Ok, I will admit it. It has been years since I have pulled a C4 out of a car. My neighbor (shad tree) is building a model A with Ford 302/C4 drive train. The parts are from several different cars. Engine 70-72 302. Trans C4 from who knows what. He was lacking a flex plate flywheel so he bought a new one from a local auto parts store. They told him 68-76 were all the same. I helped him install and when we snug everything up the flex plate balancing weight hangs up on the plate spacer between the block and transmission. At first I am thinking. Did we put the flex plate on backwards? We pull it all apart and no it only goes on one way. Experts and jokers feel free to chime in.......
Under the starter there should be a code like D0 be 1970,D2 1972.Now the bellhousing there is a small and large. Small bell is 5 7/8" long, and from lower bolt starter to top c/c is 15 1/2 , 157 tooth Larger bell is 6 3/16",From the lower starter bolt to top c/c.15 3/4" 164 tooth Get the correct tooth count for bell. I think they gave you wrong one.
I have worked on a lot of SBF and never had that issue. The only thing I can think of is maybe the torque converter maybe not be seated into the trans all the way and is pushing the flex plate up against the engine. ALso it that happen you can neither bust the ears off in the front pump or damage the front pump. The weights on the flex plate are welding on the back site (Engine side of plate)
The converter is seated. I made sure of that before we installed the ******. We are going to do some measuring but I have a feeling we might need the 164 tooth flex plate as stated by George/Maine
The flex plate weights are on the block side,and you say hitting the thin plate. My guess you have a 164 tooth flex and hitting plate. There are plates to match bell you will see about 1/4 difference. The plate should match bellhousing.
HaHa! Thats for sure. I pulled a 302/C4 out of a 69 econoline to put into my 65 F100. When it came to buying parts like the Flex plate and Harmonic damper. It turn into a parts chasing spectacle.
I would double check the bellhousing first . They flywheels used today are from overseas and the last 2 I bought , the damn ring was not welded on straight and was crocked so it ended up eating the teeth up on the one flywheel in about 15 starts . Then next one was a little better but still ground on the teeth pretty bad but held up . If you can get one from a salvage yard it would be better than the new junk we get today at the parts stores ! I rebuild Ford engines and the 289/302/351w can be a real pain in the *** sometime . They have like 3 or 4 different water pumps to use , different flywheels , bell housings . The problem I am going through is with PULLEYS ! I am using a 1984, 5.0 and wanted to use a V-belt set up and not the Serp belt set up . I played with about 20 different pulleys I have and couldn't get any to work ! I ended up just using the Serp belt pulleys and hope that will work . I am only running an alt. and didn't want all that Serp belt **** all over the front of my engine . Now I need to get some alt. brackets to work now . Isn't building hotrods so damn much fun ! Retro Jim
Here is a pic of the 157T block plate vs 164T block plate (on the right). Just measure the starter spacing to see what one you have. One other thing I had once was the converter drain plug was not lined up with the hole in the flexplate. When the transmission was bolted up it would push the flexplate towards the block just enough for the weight to hit the block plate. Take it apart and it would look alright. Took me a few hours to figure that one out. lol Some converter have two drain plugs as well so one could be lined up with the hole and another may be hitting. Notice on this flexplate how there are only 3 holes for the drain plug. If your torque converter is not clocked right compared to the flexplate you could have the problem I had.
I have a feeling the flywheel is correct (157 tooth). I believe it is the spacer plate. My neighbor (shade tree mechanic) Made his own? He tells me this after we have pulled the trans twice. Any way I told him he has used his 2 transmission mulligans pulls on me. Will let you know if he figures it out.
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