I am currently doing a swap to 5sp when I stumbled upon this....





It's my flexplate. I didn't know it could flex that bad! Funny thing is that wasn't the reason i'm doing the swap. Also this car was never neutral dropped, never had boots or radials, and was fine 20k miles ago when I dropped in the 350.

The reason for doing the swap is because the trans was having a mind of its own as to when it felt like shifting, and starting off in second. The final straw was when the torque converter started sounding like it had bolts falling about inside of it and when you put it in gear it sounded like 2 sanding dics being rubbed together.

Turns out the torque converter did have something rattling in it but it didn't fail.

Oh well, on with the swap.

 

well that could have sucked

i suppose you could have sustained a leg injury if that had exploded.
were the flexplate to crank bolts loose?

 

thats a very common problem

 

Flexplate to crank bolts were tight.

How is that a comon problem? Never herd of that happening before. Is it just with the stock Camaro flexplates?

 

i've torn them apart on small block before and have replaced quite a few of them at work

 

I'm not even sure if the flexplate is even behind the firewall in a third gen.

I've seen lots of cracked flexplates even in street vehicles and have never seen one go through a tranny case. There just isn't enough mass to break through the case even though the faster cars are required to have a flexplate shield as well as a tranny shield.

I use an SFI flexplate and it has to get replaced every 3 years.

I have seen transmission explode. Quite a few years ago I was sitting at the head of staging when a Promod car was on the line for some passes. Just as the car went to launch, there was a huge explosion and parts went everywhere. The transmission exploded. The clutch hub broke through the tranny case, ripped through the Kevlar shield, went through the passenger side of the tranny tunnel, bounced off the passenger door bar causing a dent, through the door skin blowing out the window and sailed about 300 feet over the bleachers.

Nobody was hurt but with all the tranny fluid in the car, they thought the driver was injured. If the clutch hub went through the driver's side of the tranny tunnel, it would have taken his legs right off.

Like I said, I've never see a flexplate explode but I still have a flexplate and tranny shield. I use the one piece CSR shield just because it's easier to install even though it costs a lot more. The dirt cheap flat plate flexplate shield doesn't fit in a third gen.

What's with the christmas lights inside the garage?

 

yeah i've never seen one come through the bell just crack/ break

 

Very common on chevy flexplates. The bolts that hold the torque converter to the flexplate keep it in place. The converter is piloted to the crank, and is running in the front pump bushing. So I doubt it would evercome out. I have saw some that looked like they were like that for years. I had one guy swear that he had rod knock.Dean.

 

Stephen, a promod car can and will tear up anything!!! Ask me how I know? I have worked at TM race cars for the last 26 years. All we build are Promods. Look at my profile pic. Its a Slowmod It only runs 4.50s. The fast cars around here are running 3.80s. Talk about tearing up parts. Later, Dean . Oh yeah, what about the lights?

 

I bought a 91 2wd GMC site-unseen for 300 bucks and that is exactly what was wrong with it. I know you are going stick, but Summit offers a replacement flexplate for 50 bucks that is pretty stought.

 

Thanks for all the input. Yeah the flexplate ordeal is a first for me. Now I have even bigger probs.

I'm gonna post up another thread about swap Q's so help out if you can.
Thanks.