[DeTomaso] My stock flywheel on 5533

[Asa Jay Laughton]

Hi all,

 From Asa Jay's garage comes the tale of flywheel discoveries.  As most 
of you know, I'm a real novice at some of this stuff; my book learnin' 
only gets me so far.  :)

Today I removed the flywheel from my stock 351C in order to deliver it 
to a local shop for machining.  It has some heat checking so while I'm 
in there, why not take it down and have it fixed up?  Why NOT?  Because 
if I keep doing this I'll end up with a full on from off restoration AND 
I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT YET! <pant, pant, pant>

Okay, back to reality here.  First, the bolts were nice and tight, but 
as they came off, they felt like they were glazed in place.  It's kind 
of odd to describe, but they did come out clean.  I'll probably use a 
light wire brush on them and then clean the threads in the crank before 
re-assembly.  Then the flywheel came off, it was lighter than I had 
imagined, which made me happy as I lifted it out oft the engine area.

Next I removed the rear block plate.  It's that big chuck of flat metal 
that protects the spinning stuff from road hazards, like lizards.  (it's 
an -in- joke, you had to be there).  So anyway.... I get the plate 
removed and flip it over to see the block side.  Wow!  What's this, it 
looks like a foam gasket.  Hmmm, it appears to help prevent any rear 
main leakage from passing into the flywheel side and scattering about 
the clutch.  Nice!  I learned something today.  Photos later.

So then I took the flywheel and the plate, and took some pictures.  
You'll note the flywheel has both a cast part number and a stamped part 
number.  I don't really  know why, maybe someone here can answer it.

The back of the block has some red RTV.  I don't know if this was 
something done at the factory or not, but I'm betting it was as the rest 
of everything doesn't look like it was ever removed since new.  You'll 
note the block plug at the rear of the cam is installed in the same 
orientation as the other core plugs.  I also took some close ups near 
the crank.  I do believe my rear main is passing some oil.  Now's a good 
time to replace it, but if I take one more step on this slippery slope I 
won't be driving the car again for 10 years and I don't want that.  I'll 
probably just RTV the pan junction, see about some foam replacement on 
the back of the metal plate and just re-assemble.  I plan to do an 
engine in the next few of years and I think I can stand a bit of oil 
seepage for now.  Also note the pilot bearing.  Click to get the 
enlarged photo and you'll see the cage for the pilot bearing is actually 
broken and one of the needles is pushed back.  hmmm.

Okay, so the photos are here:


Please have a look.
Asa Jay

Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired

& Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA

1971 Mach I Mustang  [ASA JAY]
1973 Pantera L 5533  [ASASCAT]
    
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http://www.asajay.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com