Ok, I'm drawing a complete blank here. I need help. I have a 66 283 in my 53 pu. When I started my motor(bought it as is) a while back, it started right up and appeared to run good. Although, I started hearing a clanging noise underneath. I figured the starter was too close so I shimmed it. The second time I started it, the sound was horrible, kinda like the flexplate caught the starter gear. Upon further review from under the truck and spinning the motor by hand, I noticed the flexplate appeared warped. As I spun the motor the distance from the teeth on the flexplate to the teeth on the starter gear changed as the motor turned. So I bought a new flexplate and installed it yesterday. Same thing. My question is, what else could it be? New flexplate, new starter(mini), the motor did run ok when I did run it. Could the crank be that far off? The mounting surface for the flexplate to crank is clean. This motor originally had a muncie behind it when I got it, but I wanted an automatic, so it had a heavy duty clutch and flywheel previousely. Like I said earlier, the distance between the starter gear surface and the flexplate surface. Another words, shimming it only changes the gear mesh, which isn't my problem. Hopefully I explained the situation good enough. What am I missing here??!!!
Make sure you tightened the torque converter bolts.After you installed the new flex plate did it still make noise? Also it's been my expirience that it's VERY hard to get a striaght flex plate usually the parts houses stack stuff on top of them and such and warp them a little.
Unbolt the torque converter bolts and spin the engine and see if the flexplate still wobbles. Sounds like the ears on the torque converter are not true.
As for the torque converter, when I checked the old flexplate it was still bolted on. With the new flexplate in, I left the converter unbolted. So both ways the flexplate rotates warped. Could the harmonic balancer cause this problem? I've got a brand new one(7").
The hole in the center of the flexplate SHOULD be a pretty close fit (Read kinda tight) on the crank register... if it's not, you possibly have some odd crankshaft (which I have never heard of!), of a damaged crankshaft...
I found out that the torque converter wasnt seated completely in the crankshaft when I had that same problem. That meant that tightening the torque converter bolts actually pulled on the flex plate which then--ummm, --flexed!
You may have flywheel/flexplate bolts that are too long. Stick flywheels have a bolt with a longer shoulder. Auto flywheels have a bolt with a shorter shoulder. Looking from here I'd say you used the stick bolts and they are torqued down on the flexplate on the shoulder and the flexplate is free to wobble on the overly long bolt shoulder. Shoulder defined as the un-threaded portion of the bolt. Use of the correct bolt will allow the flexplate to seat properly on the crankshaft flange.
if you didn't change the flywheel bolts to the flexplate length C9 has the problem nailed. the automatic flywheel bolts are indeed short than the stick shift bolts and the extra length will not allow the retention of the flywheel before the threads bottom out on the crank flange. Get the correct bolts and I believe the problem will go away. Frank
Thanks guys. I'm gonna take it off again tonight and try again. I have the right bolts, but who knows on the crank. I'm going to pay closer attention to the mounting surface of the crank, and also look at the way its mounted once tightened. I hope it's not the crank, but I do have another 283 kicking around, just not looking forward to ripping everything apart since It seems like I just put everything in. Good news is I have all winter.
