Flywheel housing alinement to crankshaft

[miff]

Have any of you have this problem? I am following the instructions in the restorer vol 4 pages 10 thru 13 .on how to check the crankshaft alinement with the flywheelhousing .I have the checkers. I have cleaned all the surfaces . Set the gauge at .030 on top . When I get at the six o'clock position the gauge reads .010. When I shim out the top (12oclock position) to .010. The bottom( 6 o'clock) is around .030. . The book talks about the possibility the housing is warped and to replace . The motor and drive train came off of a running an driving car . Also the person that rebuilt the motor is know for paying attention to detail. The service bulletin a.006 is recommended . I am about to find a happy medium and go ahead and assemble the clutch . I have been chasing is problem for the past two weeks off and on. Any suggestions .

[RonC]

If the housing is warped replace it. A miss aligned housing can cause vibration

[Patrick L.]

Keep trying the shims, it takes a lot of time and creative language. Don't worry too much about 6:00, only 12:00, 3:00 and 9:00.
I ended up filing mine, couldn't quite get it shimmed right. Took it from .032" down to .009". No more chatter.


When I say shims, I mean of different thickness, whatever it takes. You may have to make your own. In the above I was assuming the gasket and .010" shims were installed.

[Tom Endy]

A couple of tricks:

The gasket that goes between the housing and the block should be matched to the two metal shims used at the top bolts in the ears. Most gaskets supplied by Model A suppliers are too thin. What I do is purchase gasket stock from NAPA that is .015 thick and make my own. The theory being is will squeeze down to about .010, which is the thickness of the horse shoe shaped metal shims.

The two top bolts should also be torqued down to the same value as the bottom four bolts. What I do is use shorter bolts without the throttle linkage. I leave them in place until the engine is installed, then replace them with the longer bolts and the throttle linkage and re-torque them.

Tom Endy

[Joe K]

Chatter I would think would not be the big enemy here. Chatter may result from a mis-alignment - but it might also not be present.

You can think of the clutch disk as the "flexible" part of a flex joint. The spring center clutch disks SHOULD be more forgiving on this. (although some don't like them because they can be a "mushy" clutch.)

Chatter, when it occurs, I think more a matter of clutch worn out - or glazed over. Or foreign lubricant having gotten onto the disk or facing. Also more likely a matter of the flywheel being out of perpendicularity (wobbles) relative to the crank. As you ease the clutch home, it "catches" at certain points in the rotation and relieves at others - hence the chatter.

But if you have not had chatter and everything works good up to now, do the best you can to bring everything to the specs - Tom's method works as well. As does having a machine shop machine (grind usually) the housing/block interface using the external groove as reference (a more precise method than using a file and guess or by god.)

I have used aluminum-foil across the top of the housing/block flange to get the indicator closer. Aluminum foil varies, but is typically about 0.0015 around here.

Joe K

[harleytoprock]

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Send the housing to a Blanchard grinder. This makes both surfaces parallel.

[Kohnke Rebabbitting]

Originally Posted by miff

Have any of you have this problem? I am following the instructions in the restorer vol 4 pages 10 thru 13 .on how to check the crankshaft alinement with the flywheelhousing .I have the checkers. I have cleaned all the surfaces . Set the gauge at .030 on top . When I get at the six o'clock position the gauge reads .010. When I shim out the top (12oclock position) to .010. The bottom( 6 o'clock) is around .030. . The book talks about the possibility the housing is warped and to replace . The motor and drive train came off of a running an driving car . Also the person that rebuilt the motor is know for paying attention to detail. The service bulletin a.006 is recommended . I am about to find a happy medium and go ahead and assemble the clutch . I have been chasing is problem for the past two weeks off and on. Any suggestions .

Mr. Miff, the shiming is easy, if you do it right.

You have to get the sides to read the same at 9 and 3.

Then you have to get the 12, and 6 to read the same.

You can't do this by using .010 thousandths shims.

The only reason the housing has to be square is that the transmission shaft will take out the rear bearing among other things, but that is the main one.

One very important thing many do not do is, when you think you have it done, is to leave it set 24 hours and check it again, as they will change a little by warping.

Call me and I will explain, to much typing.

Herm.

515-546-4551

[miff]

Thank you all for the info. Will give it a try again tonight. Will let you know the out come. Miffy

[Kohnke Rebabbitting]

Here are some Pictures.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I'm not sure why you started with the dial indicator at .030" but it's usual to start with a zero and see where the needle goes from there. It really doesn't matter where you start as long as the needle doesn't move more than .006" from the high reading to the low reading. I measure at 9, 12, and 3 O'clock positions and don't worry about the 6 o'clock, as the clutch housing will pull that where it should be. I've never had any problems doing it this way.

All my pictures are on my other computer, which is down right now, but they would look the same as what Herm just posted, as I have the same bar and indicator.

[TradModelA]

I read in Les Andrews book that flywheel housing misalignment can cause not only chatter but also difficulty shifting? Miff , i hope you got yours squared away.

[James Rogers]

Originally Posted by harleytoprock

Send the housing to a Blanchard grinder. This makes both surfaces parallel.

This is the best way to do this. I grind every housing that comes into the shop with the motor it goes on.

[Jon]

You have to take into account also that the distance between the bolts where you change shims is much shorter than the distance from 9 o'clock - 3 o'clock on the housing. May only take 3-4 thousandths at the bolts where you shim to correct .010" - .012" at the housing. These numbers are just a for instance, need to take measurements and determine the proportion. Also, if you add a shim say to the left bolt, the left side of housing will go towards the indicator maybe twice the amount the shim is and at the same time the other side of the housing will go in the opposite direction. AND sometimes you can do all of this figuring and it doesn't react according to the math. May have to play with the shims. I like Herm's notes, take readings, write down where you add shims and how much and then write down what that shim changed and how much.

[TDO]

What is the purpose of the two .010 slotted shims at the top two bolts in the flywheel housing. And are these in place when indicating the flywheel housing in.