Thread: Aftermarket Drive Plate???

What kills drive plates is misalignment. I would be looking hard for anything that was not done correctly at the time of fitting the trans, eg something caught between the housing and the engine, loose bolts, missing dowels etc.

Hello,

I was pedantic on how things went back together(torque settings etc). The trans slotted into place, wasn't dragged in by the bell housing bolts. Checking the trans, motor(sump gasket was done with the LR black silicon), t/case, drive shafts regularly for anything that could go wrong since putting the transmission back in.

There have been no unusual vibrations since it went back together. The only thing that happened was that it seemed to be running extremely smooth through the gears the day prior to this problem. I even said to my old man that somethings probably going to go wrong because the trans seems to be running too smoothly.

Is there a procedure for aligning the drive plate?? as I am unaware of any special tools or instructions for this procedure(the flywheel did come off as I did the rear main seal at the same time), new bolts and nuts were used anywhere on the job where they were recomended to be used; crankshaft bolts, torque convertor bolts, driveshaft bolts (driveshaft nuts actually)etc.

Cheers,

Jason

It's not the drive plate that needs to be aligned. It's all about the axis of the crankshaft coinciding exactly with the axis of the trans input shaft. Any out-of-parallel will have the drive plate flexing with each engine revolution, drastically shortening its life.

A method I read about for checking bellhousing alignment was to fit the bellhousing bare to the engine, fix a dial indicator to the crankshaft, and check the runout of the rear face of the bellhousing where the trans bolts on.

Hi Jason, Tonight I was driving home and all of a sudden a vibration occurred, a few kangeroo jumps and then the engine revs went up.
I now have no drive.
It's abandoned on the side of a road for tonight, I will go tomorrow with a triaxle trailer to collect it.
Wonder if drive plate went or whether some how the transfer case went into neutral by itself. I will have a look at the underneath transfer locking pin.( I don't have a difflock lever from inside the cab
If that is all it is then I'll breathe a sigh of relief, but if it's the flex plate then It's all bad.
The previous owner replaced the flex plate after his daughter used it to tow a horse float and put the foot hard on the peddle , that broke it.
I towed a 2 tonne boat on Friday, maybe that was the final straw, in any case I would worry if flex plates broke that easily on a 4WD.
cheers, Mario