I found the problem (thank god!!).

The flywheel is on right. I put it on right the first time. You can put it on the wrong way, but only if one screw is bad. You guys are right, there is only one way. I found this by purposely trying to put it on wrong and you can get all bolts in but one.

The problem I had is the pressure plate is the wrong one. I took it to a ford machine-shop and the guy took one look at it and said it is the wrong one. He brought out the right one and it was totally different. I didn't question it since the box specifically says the clutch pack may look different than the one you remove. The one I took out of the truck is a "thin contact surface" type and the new one is a "wide contact surface" type. I put the thin surface one in the truck and no more imbalance shudder.

I got the truck back together and now I just have to adjust the cross-shaft linkage since I don't have enough pedal travel to disengagbe the clutch now (with the new one in), hopefully i'll be back on the road in a day or so.

Thanks for listening guys and all the great suggestions. This is really the biggest pain in the @$$ I have ever had to deal with and I like working on my own vehicles. Too bad its freezing outside whenever I run into trouble.

Thanks again everyone, sorry this took so long. Hopefully someone will read this and learn from my month of hell.

Randy

 

wow, i'm glad you found out what was causing this. i,m looking at replacing my clutch this spring and this is another one of those funny things that sting you . thanks for posting results.

 

Final thoughts:

I got her road-bound again and it seems OK, but there is still a little more vibration than I had before. Especially at 1500 rpms. It seems to be a resonance thing.

The thing that bothers me now, is that I replaced all three mounts while doing the clutch job and I noticed half of the bolts on the mounts were loose. So this vibration could have been there before the clutch change. I don't know.

I am going to take it to a tranny shop friend of mine and have him verify that it isn't the clutch install I did. If it is I may have wasted my time.

Just a word of warning.

Randy

 

>"I will explain in more detail.
>
>
>The 6 hole bolt pattern on
>the flywheel is perfectly symmetric......."
>

Wrong!!!

I used to work for Hays Clutches (Designed Flywheels)
and a 302 Has one hole that is not equally spaced from the other 5......hence it is an indexed flywheel and should only install on the crank one way?

if you want to talk to someone call 216-688-8300 and ask for the Hays departments head (AKA Roy Storey)

 

Well, here is the result of two months of clutch problems.

The harmonic balancer was replaced and it didn't stop the vibration. The clutch pack was replaced and didn't stop the vibration. The flywheel was replaced with the old one and the vibration went away. Thus the so-called factory balanced flywheel I purchased from northern autoparts is defective and cost me $640 of labor and parts to diagnose and repair. That doesn't include the $90 harmonic balancer, the $140 in flywheel cost, the fact I probably won't be able to return the $220 clutch set I bought, or the 30 or so hours of my labor playing with this damn thing in freezing weather.

So, my final word of warning, trust noone until you can prove it. Everyone told me the flywheel was the right one, everyone told me it can only go on one way, everyone told me it is balanced at the factory, everyone told me it couldn't be the brand new flywheel with the same stamping marks and the Ford logo stamped into it. But, some people were right and some people were wrong. Trust noone and prove it yourself.

The flywheel was the right one, it can go on only one way, it is SUPPOSED to be balnced at the factory, and yes, it was the brand new flywheel.

That's my rant and I pick up my truck today.
Randy