Aaron and I are getting ready to install the engine and tranny on his "Dartster" project, next weekend. The instructions in my Haynes manual say to mark the flex plate location with white paint, so it can be put back in the same way later. We took the engine and tranny out two years ago. Both have been rebuilt and painted, so there is no way it could be determined how they were oriented originally.

I know the flex plate mounting holes are offset, so there is only one way to bolt it up to the crank shaft flange. Is there anything significant about how it is to bolt up to the torque converter. What does the white paint method actually accomplish?

Jerry

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There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

the flexplate will only bolt to the torque converter one way. the white paint will mark the flexplate "arm" to it's bolthole. you need only mark one. without the paint, look for a small hole near the center of the plate and align this 180 degrees opposite the torque converter drainplug. if there is no drainplug in the converter, you'll have to use the trial and error approach. just remember to install the bolts finger tight until you get them all started, then torque to spec.

-james

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James is right, it will only bolt to the converter one way as well. I didn't mark it when I was working on my flexplate/torqueconverter bolts and had to go through about an hour of trial and error (Put one bolt in, spin it around to see if the others aligned) before I got the right combo. Its not absolutely necessary, but just a timesaver.

Obviously, the six bolts mounting the flex plate to the crank flange are only going to fit one way, because of the way they are offset. You guys are saying that the four bolts mounting the plate to the torque converter will also only fit one way. That's interesting. Just taking a quick glance, you wouldn't notice anything different about the angles between the holes.

So it should be easy to get everything lined up with the engine and tranny out of the car. Is there some explanation for why it's necessary to have the crank shaft oriented to the torque converter in such a specific way?

Thanks for the info,
Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

jerry-
i think it may be a balance thing- the same thinking that goes into marking driveshafts so they go back in like they came out. i guess there are harmonics that we don't feel that engineers are trying to dampen for the good of the car. other manufacturers didn't seem to care too much about this sort of thing so they didn't make their flexplates asymmetrical (maybe easier on the assembly line?) remember, mopars had left handed threads on their driver's side wheelstuds. great cars so far ahead of their time!

-james

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James,
I wish you had not said that about the drive shaft. I didn't know it had to go back in a certain way. We just replaced both of the U-joints on the drive shaft last weekend. How do we determine the proper orientation when we put it back on after engine/tranny installation?

Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

You'll never know the difference...

D/W

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

Good, I did notice something that looks like possibly a counterweight on one side of the shaft. I guess that's how they are balanced, if needed.

We hope to install the engine and tranny next weekend. Already had the rear end gone through and we rebuilt the brakes. Drive shaft will be the last thing to complete the drive train. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

jerry-
like dennis said, you'll never know the difference which way the driveshaft should be. i just mentioned that since the service manuals say to mark the shaft, for similar reasons to the asymmetric flexplate i'm sure. nothing to worry about.

-james

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