Starter ate my flywheel for breakfast!

[WhiteSplash93]

This morning when went to crank my truck,there was this gut wrenching grinding noise and a hard shudder,then I could only hear the starter motor spinning. Immediately I knew what happened. I need detailed instructions on removing the transmission clutch and flywheel. I only have today and tomorrow to get up and running again and really need to know what is involved before I tear everything down. The clutch is only 6 months old and works just fine so I won't be replacing it,just the flywheel. Any help would be immensely appreciated.

 

[RonD]

Starter motor gear is softer metal than ring gear(on flywheel) so ring gear should be fine.
Pull out starter motor.

And what engine do you have?

 

[WhiteSplash93]

Its 2.3 manual trans. There is a little bit of damage to the starter gear,but no less than 10 teeth are sheared off of the flywheel. I have the flywheel already,I just need to know the process of removing it before I get started.

 

[RonD]

Basically it is exactly the same as redoing the clutch.

Transmission needs to be dropped or moved back enough to remove pressure plate from flywheel

Then you remove flywheel, 6 bolts torqued on at 56 - 64 ft-lbs
This can be tricky since crank will want to turn.

I use a bit of rope inside a cylinder, via spark plug hole, to "lock piston" from going to TDC, like a soft hydro lock

You need to decide which way you want it to lock it, i.e. for loosening the bolts or tightening the bolts.

No you can't hurt the pistons or rods doing this, there is A LOT MORE pressure on then when engine fires, than a few lbs of leverage.
Some just use a screw driver in the spark plug hole, and that seems to be fine, I just prefer spreading out the load


When flywheel is removed you may also want to change the Rear Main seal on the crankshaft, it is under $10 and as you can see it is hard to get to if it ever starts to leak.

 

[pjtoledo]

another way to lock flywheel is to grab any medium sized double box end wrench, put a bolt thru one end into a pressure plate hole, the other end gets a bolt to any hole in the rear of the block.

don't bend the pressure plate bolt

 

[Andy D]

Yah the old rope trick to replace a valve spring . I have a heavy piece of flat stock. I bolted it across 2 pressure plate bolts. I think it came from a used telephone pole.. I've had it since my bug days. The ring gear was the best of the fly wheel. The clutch face was blued and generally chewed up. I couldn't find a shop that would mill the flywheel. But I could pay 60$ and pick it up at my local Auto Zone the next day after work. Everything from the RMS out to the pedal was replaced. Silly me, I thought I could get by with just a fresh clutch disk. .

PO, make sure you have the correct starter for a manual trans.

 

[WhiteSplash93]

I'll have to remeber that wrench trick. Is there really a difference between the starters?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Yes, there is a difference between starters. IIRC the starter nose cone length is different to accommodate flex-plate vs flywheel ring gear placement.