I think I'm going to finally tackle replacing my flywheel and clutch this spring. How much difficulty is it to get to the bell housing bolts from under the car and get the bell housing off with motor in? I can't remember if I took it off before while it was in the car or if I pulled the motor with the bell housing.
It's pretty easy Harold. There's ample room. Just make sure you have some extensions and swivels in your tool set. If you can get it up in the air enough to get a second body under there to help lift the tranny down that would be good, but just use the bench press position if you cant. If you were closer you could bring her over and we could use the lift!
Cant wait for summer... 68HO4004spvert Sleddog Iowa
God Bless the men and women past and present that have served this country. Thank you. Support D.A.V. - it helps gives a life back to those who gave so much for us.....
It would be nice to have a lift and a friend to help out. I have been putting it off for a year now. I think the flywheel is shot after have the 2.73 rear gears in it. I got a new one to swap out along with a new clutch and pressure plate and TO bearing. Hoping the chatter goes away after it heats up.
It would be nice to have a lift and a friend to help out. I have been putting it off for a year now. I think the flywheel is shot after have the 2.73 rear gears in it. I got a new one to swap out along with a new clutch and pressure plate and TO bearing. Hoping the chatter goes away after it heats up.
I hope you have the 2.73 gears out now.
It can be done but you need a tool to position the clutch at center so the input shaft will slide into bearing installed in your flywheel. When I was a lot younger I would climb under the car with the tranny on my belly and then hoist it myself into the bell housing. No can do now! loll I forgot he bearing in the flywheel once...broke the input shaft!
Let the engine tilt down a bit at the rear will help locate the bolts on the bell housing. Take distributor out so it does not come in contact with fire wall.
Good luck!
Engine Test Stand Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoxyUwptUcdqEb-o2ArqyiUaHW0G_C88 restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg) 1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon 389 TriPower (Catwagon) 1999 JD AWS LX Lawn tractor 17hp (my daily driver) 2006 Sequoia 2017 Murano (wife's car) 202? Electric car 203? 68 Firebird /w electric engine 2007 Bayliner 175 runabout /w 3.0L Mercuiser__________________________________________________________
Thanks for the tips. Yes we have the 3.36 back in it now but I still wish for 3.55 gears but the 3.36 are much better. Someone was out of their mind putting in 2.73 with a M20 Muncie.
I have a transmission jack that may come in handy for an extra set of hands and the clutch disk alignment tool came with the clutch set.
I was also wanting to change out the distributor to the correct one as well, so this may be a good time for that too.
Thanks for the tips. Yes we have the 3.36 back in it now but I still wish for 3.55 gears but the 3.36 are much better. Someone was out of their mind putting in 2.73 with a M20 Muncie.
I have a transmission jack that may come in handy for an extra set of hands and the clutch disk alignment tool came with the clutch set.
I was also wanting to change out the distributor to the correct one as well, so this may be a good time for that too.
Your probably aware of this but just in case your not...
Mark on the firewall where the rotor is pointing too so you can put distr back in without pouching your timing. Make sure you don't turn the car engine over as well.
I had 2.72 gears with a 350 2bb 2sp Powerglide. Now that's a hurtee! No tire spinning on that puppy!
Last edited by Gus68; 03/29/1708:42 PM.
Engine Test Stand Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoxyUwptUcdqEb-o2ArqyiUaHW0G_C88 restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg) 1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon 389 TriPower (Catwagon) 1999 JD AWS LX Lawn tractor 17hp (my daily driver) 2006 Sequoia 2017 Murano (wife's car) 202? Electric car 203? 68 Firebird /w electric engine 2007 Bayliner 175 runabout /w 3.0L Mercuiser__________________________________________________________
Thanks Brian. I had been researching the best way to remove the distribuator and came across those recommendations. I had the original out playing around with recurving the mechinal advance. Time to put it in and see how it does.
Yes. The 2.73 rear and the 2.52 first gear only made 6.88 for 1st gear output drive ratio. Sloth moves faster. LOL.
It can be done but you need a tool to position the clutch at center so the input shaft will slide into bearing installed in your flywheel. When I was a lot younger I would climb under the car with the tranny on my belly and then hoist it myself into the bell housing. No can do now! loll
Lol For years that is the only way I ever did it. Hoisting it up on my gut/waistline.
For the clutch positioning tool I use an old input shaft out of one of my busted trannys but I think you can still find the plastic tool at most auto parts stores.
Note: the twisted spline and missing teeth. Too much speed shift, OOPS!
That is a sweet looking '68. What color red is that?
These days if I'm doing flywheel and clutch it's just easier to pull the motor. I can bolt everything up on the picker or the floor without doing all that on my back. Line the clutch plate with the tool as close to straight and I can usually wiggle it back in without too much trouble. If you're removing just the trans it helps to have a couple of studs installed in the block to help line up the bell when it goes back together.
Well I worked on getting the transmission, clutch and flywheel out. What a pain to get it all out while the motor in the car. Sure was easier building it all on the subframe and rolling it into place.
Anyway. I got the flywheel out and wanted to see what you thought. This was resurfaced 3000 miles ago. The first 1500 miles the car had the m20 and 2.73 rear gear. Had to slip the clutch a lot to get moving on the hills. The clutch may have not been adjusted very well too.
The last 1500 miles I had a 3.36 gear in the rear. The only symptoms I had was after about 30 min or so, the clutch would chatter a little pulling out from a stop. I could press the clutch a little and let it back out and it would stop.
Anyway thought I would post some pics of the components and see what you all thought.
I got the new Hays 13-130 flywheel and pressure plate balanced and back from the machine shop. I installed the Flywheel to inspect the starter and flywheel fitment. Wow I was so surprised how much the starter is going to need shimmed compared to the oem flywheel. I bet I need a 1/4 shim.
1st photo you can see where the Flywheel was hitting just inside the starter. 2nd Photo shows how much gap to make the clearance in the 3rd photo. Need to buy some shims to day to adjust the fit. Wish I can find some thicker shims.
I started working on shimming my starter to the new hays flywheel and ran into a question. I have the oem starter. I inserted a small long punch into the hole in the bottom to push the gear toward the flywheel.
As I push it, most of the time the teeth to not align and fully engage. Are you suppose to help the teeth alignment by turning the gear a little as you push it toward the flywheel teeth? Is this ok?
If I do that, it seems to go a lot easier getting it in the teeth.
If this would be the correct procedure, I think I got it shimmed ok. I was able to get it shimmed using 2-1/16 shims and 1-1/64 which does not seem bad. I used a paper clip to measure the spacing of the tooth gap. I checked about 8 locations on one area tighter then the rest which required the 3rd 1/64 shim.
Are you suppose to use thread loc on the bolts for the flywheel and clutch? I have read that the flywheel gets hot and melts the threadloc and you should just torque the bolts. Would this be the correct procedure?
The short fine thread bolts that mount the flywheel use a thin star washer from the factory.
X2. And I have used locktite before and peraonnally never had an issue with it "melting" once its set, its set plus you don't have to go whole hog on covering the bolt.
Judging by the color and the marks on that when you pulled it, it was probably chattering pretty good.
Last edited by Sleddog; 04/13/1702:22 PM.
Cant wait for summer... 68HO4004spvert Sleddog Iowa
God Bless the men and women past and present that have served this country. Thank you. Support D.A.V. - it helps gives a life back to those who gave so much for us.....
I will use a little thread lock since the census seems to think it is ok.
Some fly wheel bolts show washers some don't. I did not have any to begin with and the new bolts that came with the flywheel does not have them. The Service manual does not list them but they do list the washers on the pressure plate.
Now I got to figure out how to stake the pilot bearing.
Some show them and some don't, but all those lve torn down, even autos, used them. So I would still recommend using the original type star washers even with the lock tite. Classic Ind. Still shows them with part # 1256643
I got the new hays flywheel and pressure plate balanced to match the old set. I mounted the flywheel and shimmed the starter to fit. Staked the pilot bearing Thread locked the bolts and seated. Then Torqued to 40 - 80 - 100 ft lb. cleaned flywheel very good and then 10 more times. Cleaned pressure plate very good then 10 more times Installed clutch disk and pressure plate using the disk / pilot bearing alignment tool Mounted it aligning the marks from the balance Evenly tightened the pressure plate bolts in a star pattern until seated. Torqued to 15 ft lb then to 30 ft lb
According to the service manual lock washers are not needed. I did put the blue Loctite however.
