Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Have my drive line and tranny out to replace the U-joint and "freshen up" my tranny and thought I'd "freshen up" my clutch to try to get rid of the clutch chatter by turning the fly wheel, replace the clutch disk, pilot bearing and pressure plate, and get all of that balanced before putting back on the car. Ordered new pilot bearing, clutch disk and pressure plate from VanPelt and was just about to remove the fly wheel to get ready to do all that when I realized that the diameter of the fly wheel is bigger than the opening at the back of the engine.

Is there no way to get that fly wheel out to turn it without removing and dismantling the engine?:confused:

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

As a follow up, what is the torque spec for those bolts that hold the fly wheel on?

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Professor,
I think you have to drop the pan. Not easy because you probably have a jack on the pan supporting the engine.
John

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Torque should be about 75 to 85 Ft/Lbs.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Professor,
Second thought: Since your engine was recently rebuilt, the builder probably resurfaced the flywheel so you may be good to not touch it. Was it resurfaced?
John

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

It was resurfaced and the clutch plate and pressure plate were replaced but ever since then I've had terrible clutch chatter/shudder (which I never had before) so I was wanting to do everything possible to try to fix that.:(

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Don't know if it holds true for the V -8 but had a bad clutch chatter on my model A ,come to find out,there are large hole PPAnd small hole PP,one is 5 inch the other 5 1/2 ,,you have to have the correct disc to go woth the PP.,Just a thought.another cause of clutch chatter is the PP not having all the fingers even,set at the correct height

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

In order to install or remove the flywheel the pan has to be off. I made the mistake when rebuilding mine, then after it was complete, I had to remove the pan to install the flywheel. I'll always remember that step :)

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Like Don P. said that was one problem we found, we also found that Pressure plate was out of adjustment. I had a bad clutch problem also and Don and I found that one of the rivets had came loose from disc and stuck in another spot of disc. I have not found any problem with flywheel that has caused chatter/shudder. Always been disc or pressure plate problems, pull transmission and post some photos,

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Remove oil pan and youll able to remve flywheel good luck

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

I would expect that the bad u-joint was the primary source of chatter.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

check motor mounts and transmission mount?

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Here's the pressure plate:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3390101d.jpg

Clutch disc one side

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps84b93c70.jpg


Clutch disc other side:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9222059e.jpg

See anything alarming? I don't even know what to look for. All of this was new last June, 13,000 miles ago.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

...see anything alarming?...yep, the pressure plate is trashed. All those little marks represent hard spots in the surface,and often they will have little cracks surrounding them. It's a common occurence with "rebuilt' plates . We have the same problems here trying to source quality parts , the rebuilds generally amount to resurfacing a previously worn out pressure plate like yours to give it a fresh surface for the clutch to work against ,but doing that doesn't fix sub-surface imperfections like yours,plus it removes thickness from the pressure plate which can have an adverse effect on the clamping pressure of the unit......and then you have to hope the pressure springs and levers are all rebuilt and set correctly as part of the rebuild process. If you are able ,find yourself a new or even a NOS clutch and pressure plate assembly in favor of questionable quality rebuilds, good luck, Colin.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

is that a usa clutch prof or a Asian made one the late rumble seat made the mistake by putting a Chinese bit of junk in the roadster he took it out real quick,i also think most of your chatter was from the universle that came apart good luck and yes you have to pull the pan

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Looks like glazed oil to me?

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

Don't know. Last engine rebuilder put it in. Have new clutch disc and pressure plate coming from Mac VanPelt.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

If the spots are blue heat spots you need to check the flywheel for the same spots. If it has the burned spots you WILL need to have it turned.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

[QUOTE=Old Col;852487]...see anything alarming?...yep, the pressure plate is trashed. All those little marks represent hard spots in the surface,and often they will have little cracks surrounding them. It's a common occurence with "rebuilt' plates . We have the same problems here trying to source quality parts , the rebuilds generally amount to resurfacing a previously worn out pressure plate like yours to give it a fresh surface for the clutch to work against ,but doing that doesn't fix sub-surface imperfections like yours,plus it removes thickness from the pressure plate which can have an adverse effect on the clamping pressure of the unit......and then you have to hope the pressure springs and levers are all rebuilt and set correctly as part of the rebuild process. If you are able ,find yourself a new or even a NOS clutch and pressure plate assembly in favor of questionable quality rebuilds, good luck, Colin.[/QUOTE

Colin has it covered... I would add, clean the flywheel, see if it looks like the PP. If it does, flywheel will need to be surfaced. Hope that it doesn't.
Then 'scuff' it (flywheel). Conservative approach is to bite the bullet, and remove the pan, remove the flywheel and surface it. Your call, but if it were me, I'd have a good look at the flywheel, and I'd be tempted to gamble, if I didn't see any hard spots, and if it cleaned up good. I'm sometimes a gambler, and sometimes I get 'bit'. And, a side-note, if the last guy did not surface it 'square', you wouldn't be able to see it, and, it would likely chatter. That's what you're trying to fix, right?
Second, yes, I see something that doen't work for me. And, I'm a little surprised, as I respect Mac VP's judgement and parts. It's the disc. What I see there is 'black' in color. That says to me, 'modern', current manufacture, and 'hard'. And, my experience with these has been dismal, at best. I've had nothing but bad luck with them, a definite chatter in my cars. So, what I've done for my own cars, I've watched the seller sites (ebay and the barn), and I've waited until I could find a disc that is NOS, meaning that it is old enough to NOT be black in color. The OLD ones are generally a dark grey, or grey-brown, and a softer material, and they are said to probably have asbestos in them. A good thing, in my thinking. In any event, they have worked great for me.
Then, when I get what I believe to be a good old disc, then I take the disc to my local clutch rebuilder, a Clutch Masters, and they MATCH the disc to the pressure plate. I generally buy the pressure plate from them. However, I've had one recent occasion where I took both the PP and disc to them, without buying anything, and had them match the two. They didn't seem to have a problem with that, although maybe it was sort of a 'favor' since I'm a regular customer. Another side-note... By 'match', I mean they match the thickness of my disc, to the PP. (And, of course, set the 'finger' height properly.)
Doing it this way, I've gotten rid of all the clutch chatter problems I used to have with my 47, and 34 that I have. Of course, all the rest of the 'system' has to be right, too. - U-joint TT cups tight, trans mount and motor mounts in good shape, etc, etc.
JMO, and... best wishes
edit... forgot, Clutch Masters balance's everything for me - flywheel, disc, PP. Prices are quite reasonable.

Re: Can't remove fly wheel without removing engine? 59A
 

colin and bobH, thanks so much for all of your time you took to educate me on this new territory I'm venturing into. Just one question:

How do I "scuff" the flywheel?

How does one "match" the disc to the pressure plate?

How do I "clean up" the flywheel?

Don't know whether VanPelt is sending me a black, dark-grey, or tan-grey disc with asbestos. Hope it's a good one. I've got to get this car back on the road so probably won't wait to find an NOS one. Here's one on ebay that looks grey: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-flathea...942a95&vxp=mtr What do you think of it? Also, I will just be doing the best I can with the new disc and pressure plate, hopefully finding someone locally who will "match" them. Won't be removing the pan to take the fly wheel off for any resurfacing which was just done last June. It doesn't have all of those dark spots like the pressure plate does. May end up with chatter again but I learned how to deal with that so not too big of deal. Would just be nice to get rid of it if less than the optimum approach can do it.

Thanks again for all of your information. It was all new to me.