I was talking to Dad today about reassembling my engine and he asked if I had marked the flywheel when I took it off. Well, I'm using the flywheel from my spare 215 so I didn't mark it. I didn't think it would make much difference since it's going in a different engine. Is there a certain way these go on? Is the flywheel counterbalanced or something? Does the pressure disc go on a certain way, too? Oof!



Kevin
1953 Ford F-100
Go Illini

 

I've heard the flywheel should be balanced which I didn't do. When I have my transmission out to rebuild I plan on taking the flywheel off and have it balanced with the pressure plate installed since I have a slight engine vibration.

 

Yeah, you might call a shop and see if they can balance the flywheel and pressure plate together. Not sure how much it would cost. My machine shop did a full balance including the flywheel/plate, crank, rods and pistons for $150. They mark the flywheel and plate so you should only assemble them one way, the way they were balanced. Supposed to reduce vibration and reduce bearing wear. Since it's going on a different engine you still might not have a good balance between the flywheel and crank though, I think ideally it should all be done together.

Scott

 

its a role of the dice, the factory balance if within tolorance will work most of the time, sometimes they won't, these engine parts were balanced seperatley not as an assembly at the factory, so in most cases you can use them without rebalance, I only balance them when doing a complete rebuild and everything can be balanced together

 

Kevin,

On the 272, the flywheel would only go on one way - the mounting holes are not quite on an evenly divided bolt circle. I remember this distinctly, as we tried for at least half an hour to get the bolts to start in the threads. Then we took a break and bumbled onto the solution to the problem. The thing is, we played with it for a while afterwards just to convince ourselves that it really did go on only one way. In any of the "wrong" orientations, the bolt holes are close enough that we really didn't notice the offset until we looked really closely.

'Course, it's always possible that they are evenly spaced and we're just incompetent. We were not drinking any alcoholic beverages at the time, so that's not a factor.

 

I have a dim recollection that the bolt hole pattern is such that there's only one way the flywheel can mount. It would seem to me that it shouldn't make any difference whether the flywheel was original or from another 215...they all share the same point of rotation. I think it's more likely that the crankshaft would be sllightly off balance, or the piston assembly weights wouldn't be exactly equal. Both the crank and the connecting rods have those cast bosses which can be ground down a bit to get a better balance. I don't think the 215 is ever going to see the kind of rpms where the flywheel balance is going to be an issue.

 

earl and jvmcc are correct it will only go on one way

 

Thanks for sharing that little nugget of information. Things could have gotten ugly since it's likely I would be drinking alcoholic beverages while trying to put the flywheel back on. It makes no mention of that in the shop manual.

Go figure!

I found it interesting that the manual makes a point of telling you to mark the pressure plate in relation to the flywheel so you can put it back on the same way but is unconcerned about the orientation if you are putting a new pressure plate on. Huh?



Kevin
1953 Ford F-100
Go Illini

 

maybe the flywheel and clutch were balanced as a unit at the factory, not realy sure..anyway, when you replace it with another you just bolt it on

 

Only thing I can think of is that the pressure plate and flywheel may wear in a pattern, since the same part of the pressure plate is always opposite the same part of the flywheel. Putting them back together in a different orientation may cause some chatter or shaking when engaging the clutch???

As far as replacing the flywheel or pressure plate, there wouldn't be any advantage to a particular orientation with new parts - so I guess they figure there's no point in worrying about the "correct" orientation.

Keep in mind that this is all a real WAG on my part.