because its very important, but they don't even sell you the alignment kit with the bellhousing! Maybe if you check it out it would actually fit correctly, but I'm under the distinct impression that this needs to be done with all scattershields.
You'll need a dial indicator, and a $10 alignment kit from Lakewood or
whoever built the shield. The alignment kit is a couple of 1/4" thick
washers. The alignment kit should also have instructions which I will
repeat below. The important thing to remember is that this huge heavy
scattershield that locates a 600 lb engine and a 150 lb transmission
is supposed to have a runout of only .005" !!!!!! Oh yeah, and you will need a welder!!
Remove the clutch, and put the base of the dial indicator onto the
center of the flywheel The dowels are actually too short to stick all they way though without balancing them in the holes. I made new ones from 1/2" steel bar and chamfered the ends with a bench grinder. See parts picture. You also need to grind off the paint around the holes to make the weld stick. When you install the shield just use the 6 main block bolts and maybe one of the lower shield bolts and tighten them but don't crank them all they way. Setup the dial indicator so that it measures the inside diameter of the hole. This is actually one of the more frustrating parts of the procedure for me, trying to get the damn indicator with all of its little bends and friction adjusters to fit in the working area and measure the hole so you can still see the dial. Yes, this is very hard. It took me and my dad about 2 hours! Just keep screwing with it and you'll get it setup eventually.
Set the dial to zero, and slowly turn the engine over for one revolution. Record the highest and lowest dial readings, for example say you get +.060 and -.030 inches. This makes for a total displacement of .090 inches. Since you're going in a circle you've effectively measured the displaceasured the displacement twice, so you're runout is .090/2 = .045 inches. This is a very typical value, and as you can see is WAY larger than .005 inches. Since you went around one revolution, the dial should be back on zero. Since you measured +.060 and -.030, you're "true zero" is actually at +.015, ie if you move the zero indicator on the dial to +.015 from your original zero and go through a revolution, you will now measure +.045 and -.045 displacement.
So now do that, go through one revolution to ensure that you are
measuring equal + and - displacement, and then keep turning the engine
until the dial indicator reads the maximum displacement, ie either +.045
or -.045 inches. Now the tough part, you have to "tap" the shield with a
mallet in the same direction as the pointer on the dial indicator so
that it reads zero. After you do this, if you turn the engine through
another revolution the dial indicator should read no displacement, in
theory. In reality, getting this down to .005 is pretty tough, I'm
sure the lip of the shield probably has at least .002 runout in it anyway.
It usually takes a few tap, measure, tap, measure cycles to get this to
an acceptable level. Once the shield is aligned, you slip the alignment washers over the dowels, and then weld them into place. Weld them well, I one. Weld them well, I once had one of these come off when I was pulling the shield and had to do it all over again, underneath the car.
So it can be done in the vehicle, but you can see why I thought it was alot easier with the engine out. Nothing to it, right? This was actually the most frustrating mod I have ever done. Rebuilding the engine was easier. All for no more power, just safety but I think it will be worth it. And it looks COOL! |
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