Ryan Thompson

Hello All,

First a picture of my end play measurement. It is .22mm without keeping prybar pressure on the flywheel and .24mm while prying. Both within spec. .40mm is the rebuild spec from what I understand and new from factory is a range of .110-.312mm.



First a bit of background. I put in a new used motor because the PO, unbeknownst to me/him had the onset of Thrust Bearing Failure. 3 weeks after I purchased the car, the thrust bearing spun and began making what sounded like rod knock.

I bought a new/used motor from someone on the site and went through it replacing all seals, timing belt, etc.

When I put the motor back in I noticed the torque shaft was incorrectly placed/indexed and the rear pinch bolt was in the stepped area on the shaft instead of its correct home. I moved the rear collar to its correct home and tighten the bolt to 66 ft lbs.

Then the front splines had the correct spacing, which I measured for reference for checking later. I then torqued the front collar to 66 ft lbs.

I have driven the car maybe 2,000 miles. Motor did not run for probably 4 years. Guy on site bought it in case his was not repairable. His motor was repairable and then he sold it to me.

I checked the flex plate at 250 miles, then 1,500, and then 2,000 last night. The flex plate was bowed, verified by straight edge, eyes, and increased splines in view. I released 8mm cap bolt and it sprung back and appropriate amount of splines were showing again.

The reason I checked this was I was changing my oil (again motor sat for 4 years) and I saw very light sparkling/glimering in the oil. I was directly under my LED shop light, which is bright. When you put it on your finger, you cannot see anything. I checked with a magnet and nothing as expected, the drain plug should catch any ferrous metal. My drain plug had some metal sludge (super fine almost like grease, which from what I know is normal). Okay, finally to the question. Should I buy a PKlamp (if even still sold, can’t find) or the Ritech?

Geza

May be a dumb question, but was the pinch bolt loose while you did your crank end play measurement? Did you pry it in both directions to get the full range of play? 0.02mm (0.0008") seems pretty low.

Ryan Thompson

Not a dumb question, I should have clarified that. Pinch bolt loose and I pried the flywheel forward, then zeroed and pried backwards. .22-.24mm was my measurement.

GregBBRD

The PK clamp is a decent piece. Simple and cheap. Seems to stop migration on 90% of the vehicles. I use them as a temporary "assist" until the engine or transmission is out of the car, for some reason. If the engine or transmission come out, I use a Constantine clamp. They are absolutely bullet proof....and a vast majority of the things I work on have the engine or transmission coming out, anyway.

Ritech is a good clamp and it is nice that you can install what appears to be a permanent solution without pulling the engine or transmission. I've used a couple of these, too.

Geza

I'm sorry, I misunderstood - I thought the reading changed from 0.22 to 0.24, not that that was the actual measurement of the displacement. Just measured mine recently and got a similar measurement (127K miles).

Ryan Thompson

I changed my oil again and thought I better check my flex plate and end play again. The clamp had moved a little, but not as much as last time. Transmission still shifting hard into 3rd gear. Still need to track down the vacuum leak.

Question: Where do you pry and how big of a pry bar? Based on my pictures,in this thread, I was under the flywheel at 6 o'clock.
On this recheck I pried with a big pry-bar, like last time, but preyed by the starter on the outside edge by the teeth. This moved it more, but I am thinking this was just flexing the flywheel.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Ryan Thompson

Never mind. I didn't search good enough. I found this post, which answered most of my questions. Prying to far on the outside of the ring gear/flywheel doesn't sound like the correct place and this would make sense. This would move it side to side more than forward/aft.

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/1062258-checking-crank-end-play.html

76FJ55

I typically use 2 pry bars one each at 3 and 9 o'clock. this helps pull/push the crank straight fore and aft instead of putting it into a bind, and also reduces the flex in the flywheel.

Mrmerlin

make sure that you also recheck the rear pinch bolt torque,
if you put a new set of bolts in then the chances are good the new bolt has stretched .
That said if you have an original pinch bolt thats not damaged,
then you could put it back into service, as its already been stretched and should stay tight.
put a drop of blue loctite on the bolt threads.
torque to 66 ft/lbs