I'm posting this in case your flex-plate issues are resolved, but you still get zinging/clanging noises. It sounds like the mini-starter is new. Most have two sets of shims. First set is used to adjust the gear mesh (the thin shims that go between the aluminum starter mounting block and bellhousing/engine block). The second set are used to "retract" the face of the pinion gear from the ring gear, and go between the starter and the aluminum mounting block. One shim looks like a washer and sits down in the mounting block, and the other matches the contours of the starter face. This set of shims can buy you an extra 1/16" of clearance. I'm in the process of installing a mini-starter in a 283/TH350 combo. My flex plate also has some movement, which causes the ring gear to zing the face of the pinion gear. First time I fired it up and it made a racket after idling 10 seconds. Used the shims to retract the pinion gear 1/16" and I could start it and idle with no zinging, but once in gear and driving, got the same problem. The manufacturer sent me a second set of shims to move the starter back another 1/16". If that doesn't work, I'll have to replace the flexplate/ring-gear -OR- go with an OEM style mini starter. The OEM style gives you about 1/2" clearance when the pinion gear is retracted. The mini starter only gives you .065"-.100" (plus what you can add with shims). Since I don't want to have to drop the ******, I'll go with the OEM style starter if I have to. The main reason for dealing with all this ****, is the mini starter and solenoid are configurable over the stock unit (not to mention they draw less current and the gear-reduction enables turning over higher-compression engines). The stock starter I had was basically touching the exhaust pipe. I've now got close to 4" of clearance. Additionally, the solenoid is down at the 6:00 position, and shielded from the heat by the starter itself. I'm thinking that this will help with the heat-soak issues the car had when I got it. Yeah, a Ford solenoid on the firewall would help, but it wouldn't fix the starter from getting fried. I'll be trying out the second set of shims tonight and will follow-up tomorrow with results. Best of luck getting things worked out! -murph
Thanks murph! I already have 1 set of shims in the starter, and if I have to I will put another in, but with upwards of an 1/4 of flexplate travel, not to sure if that will solve my problem. At no point does the flexplate touch the starter gear, but I'm ***uming at reasonable rpms it must be flexing in and catching it. Keep me posted though! Thanks.
This sounds kinds stupid but..........is the flywheel on correctly? I have seen them on backwards and cause this problem. .
One more that probably doesn't enter into this problem. If the flywheel dust cover is bent/dented - a common occurence when an engine is set on the floor - the bend most times will allow the sheet metal dust cover to contact the flywheel/flex plate ring gear. Which leads to some most interesting sounds. You'd think the ring gear would grind the offending sheet metal away. It does, but most times not enough is ground away that sufficient clearance is attained to stop the noise. Pull the dust cover and see what happens.
You say this was a manual trans setup previously? Did you remove the pilot bushing? Could the snout of the converter not be seating in the end of the crank? Maybe left field - but justa thought. Charlie
Thanks for all the info. Yes, it is on correctly(I did have to doublecheck though ) I don't have any cover on it so it's not hitting anything there. As for the crank locater stud..........hmmmm. You might be on to something. I'm not sure. I'll be crawling under tonight. If I did it wrong I did it wrong twice(wouldn't surprise me though). Wish me luck. Thanks again!
Don't know about a SBC but on a Ford I had, the drain plug on the converter was not lined up with the hole in the flex plate and warped it..........OLDBEET
Just wanted to follow-up to my earlier post in this thread. I reinstalled the mini-starter last night with the extra set of shims the manufacturer's rep sent me. I was skeptical that they would do the trick, but willing to help with the rep's "experiment" (he had never double-shimmed one of these setups before). Well, damned if that extra 1/16" didn't buy enough clearance to SOLVE the problem. I (carefully) cycled through all the gears while up on stands and all was quiet. I then put it on the ground and romped around my hilly neighborhood and then hit the highway. Even downshifting at speed or accelerating under load, I couldn't get the zinging to occur. I guess the mini-starter gets to stay after all. Hehe. Which is good, cuz, well, I just couldn't get the engine to turn over with my telepathic abilities alone. In addition to (hopefully) solving the clearance/heat soak problems, the mini-starter (with reduction gears) sounds flat out BAD ***. I'll be sure to post additional followups if the starter ****s the bed, or my ring gear gets fragged, or whatever. -murph
Just wanted to give you an update. I took murph's advice and went a step further. Made a new shim that was a 3/16" thick overall(3 shims thickness). This worked perfect! Have plenty of clearance and along with an unwarped flexplate truck turns over beautiful. After installing the starter I attempted to start the truck, but found out that my cheapo Spectre fuel regulator ****ped out, so I discarded and ran straight to carb for right now. Then found that my cheapo Carter carb was screwed up so I had an old edelbrock kickin around and threw that on. Voila! Truck started right up and for the first time got to drive the damn thing around the block. Great oil pressure and didn't overheat. Now just for a few minor things like wipers, exhaust and a few bugs to work out of the electrical and I'm on the road again. Of course it's time for winter, but come spring I'll be good to go. I appreciate all the input!
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