Starter Ring Gear on Flywheel
 

I've got a flywheel with some teeth eaten up on the ring gear. It is a lightened flywheel, weighs 8 lbs for an 8.5 inch disk on a Ford 2.3 L motor. The main part of the flywheel (whats that called by the way) is aluminum but the ring gear is steel. I've heard before that you can heat the flywheel up to get the ring gear off but aluminum heats up so much before steel that I'm not sure if that will work. Anybody have any suggestions or should I just get a new flywheel? I'd prefer to keep this one as the lightened ones are $300 on up.

On a conventional flywheel, you can knock the ring gear off with a punch and hammer, no heat. Place the flywheel on a flat surface, lay the new ring on top and heat the ring with a torch until it slips on. You may have to give it a few taps with a hammer to fully seat it. I'd think an aluminum flywheel would be the same, but it'll probably take longer to heat the ring as the aluminum will suck the heat out pretty quick. It might be best to contact the manufacturer to be sure...

Put the assembly in a freezer for a few hrs. the alum will shrink more than the steel, then knock off the ring gear with a brass punch. For installation, refreeze the flywheel, and put the ring gear in an oven at 500 degrees, then quickly tap the ring gear on the flywheel. You'd be surprised the ring gear will almost fall on the flywheel.

JMO

Zip.

SHAKE-N-BAKE .....

Yours Truly,
Ricky Bobby