Eturbo924

I did a quick search and found many posts about flex plates but none that answered my exact question.

Should be an easy one...

Can you... or should I say some one... replace the flex plate (just the actual plates) with out disassembling half the car to get the coupler out.

My flex plate has cracked through on one side. I have a replacement unit and thought maybe we could unbolt the clamps that hold the plate to the coupler... slide out the old and put in the replacement.

Is this possible?

Any pitfalls I should be aware of?

Thanks

Eric

auzivision

Where is our resident expert... Troy? He has done this a couple times.

Lizard928

You will need to slide the TT and transmission back. I am unsure if you will have to drop the transmission to have enough room.

Why not drill a hole at the end of the crack to prevent it from spreading and inspect it now and then. Or get someone to tig weld it up.

Bill Ball

Note that the front flexplates and clamp are a balanced unit and are not sold separately. You can get the plates off and on without any major disassembly, BUT to replace the clamp, you will need to swing the front of the TT down to clear the flywheel so the clamp can be slid off the end. This requires removal of the bellhousing, exhaust mid section, heatshielding and crossbraces under the TT, TT bolts to bellhousing and the tranny mount bolts so the TT front can be swung down. The drivetrain should be slid back too to get enough clearance. Remove the parking brake cable from the crossmember and the shifter cable from the side of the tranny, and shift the tranny fluid hoses off their brackets to create more slack. The tranny can only slide back about 1.5 inches, but you'll need that. I have removed and replaced the TT this way.

Just replacing the plates is a snap compared to all you need to do to replace the clamp with it, but, like I said, they are a unit that appears to be individually balanced, as I have seen different balancing cuts on the plates. Now, if the balancing cuts match on your replacement plates, you MIGHT try just replacing the plates and see if you get any vibration, noting carefully the orientation before you remove the old plates. This does not even require sliding the tranny back at all. I've always repalced the entire unit as the balancing appeared different.

Eturbo924

I think it has cracked entirely through in one direction. So... drilling is kind of out.

Paul was taking about trying a couple of welds for a short term fix until we can get it up on a lift for more serious surgery.

Bill... ballanced... ohy figures. I will have to evaluate it and see if they match as far as marks go.

Thanks everyone.

auzivision

Troy drove his all summer with just welds. He broke his a couple times and just recently swapped torque tubes. I know he was able to swap out flex plates without dropping the tranny. I'm hoping he'll pop in and ad his experience. He’s done this like 3 times in the past year.

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...ex-plates.html

troy928

Really not a difficult job...

First I assume you have the belhousing cover droped, so next loosen the pinch clamp bolt and remove.

Next remove all 6 bolts that attach the coupler to the flex plate, then remove the 6 outer bolts that attach the flex plate the the fly-wheel.

Keep in mind to not rotate the engine when removing the bolts or you can cause posible damage to the valves.

Slide the coulpler towards the rear of the car and slide the flex plate out.

...as Bill mentioned they may be balanced or mated together but I relpaced my f-p and used the original coupler with zero vibration issues.

Now Eric, the next thing to consider is why the f-p is cracked?

It may be a one off, or the underlying problem is the tourqe tube bearings or carriers are worn which I found out hard way.

If you have any play in the tt shaft (up or down, side to side movemet) time for a new tt or a rebuild.

Any play will cause a whipping action with the tt shaft at hard acceleratin and bloom, another f-p cracked.

hope this helps...

Imo000

If the car was in an accident and the TT got bent, it can be putting constant pressure on the flex plate and causing it to crack too.

928mac

here is what i had to do.
I had to move the engine forward 1 inch, or the flywheel would not come out.



by the way you will need a short snap-on 3/8 drive breaker bar because there is not much room.