I'm pretty sure that I have a cracked flexplate. I'm getting a vibration over 3000 RPM. I believe it happened because my tranny's bellhousing bolts backed out slightly after I installed it and the TC, and put stress on the flexplate and made it crack. I was getting awful 'tap tap tap' noises from the area of the tranny while at idle for a few days, crawled under the car, found the tranny bellhousing bolts working their way out, tightened the hell out of them, and the tapping went away, but the vibration has been present ever since. I want to change the flexplate without having to take the tranny out of the car. Unbolting the tranny from the engine and lowering it isn't a problem, but having to undue the various electrical connectors, TV cable, shifter cable bracket, torque arm bracket, and all of that, IS a pain in the a$$ that I'd rather avoid if at all possible. So is there a special tool for removing flexplate bolts? What's the best way to do this?

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91 Trans Am WS6
5.0 TPI auto
Flowmaster 3" 2 chamber catback
Trans Go shiftkit
2000 stall converter

supposed 'peanut cammed' car (yeah, right)

MoreMoodThatMod

 

You have three choices:
1) Remove the tranny.
2) Remove the engine.
3) Remove the engine and tranny together and split them on the garage floor.

You have to get the torque convertor away from the flex plate in order to get at the flex plate to crank bolts. There isn't enough room to do that without separating the engine and tranny. How you do that depends upon which of the three choices above you make.

By the way, did you check the torque convertor to flex plate mount bolts? If the the bellhousing bolts were left loose, the convertor bolts could have been left loose as well. I was told I had a broken sprag on a TH350C behind a Buick V-6 for just such a noise, and it turned out to be loose convertor bolts.

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car. Rescued w/86 LG4/TH700R with all harnesses, sensors, ECM, etc. 2.73 open. Cat-back from '91 GTA, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LB9 w/ZZ3 cam, ported heads, exhaust, paint, etc.).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. Currently 396 .030 over, Weiand Action+, Edelbrock 1901 Q-Jet, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" headers, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & shift kit, 3.08 10-bolt, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Best 15.1 @ 5800' Bandimere. Daily driver while Camaro was being put together.

 

Yeah, you gotta check those TC-to-flexplate bolts like right now. If they are loose, you will elongate the holes in your flexplate and maybe do a lot more damage than that. I'd yank the tranny andcheck the the flexplate-to-flywheel bolts while I was at it. Cheap insurance against bigger problems later.

 

It's not necessary to completely remove the trans.

Take the crossmember & drive shaft out, have the trans supported on a floor jack or something, take the trans-to-engine bolts out, put back 2 really long ones in their place (like 6" or something) one on each side; then slide the trans rearward, that will give you enough clearance to get a wrench up in there and work on the flex plate bolts.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."

 

LOL.. definately not removing the engine. I guess the tranny will have to come out. Might as well throw in a 2400 stall TC while it's out. The TC to tranny bolts are OK, I tightened them after tightening the bellhousing bolts.

 

I did exactly what 'RB83L69' said.
After going though the nightmare of getting the trannie out from underneath the car so many times before, it makes a lot of sense to do it this way.
All you need is to buy a couple of inches,
ans a good 11/16 wench (longest one you can find) and it's cake.
Remove the oil lines at the radiator, makes things a lot easier also.

However the best way to get a trannie out without a hydraulic lift is--- see image.



Good Luck,

Ron C. Terry

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'82 Trans Am
'81 Camaro Z-28
'94 Vette LT1 Coupe

[This message has been edited by ronterry (edited October 09, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by ronterry (edited October 09, 2000).]

 

Ronterry: How did you get that picture to show up like that?

Thanks,

Brad...

 

Ronterry: Nevermind, I figured it out. eom