Weekend carnage... it only gets worse

[Mudstud]

I thought I was done tallying my carnage from Summertown this past weekend, 2 rear u-joints, small dent in front fender, bent rim, scraped paint, and a cracked tail light lens. Well geeze guess what I found last night. I developed an intermitent rattle half way thru the weekend and really thought nothing of it. I checked it out last night and found a crack in the fly wheel. It's way inside where the fly wheel bolts to the shaft. Now what I wanna know is how in the heck do ya crack a fly wheel? The good news is that this showed up BEFORE the t-case swap plus the seal behind the torq converter leaks so this will be a good time to take care of that. Always lookin on the bright side. Maybe I should go ahead and change the rear seal too. Daily drivers suck as trail rigs. This project may have to wait a few more weeks cuz we are going to Denver for 10 days leaving the 15th. So what do you guys think? Should I take the tranny and case out separate or as one chunk? What's easier? Any helpful hints?

Is a flex plate the same as a fly wheel? Jegs has what looks like what I need for $60.

 

[TopOff]

Flexplates are for automatics.
Flywheels are for manuals.
Flexplates cracking are actually kinda' common...

 

[Leadfoot]

It all depends on what tools you have available. I prefer to take them out as one unit, but if you look at my pics, you will see a special tranny jack that's modified to bolt to the t-case and cradle the tranny to pull it out as one. The 203 is a heavy mother and awkward, without the right jack, I would say seperate them just to make it easier (still pretty heavy). Get an SFI approved flywheel and you shouldn't have any problems with them cracking and you can get them pretty cheap (think of the cost and hassle of having to replace it again if you get a cheap one) through Jegs or Summit. While it's out it IS a good time to replace the front pump seal on the tranny and the rear main on the motor (chances are if you don't it will leak in short time). Hope this helps

 

[Mudstud]

Thanks fella's. Is the rear main on my sb400 a 1 or 2 piece? My motor isn't but a couple years old after the rebuild, do ya think I should leave well enough alone? It's not leaking now.

 

[Resurrection_Joe]

Hey I'd liek to knwo about the rear main too, I need to replace my flexplate sometime soon, so I'd like to get it all dont at once. Thanks!

 

[HarryH3]

Is the one from Jeg's SFI approved? Those are rated to take a LOT of abuse. I picked one up from Summit for the 454 for around $56.

 

[Mudstud]

Yes it is, it looks to be the same thing. $56 is right. I'll order the Summit one cuz it's a little cheaper then Jegs. I guess they are .035" thicker then stock, double welded and all that stuff. I asked the guy if the extra thickness would mess up alignment of anything and he said no.