Replacing Flexplate What Else?

I'm going to get my flex-plate replaced or have the bolts tightened on Wednesday. What else should I have done if they decide to replace and not repair my flex-plate? If I have a leaking rear main seal is this the time to do it? What about the CPS? Or should I leave just well enough alone and just get the flex-plate installed and call it a day??

vabeachtennis said:

I'm going to get my flex-plate replaced or have the bolts tightened on Wednesday. What else should I have done if they decide to replace and not repair my flex-plate? If I have a leaking rear main seal is this the time to do it? What about the CPS? Or should I leave just well enough alone and just get the flex-plate installed and call it a day??

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Having a problem editing my post. I forgot to add that the xj is a 1996 4.0 2WD.

All depends on how much your RMS is leaking it might be a good moment to have it done. If they have to replace the flexplate it makes it much easier to work on the seal.

Patrick S. said:

All depends on how much your RMS is leaking it might be a good moment to have it done. If they have to replace the flexplate it makes it much easier to work on the seal.

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Only marginally. The transmission has to come out to replace the flexplate so it gives you a smidge more room to work. Replacing the RMS is done by removing the oil pan and doesn't require pulling the transmission.

Checking the flexplate and it's bolts is pretty easy if you have basic handtools. What are the symptoms?

UPDATE: All of the holes that I would have tried to tighten were wallowed, the new flexplate was installed and the Jeep sounds great. No more clanking sound, just the sound of my nice engine running.



The only problem I have now, is that after the installation my temperature gauge is not reading the temperature. It worked this morning before the installation of the flexplate, when I hooked up my OBDII scanner up the car, all the temperature did was fluctuate between 166 & 167 Fahrenheit. Any ideas?


Here are pictures of my old flexplate:


https://scontent.forf1-1.fna.fbcdn....=7a8e12290fb4b405453cf4931feb18b1&oe=5DF2289E

vabeachtennis said:

UPDATE: All of the holes that I would have tried to tighten were wallowed, the new flexplate was installed and the Jeep sounds great. No more clanking sound, just the sound of my nice engine running.



The only problem I have now, is that after the installation my temperature gauge is not reading the temperature. It worked this morning before the installation of the flexplate, when I hooked up my OBDII scanner up the car, all the temperature did was fluctuate between 166 & 167 Fahrenheit. Any ideas?


Here are pictures of my old flexplate:


https://scontent.forf1-1.fna.fbcdn....=7a8e12290fb4b405453cf4931feb18b1&oe=5DF2289E

Click to expand...

Another UPDATE: The sound is starting to come back. This morning I took it to the mechanic who replaced my flexplate and he seemed to balk a little about the flexplate sound and tried to blame it on one of my pulleys or water pump. He wants to take off the serpentine belt and start the Jeep to see if it's one of the pulleys.

He had one of his workers listen to the sound and the worker agreed with me that it sounded like it may be a flexplate noise. The owner then tried to hide behind the "I gave him the part and the part may be bad" crap. My point is that the Jeep sounded great until the bolts may have become un- torqued. Or may be this case:
https://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=429205&postcount=7


I don't beat on the Jeep, the Jeep was great for a couple of days. If it's due to a cracked flexplate/defect , then I will deal with it. If it's due to using the wrong or defective bolts that's on them. They could have told me that the bolts were bad and I would have gladly had them replaced.



Let's see what tomorrow brings!

The picture of the old flexplate didn't look bad to me. I would have just torqued the bolts to spec with some fresh loctite and called it good. Did he say the bolts were actually loose, or just go ahead and pull the tranny since you had the part in hand? What's the noise sound like? Have you crawled under the Jeep and verified that the noise is from the bellhousing? Checked that it's not something simple like the exhaust banging against the crossmember?

Perhaps the holes in the crankshaft were wallowed out as well ?

If that turns out to be the case - make them heli-coil crankshaft as locktite would be a very temporary fix.

Thanks for all of the replies. The "sound coming back" was diagnosed as my water pump bearing starting to fail. No leaks yet and I will replace this weekend. They took the serpentine belt off and fired up the engine, no sound, so thankfully so far, it's not the flexplate. I'm going to change the water pump, belt, and AC compressor this weekend.



Is it true that I can hook the AC compressor up and not plug it in, so the pulley will just be used until , I get the time and money to vacuum and charge the system?

Yes, you can leave the connector off and it just acts like a pulley. Why are you changing the a/c compressor?

Others with more a/c experience can chime in here, but consider changing the dryer/receiver as well. If it's been open to air for a while, the moiture causes the oils to breakdown and become acidic. I would borrow or rent a vac pump and draw it down right after changing parts.

lawsoncl said:

Yes, you can leave the connector off and it just acts like a pulley. Why are you changing the a/c compressor?

Others with more a/c experience can chime in here, but consider changing the dryer/receiver as well. If it's been open to air for a while, the moiture causes the oils to breakdown and become acidic. I would borrow or rent a vac pump and draw it down right after changing parts.

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Thank you. I did a newbie mistake and just figured that I would replace the AC compressor because the pulley was going south. Then I have to get it vacuumed and re-charged down the line. summer is pretty much over here and I will try to get it vacuumed in October so I can have a functional AC to defrost my Jeep in the winter.

If the compressor itself is okay, it's possible to replace just the clutch and its bearing without replacing the compressor and draining the system.