It all depends on your motor... you need the flywheel to match the reciprocating assembly of the motor. What does your motor want... did the motor have anything bolted to its backside when you got it?

Randii

Chris,
Got a question.Have you gone down to a clutch/brakepad rebuilder yet and ask'd them for Ideas?
Over the years I've had clutches and brake pads made for weird vehicles that are not availible off the shelve or are to $$$.
Maybe they have a hub that is longer/more offset and the diameter they can adjust.
Just an idea.
Are the splines a weird count/size?
Good luck

I'm not sure how much you've thought about this, but in all the options I've read, you may want to consider the following:

Modified clutch disk - when replacing your clutch later, you'll have to either rebuild your current disk, or buy a new one and modify

Thicker flywheel - you'll be losing a lot of power by adding more weight to the crank. A couple pounds here equals a lot of power loss further down the line (ALTHOUGH, if you need a thicker one, you might be able find a lightweight one through an aftermarket suppplier, depending on original application)

Modified flywheel - if you crack it, you have to find another one, and modify it the same


For me, I'd look most at either grinding the bellhousing on each end or have that little adapter made to fit between the flywheel and crank. For the adapter, you may want to have to made so that the bolt holes are countersunk, and use short enough bolts so that you can bolt the adapter to the crank WITHOUT the flywheel and the bolts won't protrude from the top. Then, tap holes in the blanks between crank/adapter bolts and bolt the flywheel to the adapter. Of course this rules out aluminum and I'm not sure if that came out right, I'll try to draw it or something if not.


Still thinking...

I thought if the motor was externally balanced they balanced it at the factory by drilling little holes in the flywheel. And this was considered an externally balanced flyhweel. So If I am buying a junkyard flywheel I would be better off buying a neutral balanced flywheel which would come from an internally balanced engine. And that if I put a externally balanced flywheel on my engine theres no way it will be the right orientation and I could make the engine more unbalanced than just mounting a neutural flywheel.

Not sure where I would find a place like that here in metro boston. I find this kind of funny like the one time when Randii said you could "just drop by a local speedo shop" to some other guy who was asking about a custom speedometer problem. Maybe the clutch rebuilder shop is right next door. No I could be way wrong but I haven't seen any of these places and could not find any through superpages.com.

The only thing I have decided not to do is grind the bell. It is just wayy too flimsy and honestly I am concerned the damn thing is going to break UN-modifed. No ribs or any gussets the thing looks like paper mache.

I have a flexplate coming in the mail to see if the spacer will work and am going to buy a 3.4L camaro flywheel this weekend as it is .5" thicker and will bolt up if redrilled for the right bolt pattern. The flywheel is held on by 8 bolts which I think will be fine considering LT1s are held on by 6 of the same diameter.

If neither works I am getting a custom one made

Last I left off I was messing with the clutch stuff.

I had tried researching

swapping input shafts
rebuilding clutch discs
milling bellhousing and or trans

I was working on a flywheel spacer but that would create an additional problem of starter not engaging. For that I would need something else to grab the starter. I bought a flexplate from an auto, which bolts up of course, but it is dished out so much and the ring gear interference would mean I would have to run it along with a 1 inch flywheel spacer. Not sure if that would work. I still have left to try to 3.4 Camaro flywheel as it is .5" thicker.

I even went back and took more accurate measurements and confirmed my input shaft is only .5" engaged on the clutch disc.

So, I did what anyone else would have done..




I cut off a perfectly good front crossmember....





Reason being is that the bends it has would make it difficult for my front hanger which I don't want to drop very far down. I also realized my front body mount might get in the way of my toyota steering box. I sliced carefully along the inside edge so I can weld in a thick plate for the steering box mount. That will come later.



Front crossmember/hanger is 2x3 1/8" wall. With 3/16" tabs and 1/8" gussets. i just tacked it upside down to put in the tabs.



difference between wire speed 30 and 45 on my miller. Still getting used to how much is good.







I'm doing my front springs toyota style with frame sleeves I bought from trail-gear (basically the same as all the toyota vendors). They take Isuzu rear shackle bushings. Typically people cut the holes out with a holesaw but it is a tough cut because the frame is bending at this point. I tried doing it with plates pre-cut to the sleeve dimensions. Bit is angled to match the frame angle. This is either going to be the best idea or the worst idea ever.



I cut out holes in the frame, used torch on one side cut off wheels in teh other, torch was way too messy. Mounting like this will give me a few inches in all directions for messing with final position since I can tack in the plates. An typical spring hanger can only go forward and back to adjust.




The sleeves are 1.17" ID so I searched homedepot for tube with that dimension. Went through copper pipe, black pipe and finally found 1" EMT conduit is like within 1/100" of an inch perfect. So this is my jig.


