Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing

Posted By: DrCharles

Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing - 08/23/09 11:14 PM

I am having immense frustration trying to get my Lakewood blowshield dialed-in to my big block.

I had ordered two long pins, put them in (rather a tight fit, too). Magnetic-mounted my dial indicator to the flywheel and the bore was
something like .034 of total indicator travel or .017 runout. OK, ordered .014 offset dowel pins. They came this weekend. It was really fun removing the new pins too although they had only been in there a week!

Anyway today I put in the offset pins and no matter where I rotated them, I could not get the total down under .020... guess I measured wrong or something... so I figured that the .021 offset pins would be the right set. But as a check I removed the dowel pins entirely and then discovered I could not move the bellhousing high enough to make the bore centered with the crank!

I think the four 3/8" and two 7/16" bolt holes in the Lakewood housing will have to be enlarged slightly (say 1/32). Neater than rat-tailing
them. And of course I only have a 3/8" drill since some previous tenants or their friends stole my dad's big 1/2" drill motor out of the barn years ago.

Anyhow, does anyone have any other suggestions? I am really

please

-Charles

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing - 08/23/09 11:17 PM

What dowels are you using ???

Posted By: DrCharles

Re: Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing - 08/23/09 11:33 PM

http://www.robbmcperformance.com/products/dowels.html

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing - 08/23/09 11:39 PM

Quote:

http://www.robbmcperformance.com/products/dowels.html

You have the right dowels , all you can do is open up the bolt holes , (I'm really not surprised) , put a good washer under the bolt heads , dial in the bell and then tack weld the washers in place and make sure nothing moved

Posted By: jbc426

Re: Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing - 08/24/09 05:07 AM

Quote:

You have the right dowels , all you can do isopen up the bolt holes , (I'm really not surprised) , put a good washer under the bolt heads , dial in the bell and then tack weld the washers in place and macke sure nothing moved

This is excellent advice. Also, be sure to check that the bell housing is also square to the block. Mine required shims to get the trans mounting surface parallel to the rear block surface. Document the positions, offset and shim thickness in a drawing for future reference. Don't forget to see if you need to notch the bell for header clearance, although this may void the certification of the shield...?

Attached picture 5436968-UndercarrigeReassembly044(Large).jpg

Attached picture 5436968-UndercarrigeReassembly044(Large).jpg

Posted By: DrCharles

Re: Frustration dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing - 08/24/09 05:24 PM

Quote:

Also, be sure to check that the bell housing is also square to the block. Mine required shims to get the trans mounting surface parallel to the rear block surface. Document the positions, offset and shim thickness in a drawing for future reference.

How did you measure to see if it was parallel or not?
And what did you use for shims? How many thousandths and what was "off" (the bellhousing or the block?)

Quote:

Don't forget to see if you need to notch the bell for header clearance, although this may void the certification of the shield...?

Thanks for the tip. Actually I already have my headers bolted up (B-body Hedmans) and the only place they touch is one of the "scallop" tips has less than 1/2" interference to #8 tube. I plan to dent the tube instead of notching precisely because of that voiding problem.

-Charles

Posted By: DrCharles

Dialing-in Lakewood bellhousing: Progress! - 08/25/09 10:06 PM

I finally got somewhere! I clamped the bellhousing to my drill press table and enlarged the four 3/8" mounting bolt holes to 7/16" and the two 7/16" holes to 1/2" (thus allowing an additional +/- .030" range of movement before the bolts interfere with the holes).

Next I bolted it back up and verified I still had .020 too much indicator travel with the .014 offset pins at their highest, maximum reading at 12:00 (i.e. the bellhousing sits too low on the block).

Loosened the bolts finger tight (dial ind. moved about .005 before all six were loose), gently used a pry bar and mallet between the housing and the floor until an additional .010 was on the dial, tightened all six bolts and noted the reading was now about +.012.

Reset it to zero and voila... 0.005" max indicator travel (.0025" runout) close enough for me!

I think even the .021 offset pins might not give enough "range" because the two bores in the Lakewood look like they have been abused somewhat... which appears to be the source of my problem. Oversize dowel holes will make it impossible to accurately center the housing unless pins with large offsets are available. I got this housing years ago and it has an '00 SFI recert sticker on it so who knows how many times it's been on and off since it was made.

My plan is to buy the weld-on washers from Lakewood and tack them in place over the dowels exactly where it is now.

What a royal PITA. But I still like the idea of keeping my feet, not to mention saving spectators, if my flywheel or clutch should take a dump at 6k plus!

-Charles