I am still waiting on the transmission. Parts came in Monday and I am hoping to have it back this week. The builder that rebuild the transmission while I had the car apart left a OEM slider in. I guess he thought it was still good. However all the Taiwan gears need Torque lock sliders and are not compatible with non torque lock sliders. This was causing 1-2 to jump out of gear. Also if you use Torque lock sliders you need harden hubs since torque lock sliders chew into them. He left the originals in. So I ordered two new slider hub assemblies from Autogear.
AutoGear also make a better steel fork which they suggested I use while I was in it. I am also replacing the detents and got a HD detent spring. This should improve my shifting and should take care of my issues with it.
Nathon at Autogear was very helpful and spent a lot of time explaining things to me. If you need any parts or a new Muncie, I suggest giving them a call.
Got the transmission back in and while torquing the bolts to the bell housing the left lower bolt stripped and can not be torqued it down. Now trying to decide what to do. I guess I am going to have to pull it back out and helicoil it.
Should I pull the bell housing and put it on a drill press to do the heli coil or do it in place? Is squares so critical that I need to take it to a machine shop and have them to it?
Also thinking about maybe getting a longer bolt and see if that helps.
Depends on how handy you are with tools. The length has nothing to do with the length of the bolt. It depends on the thickness of the material the bolt threads into. In your case, the bell-housing. Which I'm guessing is probably 1/2" to 5/8". (You should be able to buy them in a kit that comes with instructions.)
-=>Lee<=- Due to budget constraints the "light at the end of the tunnel" has been turned off!
Yes the trick is holding the tap squarely. It's a lot easier to do in a mill with a tapping head or live center with everything clamped down solid and square.
Looks like you got her done Harold, any issues? Or did you take her to the show, and now gonna fix it?
I vote fix her in place if you have the car up high enough- Heli coils are pretty easy- as mentioned previously just have the drill straight.
Cant wait for summer... 68HO4004spvert Sleddog Iowa
God Bless the men and women past and present that have served this country. Thank you. Support D.A.V. - it helps gives a life back to those who gave so much for us.....
It was a great day today. Friday I had a rough time getting the transmission in from under the car. I worked on it for about 4 hours until I through in the towel and called for help. He showed me about tilting the motor and little by little we got it in. Maybe 20 mins. He showed me the trick and left after getting it in. So I worked late and got it all bolted in and everything back together. The one transmission bolt stripped out but I went ahead and completed it and made it to the show.
The show ended up being smaller then usual because of another big show 45 min down the road. Little disappointing, maybe 100 cars there. They selected top 25 and gave awards. I placed in that group.
So today, like I said was great. I took the transmission and bell housing out and used my drill press to tap the holes and heli coil them. I decided to do both bottom holes. The other side, the threads were not looking good and was seeing some shaving come out when unbolted it.
The is no what to heli with the transmission in because the transmission ear holes are 1/2 and the bit can not pass through. Thought it would be safer to take the bell housing out and lock it down on the drill press.
I used a bit that just fit in the hole to center the drill and locked the bell housing down. I then drilled it. Place the tap in the drill press and turn the chuck by hand to tap it. I used a .75" heli which was perfect. The 1" was slightly to long.
The Transmission went all back in quickly, after learning the tricks, it went it perfect. The new heli-coils were in perfect. I was so excited how easy it was compared to Friday.
A longer bolt doesnt sound like a good idea even if it does get snug. I had one BH that someone had epoxied a nut to the inside and i suppose they used a slightly longer bolt to reach. Didnt look that pretty but it probably worked as good as it ever did. Might have been done before people thought of helicoils. I personally have never done a helicoil to this day. I guess i haven't worked with that many alum parts that it ever really came up.
Glad you got her done Harold, and great news on the show.
Cant wait for summer... 68HO4004spvert Sleddog Iowa
God Bless the men and women past and present that have served this country. Thank you. Support D.A.V. - it helps gives a life back to those who gave so much for us.....