Guest Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 I have installed a rebuilt '55 264 cu.in. into a 54-46R with Dynaflow.The orginal'55 two belt pully was changed out with the single belt part from the orginal '54 engine. The problem is that the engine vibrated quite badly when first started. To my knowledge the engine did not vibrate when in its orginal donor car. I checked the converter for weights and found 4 locations had wheights applied and staked in place as per the shop manual. They were located in three adjacent bolt holes including one drive bolt with the 4th bolt location seperated by one un-weighted bolt.The weights were installed opposite a white paint mark on the side of the converter and is visable by looking through the small inspection hole on the bell housing. The dab of the same paint is also on the bell housing. Looks very "Factory" to me. I removed the weights and the vibration worsened. I've tried various combinations but haven't removed all of the viration. The critical speed seems to be around 2200 RPM or around 40MPH. Has anyone worked with this sort of a problem? I've tried about 15 combinations of weight locatoins so far; and it seems like a lot of hit and miss. Any assistance or tips? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skyking Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 Are the flywheel & converter from the same car? The reason being, they were both balanced together at the factory as one unit and separetly may be hard to balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrbuick714 Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 The flywheel (Flex-plate) wil go on six ways.FIVE are wrong. Make sure the heavy area of the flex-plate works with the heavy area of the flange of the crankshaft..Always check run-out of assembled flex-plate.Keep iy down to ..002 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Old Guy Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Heed the words of MrBuick714!! Most of the balance problems on the nail heads were related to incorrectly installed flex plates, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 I bet you changed the trans and motor mounts. All of my 55's have some vibration at 2000 to 2500 rpm except my 14,000 mile original that has the original mounts. My guess is the replacement mounts are of a different hardness and transmit the vibrations more noticably.Now to respond to some of the replies. I find it hard to believe that converters and flywheels/flex plates were balanaced together at the factory(s) since the converter has to be disassembled to remove or install on the transmission. Also if you position the holes in the flex plate to access the two drain plugs in the converter that leaves you with two possibiliies and one is wrong and impossible, in other words it will go on ONE way only.Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Old Guy Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 There are only two ways to connect the convertor to the flex plate, that is true, but the flex plate will bolt to the crank six ways and the flex plate has a large weight on one side. If you install it wrong, the engine will shake like crazy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 JoeThe crank and flexplate I am looking at now has a guide pin on the crank and only one guide hole on the plate...it will only bolt up one way, unless the guide pin in the crank was discarded.Does anyone know why the 322 used a harmonic balancer and the 264 a plain pulley?Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judd Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 Y'all The flex plate on the 55 322 in my shop has an alignment pin like Willie's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Firstly allow me to extend my thanks to all of you that have responded to my post.With your comments in mind, I checked the converter to flex plate and find that I had joined the two in such a way that both drain plugs are inaccessable through any hole in the flex plate. Is that enough to cause the vibration? I'm thinking that should be corrected before I play with the balance weights anymore.Questions? Is there a way to move the converter around the flex plate with out a major disassembly? I have the orginal 54 flex plate ,with a guide guide pin. If I must pull the engine to move the converter should I go back together with the 54 flex plate onto the 55 block ? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Pull the engine or transmission to be sure the plate is on the crank correctly. The converter will not slide back far enough to clear the other 12 converter bolts without moving the engine and trans apart at least an inch. I am not sure but I think either plate will work as long as it is aligned on the pin.Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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