New To Board - Flywheel Question

[Anonymous]

Hello all. I'm new to this board, I own a 1971 Ford Maverick Grabber with a 200 CID original engine. I have a question regarding the flywheels on these things. Mine is in pretty bad shape (chipped teeth, grinds when I try to start it sometimes it won't start cause the starter bendix misses the flywheel teeth). Are the ring gears pressed on to the flywheel can they be replaced without having to replace the flywheel or do I have to buy a new flywheel.

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome, MavJoe,

Are you missing flywheel teeth or are they just badly worn? If they are worn you can usually have the ring gear flipped over.
In any case they are removeable (at least my '64 is and I don't think they changed them).

I had mine flipped as part of my initial rebuild several years ago, the place I went to IIRC I went in with my flywheel, the guy asked what I needed done to it, he took in back,came back out figured my bill, went in back and came back with my flywheel, and it was already done, very quick.

See Ya,
Mike

 

[Anonymous]

The teeth are chipped in kind of an angle, it doesn't go completley around the entire flywheel but it's enough to where if I crank the engine and it hits the bad section it will start to grind and/or miss the flywheel teeth, sometimes I have to use my torque wrench and manually rotate the crankshaft to get it onto a good section so I can crank it again. The last time I pulled out the starter (and I haven't put it back in yet) I was using a magnet and pulling out some metal shavings in both the bellhousing and the starter bendix housing none of the flywheel teeth are missing yet but they're so chipped they're beyond use.

Main reason I was wondering is because every parts house I inquire about flywheels at they only have the ring gear and it didn't look like it came off when looking at it through the hole where the starter mounts. I forgot to mention I also have a manual transmission (3 on the tree), sorry about that, so thats making it even harder to find a replacement since they seem to be a rareity where I live.

 

[MustangSix]

Ring gears are usually pressed on and can be flipped over. You have to judiciously apply heat and tap the ring gear off. Then you clean it up, place it in an oven, bake at 500 degrees, then quickly reinstall it on the flywheel, tapping it until it seat.

I did this on the flywheel that's in the crossflow.

 

[Anonymous]

I got the flywheel off finally, the bolts were really hard to get off, there were times when I litterally picked up the engine with the torque wrench trying to remove them they were on there that tight. Anyway it's even worse then I thought, took it over to Napa to see if I could get a ring gear for it they told me the ring gear's were $40 and the entire flywheels (with ring gear on it already) were $45, $5 more for a complete setup pretty good deal I think. I dunno why it's like that, Hopefully I'll have everything fixed pretty soon still the matter of putting everything back together again and fixing a discovered rear main seal leak which was pretty obvious from the oil dripping off the back of the flywheel when it was removed.