Left/Right, 1 inch? I don't know how that is even possible. Do you mean forwards and backwards? That's not good at all. If you can move the crank that much, the thrust surfaces are toast.
Your flexplate is toast. That's radial movement; if it moved axially (front to back on the car), that is about the width of a connecting rod.
What I mean by left/right is actually clockwise/counterclockwise. Not fore/aft. How does the flex plate connect to the crank? Splines? If so, is there a difference in the metal so theoretically the flex plate would wear out before the crank? I'm thinking of a similar situation I had on my dirt bike where the gear shifter lever wore out but the splines of the output shaft from the engine did not. I hope what I'm saying makes sense to someone other than me. ray: either way, what could make something like this to happen? Was there some kind of warning sign I missed? For example an abnormal temp, loss of power, oil pressure, etc?
In order to access and examine those bolts, you'll need to drop the trans. If you have any play, I would assume the the bolt holes in the flexplate are probably elongated.
The flexplate bolts to the crankshaft using five bolts near the center of the crankshaft, similar to what's shown in this photo. That sure sounds like the issue to me as well. Time to roll up the sleeves. If that's the case, a new flexplate and new grade five or eight bolts are in order. Devon
OK, that makes more sense. The end of the crank shaft has a flange, and the flex plate bolts to it, only one way. When you turn the flex plate, it turns the crank. There is a special tool that grabs on to the outer teeth, and lets you turn the converter, crank, and flex plate. I'm still a bit confused about the bolts you tightened. There should only be 3 holding the flex plate to the converter, and you have to turn the converter to access all 3.
Update: I've replaced the flex plate an installed a stage one torque convertor from trishield performance. Also, member carmantx rebuilt a Rochester qjet and tuned it for my application for me and it's a welcomed addition. I nolonger have the flex plate issue as the old one was trash like you all suggested. I do still have a lean issue with the car and I just don see how. I've got the a/f screws backed out three and a half turns. Any further in and the car will stall in gear. My gas mileage is horrible. I pulled my plugs yesterday and they were all ghost white. One of them actually broke on exit. The porcelain snapped in half leading me to believe it must've overheated and weakend. I still have the longtube headers/glasspacks at the collectors exhaust setup, but I just don't see how it could be so lean. Idk where to start here guys. I did replace the plugs, but I still have a sputter under WOT around 4k rpm or so. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes the car will squawk the tires, others it won't. Must be a timing thing, or are all of these symptoms of the leaning out issue? How do I fix this? Can glasspacks go bad?
Remind me of what cam is in this engine. Then put a vacuum gauge on it fully warmed up in Park, and tell me the reading.
The cam is a ta-288h from ta performance. Where do I hook the vacuum guage to, the same port on the carb I have the distributor connected (currently manifold vacuum)?
Tune the idle mixture screws to get the highest vacuum possible when in gear with wheels blocked. It will take some trial and error and you will have to tune the throttle screw to keep the idle at spec. Use a vacuum gauge to see the readings as you tune. Without this step you will have a poor idle, poor fuel mileage, and lack of throttle response off idle.. Likely you are mistaking a rich mixture off idle with a lean condition. This is not something you can determine looking at spark plugs, use a air/fuel meter if you want to get serious about tuning.
1k rpm, in park, car fluctuates from 10-14 in hg of vacuum. Timing set at 32* all in at 2500. Seems to be a better solution.
The vacuum should be steady. Does it oscillate very quickly from 10-14, or does it slowly go from 10-14"?
Is the idle rpm of 1000 steady? or is it wavering like the vacuum reading? 10-14 is no good at 1000rpm you should be a lot closer to 18-20
It jumps around a lot. The lowest is 10 and the highest is 14. I have that 288h cam, would that change the numbers of vacuum I should be seeing? Where do I start to diagnose the leak location?
If it flicks up and down, it indicates poor valve sealing, or a sticky valve. A vacuum leak usually shows a low reading, but it should be steady. Have you ever done a compression check, or leak down test on this engine? When you did the cam, did you make sure your lifter preload is correct? Did you check push rod length?
The idle bounces a bit too. I though it was just from the cam ---------- Post added at 07:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 AM ---------- I have never done a ccompression test nor leak down test on the car. Not sure how to do either nor what I'd be looking for when I did attempt it. When I installed the cam, I soaked the lifters in oil overnight and I used the stock push rods bc that's what the guy at taperformance (mike I think) told me to do. He said stock pushrods would be fine with the cam. What should I have done?
from a carburetion point of view..... a wavering idle and poor vacuum that wavers can be achieved by an extremely rich idle condition. your idle mix screws shouldnt have to be that far out....what # qjet are you running? check for nozzle drip in the primaries. check for sealing of the secondary throttle blades. If they dont seal well enough, then at idle with the air flaps closed, the secondaries will pull fuel from the secondary nozzles. To check it, at idle, push the air flaps open with your fingers and look at the secondary throttle blades. If the secondaries are fueling at idle, the throttle blades will be very wet. Also there will be a change in idle characteristic when you push the air flaps open. just some things to check. not saying its your problem, but its worth a look.
