8Mud
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Central Germany
What would bend or crack a flex plate? Maybe it might be bent or be damaged when bolting the tranny to the motor. I´ve stretched transfer case chains, broken U-joints, bent drive shafts and even twisted axles without damaging a flex plate.
The only way I´ve managed to twist them up, is to physically damage them when sitting a motor on the floor and the flex plate catching a wood block (or something). Or from getting the tires spinning and developing some serious torque and having traction suddenly catch (but not in an XJ).
If you´ve seriously abused your XJ lately, maybe the flex plate is cracked or bent.
Guess it´s possible when the motor and tranny were matched back up, the flex plate was bent and the bolts straightened it out some and the stress finally caused a crack.
I have seen the bolts back out of the flex plate and cranckshaft on numerous occasions. I´ve gotten in the habit of reusing the flex plate bolts only once or at the most twice (they stretch). Loc Tite helps, but isn´t a total cure. I´ve even drilled tiny holes in the bolts and wired the flex plate bolts together so they couldn´t back out. I have seen the holes in the flex plate stretched a bit also, but it never really caused any problems.
If the flex plate is cracked, chances are it´s sprung and taking out the torque converter bolts, will let you see the warp.
The harmonic balancer is three peices, the outer ring, a rubber ring and the inner ring. You can see the rubber being pressed out of the front and/or a wobble in the assembly.
The six banger is a pretty smooth motor, but when a cylinder or two is acting up they do have balance problems. Seems to be worse when number 2 or 5 is acting up.
My last vibration, was when I installed a spark plug boot (number 2), I pressed a little too hard and pushed the contact up into the boot. Ended up with a gap between the end of the plug wire and the plug. Sure enough vibrated, was worse (in the RPM range) right were the tranny wanted to shift.
The only way I´ve managed to twist them up, is to physically damage them when sitting a motor on the floor and the flex plate catching a wood block (or something). Or from getting the tires spinning and developing some serious torque and having traction suddenly catch (but not in an XJ).
If you´ve seriously abused your XJ lately, maybe the flex plate is cracked or bent.
Guess it´s possible when the motor and tranny were matched back up, the flex plate was bent and the bolts straightened it out some and the stress finally caused a crack.
I have seen the bolts back out of the flex plate and cranckshaft on numerous occasions. I´ve gotten in the habit of reusing the flex plate bolts only once or at the most twice (they stretch). Loc Tite helps, but isn´t a total cure. I´ve even drilled tiny holes in the bolts and wired the flex plate bolts together so they couldn´t back out. I have seen the holes in the flex plate stretched a bit also, but it never really caused any problems.
If the flex plate is cracked, chances are it´s sprung and taking out the torque converter bolts, will let you see the warp.
The harmonic balancer is three peices, the outer ring, a rubber ring and the inner ring. You can see the rubber being pressed out of the front and/or a wobble in the assembly.
The six banger is a pretty smooth motor, but when a cylinder or two is acting up they do have balance problems. Seems to be worse when number 2 or 5 is acting up.
My last vibration, was when I installed a spark plug boot (number 2), I pressed a little too hard and pushed the contact up into the boot. Ended up with a gap between the end of the plug wire and the plug. Sure enough vibrated, was worse (in the RPM range) right were the tranny wanted to shift.
