Started truck with new flexplate, problem?

[Tom]

This is annoying. I pulled the 2004R by myself, swaped the cracked flexplate for the new TCI plate, re-installed with new ARP bolts, torqued everything down correctly, put the tranny back in myself, and started it up. O yeah while it was out I replaced the tranny filter and gasket. So I start it up, and get a ticking noise. Looking under the truck with it running, I narow the noise down to the torque convertor/flexplate area. What the heck? There are no marks on anything that would show where its hitting causing the tick. I did notice however that on the drivers side the flexplate comes extremly close to the bellhousing, and I mean close. Fitting a piece of paper in between the flexplate and bellhousing would be hard. But again there are no marks to show it contacting there. Plus it seems like the noise is coming more from the very middle of the torque convertor/flexplate area. Has anyone had this problem before?

[Mike76251]

Ouch.......
All that work!

If a piece of paper (.003?) won't fit then you need to do a little grinding for more like .030-.050
That flexplate will expand a good bit esp. at speed.

[swervin ervin]

Dang Tom. If it ain't one thing... I feel your pain.

I agree with Mike, not very much clearance at all. It seems to me, it should be more centered inside the bell housing. With a ticking, it is probably hitting something, somewhere, but you already knew this.

So far, and knock on wood, but I've never had any problems with the flexplate hitting. About everything else you can think of has happened though.

[Tom]

LOL I remember why it might be so close on the drivers side. When installing the trans for the first time way back, I had it on a floor jack. I got under my truck to guide, and asked a friend to push the tranny under to me. The jackas* didnt check the clearence and the truck wasent high enough up for the trans to fit. He knocked the dam tranny right off the jack onto the bellhousing on that side. I WAS SO PISSED! Well looks like its coming out again so I can grind and check

[1FaastC10]

Tom, this may not be a whole lot of help to fix your problem, but it will make the trans R&I a little easier. take 2 bolts, 5" long (3/8-16 if i remember correctly) and cut the heads off of them. when you have the trans out, install the bolts in the 2 lowed belhousing bolt holes. once you get your trans close, just slide it right on in on the dowel bolts. should make things go alot easier installing the trans.

[swervin ervin]

Hmmm....dropping a tranny hard enough to warp the bellhousing don't sound good. I hope it didn't do more damage than you are seeing. It sure enough is probably the cause of your flexplate problems.

Keeping my fingers crossed that grinding it for clearance fixes everything.

[TROYLV]

just a thought. i had a standard trany that made a noise simular to a eng knock. found the bolts were to long that held the flywheel on and would hit the block when the clutch was depresd. might check your bolt length on flex plate?

[Tom]

Jermey- great idea! The hardest part of taking the tranny out is getting it back on with one person. That should help a ton.

Mike- it only dropped about 5" off the jack, it wasent a really hard hit or anything. Still pissed me off though. Hopfully the grinding like you said will be enough.

Troy- Ill check the bolt lengths when I remove the tranny tonight. Thanks for the ideas guys.

[Tom]

Well, I pulled the tranny last night and the only marks what so ever any where are in the one spot on the drivers side bellhousing, so that must be my problem. Im grinding it and putting the tranny back on tonight [fingers crossed]

[swervin ervin]

Good luck. I hope it fixes it as well.

[1FaastC10]

dont forget your dowel bolts! SOOO much easier.