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Old 07-11-2003, 12:48 AM
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Clair Clair is offline
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Offset-dowels installed tonight

I got a visit from Santa today. Actually, it's more like Santos, the Spanish guy who drives the UPS truck.... he brought my $100 bill in a small box: the $65 offset dowel kit, and the $28 A-833 gasket kit I ordered from Mancini. Because I found out that I didn't do the measurement right last time, I repeated the procedure tonight, this time with all the bellhousing bolts down to 40 ft-lbs. I got very close to the same numbers this time, I don't know if the difference is enough to affect which dowel you might choose, that's a science project for tomorrow night. In a nutshell, after popping in the 0.021" dowels, which are the highest-offset dowels of the kit (three 0.007" increments), my bell housing is now right at 0.009" off center, TIR. That makes it 0.0045" off the actual center, which is pretty damn good, if you ask me. It even makes up for the 2.5 hours out in the garage sweating my a$$ off in dead-still, 90% humidity, 88* air, even at 10PM. It's nice knowing that some times things DO go right, even if it's correcting something that was squirrelly from the factory. I also think that I've thoroughly broken in my new rings turning that damn thing over by hand...

Folks, check your bell housings! Factory spec is LESS THAN 0.007" offset, and it affects bearing life and how hard it is to shift your 4-speed. Probably wears out auto front pumps, too. And get those $65 kits while you can. The factory service parts are now NS1, and it's only a matter of time before Ma Mopar makes these things go away, too.

Rehydrating,

Clair
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Old 07-11-2003, 06:06 PM
John Kunkel John Kunkel is offline
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Mr. Gasket (Lakewood) makes the same offset dowels for less than $20 a pair.
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Old 07-11-2003, 06:18 PM
turbododge turbododge is offline
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Lakewood now sells a different setup to align the bellhousing that is long dowels and weld on bushings. It shortens the aligning time to minutes from hours, and is under $10, if you have a welder.

Also, did you remember to check the face runout on the bell at the same time? Face runout can also be way off and cause major wear.
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Old 07-11-2003, 07:34 PM
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Clair Clair is offline
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:shock:

Excellent news, guys! I'm really glad that I was able to support DCX to such a high degree.... <G> I think for the next time I'll wait for the kit from Lakewood that comes to my house and installs itself! Ugh...

I did check the face runout, and it was OK. I do have some cheap-ass shim stock just in case I needed it, though.

Learning stuff every day!

Clair
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Old 07-11-2003, 09:35 PM
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bbeckwith bbeckwith is offline
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when I did mine, I started with the .007 then had to go the .014s, and finally to the .021s with measurements of 0, +1, +5, and -1. I think I read somewhere that for a mopar you should be at a max of +-.004, at any measurement, or a total of +-.004 after taking the total of all and dividing by 2. If that's the case, then mine should be +6 -1 = 5 /2 for a total of 2.5? as in .0025? Am I way off on this method? math is not my forte.

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Old 07-11-2003, 10:49 PM
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Clair Clair is offline
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That sounds good to me. Mine was off around 0.040" total, and about half put it at 0.020. I used the 0.021" dowels and came out golden. I'm glad, too, because one of those dowels I had to drive in with a drift and a hammer, and I DON'T want to take that joker back out. The other side is just finger tight. Go figure.

Clair
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Old 07-11-2003, 11:17 PM
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bbeckwith bbeckwith is offline
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I know what you mean about the rings have been seated by you turning over the motor! I must have turned it over a few thousand times myself. Sometimes I could get the dial's magnet set on the crank perfect in just a few moments, and other times it would take me forever to get the sucker right. Major pain in the butt. Now have done so many times, I oughta be able to do in my sleep, but I wouldnt bet on it! Stupid magnet oughta just sit on there nice and easy but no, it's gotta slide around all over the place, or just rock a little bit, enough to be off by a thousandth or so. At one point I resorted to pulling out one of the crank bolts attaching the flywheel so I could attach the magnet to a flat surface. What a pain

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Old 07-11-2003, 11:40 PM
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Clair Clair is offline
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Cry

Oy. Pulling one of the flywheel bolts is the ONLY way to do it... like you, I found that out after fighting that damn magnetic base for a while and just getting pissed. It made all the difference in the world, though. Next time I do this mess, that's going to be step B, right after pulling the trans/clutch (yeah, the next time is going to be in the car...)
Clair
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Old 07-12-2003, 04:44 AM
rustycowl rustycowl is offline
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Default sorry, boys

I hate to burst your bubbles, guys. But some of you, while your intentions are admirable, have probably introduced more runout than you've fixed. Unless you have a really, really, really good mag base, AND a super-rigid attaching arm AND clamp setup, AND a really light-weight top-drawer dial indicator, you will get consistently erroneous runout readings.

Try this, attach your base, clamps and dial indicator to a solid steel shaft(3 or 4"in dia). Place the plunger on the shaft, too. Place the other end of the shaft on a smooth horizontal surface, and slowly roll the shaft over, watching the indicator needle with a mirror. Theoretically, the dial indicator should show no runout, afterall its relative position to the shaft should not change. In reality, 95% of the time the needle will move, just by gravity deflecting the attaching setup. The degree it moves will be directly related to the solidity (or lack thereof) of the attaching apparatus.

If you had a way of holding the block and crank vertically, that would at least make the effect of gravity the same throughout its rotation.
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Old 07-12-2003, 10:03 AM
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Clair Clair is offline
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Crap, I guess I shouldn't have thrown out that 4" round steel shaft I had sitting around...
I think the results I got are good. I used two gages with different bases, got similar results. No, my gage isn't a light-weight, but the mounting shaft is rigid, and the magnet kicks butt. In every case, the offset was not straight down, but was in approximately the 7:30 to 8:00 position, looking at the back of the block. I also checked my OD bell housing because I thought I might just be working with a goofy part. It came back with a different amount, about half as much in a different direction.
It may not be perfect, but I'm pretty content that it's good enough, and better than it was. When I get my welder wired in, I'll try making a mounting base out of an old flywheel bolt and see how that goes.
Clair
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