[img]http://berisford.net/uploads/cpom/projectpup/19/11.jpg[/img]

I drew some lines on a big piece of cardboard to calculate shackle anlgle. I want minimal lift with shackle in rear and spring over. All at the same time seems difficult. These are isuzu pup rears and have a good arch to them. 47" compressed and about 40" or so under tension eye-to-eye. The smallest shackle that will stay around 90 during tension and let the spring extend during compression is 8", based on my calcs.


Tension
[img]http://berisford.net/uploads/cpom/projectpup/19/12.jpg[/img]

Copmpression
[img]http://berisford.net/uploads/cpom/projectpup/19/13.jpg[/img]

The shackle hasn't bound up yet in that pic it is just hitting the cab mount. I think this mount position is pretty good and will probably stay with the 8" shackle. The only change I think I will make is to move the sleeve .5"-1" rearward.

No joy on the clutch, yet, eh?

Starter alignment is fairly coarse -- drifting the starter in on something like this should be do-able:

...so don't get bogged down with engaging the starter ring. Get close, and you can dial it in from there...

I'm hopeful that the Camaro flywheel will work for you!

Good to keep working, though -- sometimes when you hit a dead end, it makes sense to put one project down and pick up another. Keeping the forward momentum is key!

Dang, those are pretty sizeable shackle hangar holes! I suppose you will be able to float it into space and then weld the heck out of it, as it is just metal. If you elect to drill through at an angle like that, especially with a hole saw, I recommend clamping a chunk of 2x4 to the frame and then hole-sawing through that. You can force the hole any direction you want in the wood, but when it starts to bite into metal, the inside surface of the wood hole helps you keep the holesaw cutting in the path you want. Definitely takes some muscle, but it works ... for those of us who lack an elecromagnetic-foot portable drill press.

Nice work cycling the suspension... seems like many folks skip over this, but it definitely allows YOU to fine-tune YOUR suspension on YOUR truck. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> FWIW, I like a little less shackle angle, and set mine up so that they swing just a bit foward at full droop.

Randii

Rear suspension is hung. Springs are 63" Chevy rears from an 88-98 1500 series. Very popular with the Toyota crowd as they are flexy soft and cheap ($50-$100/pr used)



These are the shackle hangers I got with the Sky Mfg. 63" chevy hanger kit. They were designed of course to go under the frame. I just tacked them in as their location will probably change. Might go with extending the frame with rect. tube and putting in sleeves...



The front hangers (same kit) were originally 1/4" wall rect tube but I cut them up to mount them nice and close to the frame. Actually made a mistake on measuring so I had to add another piece of 1/4" bar for the right spacing. (used spring width versus front bushing width)
The right side piece is in the groove made by the opposing pieces of c-channel of this frame.




Isuzu steeering box (left) and Toyota IFS steering box (right).


With this box and the axle pushed forward I think rebuilding a driver's side body mount is a distant possibility. (Body mount centered on the forward bolt of the box) Here is the box pushed way forward.


And back a bit. This is a real loose mockup as nothing is tightened just sitting there in space.





Do you think I can skip on this mount alltogether, a small percentage of toyotas chop the mount all together, not many though.

Also what is the best way to remove the nut on the pitman arm shaft? Using a wrench means the box is going to get the torque is it designed to do that or do I need to get the 40 something mm socket required to use an impact?

If the axle at full droop is as far forward as it will get, does that mean I can set up my steering based on where the tierod and drag link just start to touch on full droop and assume that during the rest of the motion the steering will be OK? Or Should I just error on the side of safety and go with mouting way forward (first pic)?

So I keep second guessing my plans because they involve an 8" shackle in the front and I keep thinking that is too long. I am using my pup rears in the front, that have a lot of arch, and the spring goes from something like 43"-47" between compression + extension. No one sells 8" shackles from what I've seen so they appear to be uncommon. (I was going to buld mine anyway but sometimes I look at vendors products for ideas) It keeps bugging me that they might be too long, unstable, unsafe etc.

So should I run the 8" shackles? I might be able to get away with 7.5" but that is the minimum to allow (theoretical) suspension travel.

I could run a 6-7" shackle and use bumpstops to prevent the spring from extending past what the shackle will allow. I might be close anyway since my springs are mounted so high in the frame and the steering arms might hit before the springs max out anyway.

OR should I move the front hanger forward and run a shorter shackle to let them max out yet I might sacrifice shackle problems during droop (shackles might rotate past 90* and point back towards axle).

Maybe run 6-7" shackle and assume that I will never get my rig to either extreme but chances are I will find a way to reach its limits....

change mainleaves for a shorter one? help me out this is driving me crazy.

I am starting to feel like one of those guys on Pirate with a hangup when building a 4 link and everyone saying, "C'mon man you used a tape measure to build this truck it's not exactly precision engineering, stop splitting hairs!!!"

The rest of my project "hinges" on this choice <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />