Post by sc397 on Sept 2, 2023 5:07:19 GMT -8
So Landbarge asked me to have a new SFI flywheel match balanced to his existing flex plate.
I said sure and took them both on a hour drive over to my machine shop that has done many for me. This machinist has a machine similar to a tire balancing machine and he can first mount the original flex plate on on there, spin it, and find out where the heavy spot is. Then he puts the replacement flex plate or flywheel on the machine and finds out where the difference is and drills accordingly to match balance it.
The issue is, I had never taken a Borg Warner flex plate over to him to work with. Come to find out the center hole in the flex plate is too small to fit on to his arbor.
So an hour drive back home and another 15 min down to Chuck's machine shop to ask him what to do. Chuck balances the flywheels as attached to the crank shaft with the bob weights and all of that. He said he ran in to the same issue on a small block ford. He told me to bring him a crank, rods, vibration damper, and pistons and then he could do it. So I ordered new pistons for a 360 and took the crank and rods down to him. Mind you, this is a 1970/71 only 360 crank and I just happened to have one all machined up.
So he pressed the old pistons off, resized and balanced the rods, balanced the pistons so that he could get a Bob Weight. Then he mounted up the crank with my vibration damper and Landbarges flex plate to get a number and location of where it is heavy...
So now that he has a number and location it is time to mount up the new SFI flex plate to find out where it is off. But of course it is a after market part and won't fit the crank. He has to first first add a chamfer to my crank flange just so it will go on to the crank. Then 2 holes line up but the other 4 do not. He then has to drill the mounting holes to get the thing to fit. We just went through all of this same crap a couple weeks ago with a new flywheel.
Then the fun begins... The new flywheel is neutral balanced but comes with this cute little weigh that you can bolt on for external balancing. Of course, they located the mounting holes 180 degrees from where it should be. Chuck calls me to confirm their fukup and I said yep they fukd up and he proceeded to figure out where to drill and tap the holes on the opposite side. He could have just welded it but he likes to keep things convertible.
In the end, it worked out well. Once he relocated the counter weight he only had to take 6 grams out circled in yellow.
IMG_7668 by Rick Jones, on Flickr
So now I have a rotating assembly all machined and balanced up to Ron's flex plate. Don't tell anyone but I am probably going to steal it from him...
I said sure and took them both on a hour drive over to my machine shop that has done many for me. This machinist has a machine similar to a tire balancing machine and he can first mount the original flex plate on on there, spin it, and find out where the heavy spot is. Then he puts the replacement flex plate or flywheel on the machine and finds out where the difference is and drills accordingly to match balance it.
The issue is, I had never taken a Borg Warner flex plate over to him to work with. Come to find out the center hole in the flex plate is too small to fit on to his arbor.
So an hour drive back home and another 15 min down to Chuck's machine shop to ask him what to do. Chuck balances the flywheels as attached to the crank shaft with the bob weights and all of that. He said he ran in to the same issue on a small block ford. He told me to bring him a crank, rods, vibration damper, and pistons and then he could do it. So I ordered new pistons for a 360 and took the crank and rods down to him. Mind you, this is a 1970/71 only 360 crank and I just happened to have one all machined up.
So he pressed the old pistons off, resized and balanced the rods, balanced the pistons so that he could get a Bob Weight. Then he mounted up the crank with my vibration damper and Landbarges flex plate to get a number and location of where it is heavy...
So now that he has a number and location it is time to mount up the new SFI flex plate to find out where it is off. But of course it is a after market part and won't fit the crank. He has to first first add a chamfer to my crank flange just so it will go on to the crank. Then 2 holes line up but the other 4 do not. He then has to drill the mounting holes to get the thing to fit. We just went through all of this same crap a couple weeks ago with a new flywheel.
Then the fun begins... The new flywheel is neutral balanced but comes with this cute little weigh that you can bolt on for external balancing. Of course, they located the mounting holes 180 degrees from where it should be. Chuck calls me to confirm their fukup and I said yep they fukd up and he proceeded to figure out where to drill and tap the holes on the opposite side. He could have just welded it but he likes to keep things convertible.
In the end, it worked out well. Once he relocated the counter weight he only had to take 6 grams out circled in yellow.
IMG_7668 by Rick Jones, on Flickr
So now I have a rotating assembly all machined and balanced up to Ron's flex plate. Don't tell anyone but I am probably going to steal it from him...