Help identifying a Buick V6 flywheel.

I have a 1974 CJ5 with a Buick 231 transplant in it that is otherwise totally stock. The casting stamp is from 1979. Just picked this rig up and its been sitting for 15yrs. The clutch is shot. I pulled it and no one can id the flywheel. The surface the friction disc rides on is raised in the middle about 3mm. It fits a 10.4" friction disc. I can find the TO bearing, friction disc, pilot bearing but I can not find the pressure plate because every part Ive tried is for a flat flywheel. Ive seen a couple pics in the early CJ5 tech forum of a similar flywheel but still haven't been able to ID it. Ive called Novak, Advanced Adapters, some local clutch shops and tried way to many pressure plates at the local shop, none fit. I'm stuck. Any help and I will be forever grateful. Ive been working on this for a week now.
Zech

 

Any numbers cast into it? Production flywheels are cast, and often the GM part number (for example) can be seen in the rough casting surface. Also, are there any bumps on the back? I thought that the OF flywheel has a lump on the back for balance.

 

There are markings on the back. Ive googled the casting number and only found one hit and it was an "H" body forum from 2005 and they don't talk about the year, make, model, engine it came out of. Here are some pics of the back side. I hope this helps. My last resort is a trans/clutch shop near me is looking into rebuilding the pressure plate to see if they can do it and how much. Still haven't heard back from them.....

 

Seven digits is pretty typical of a GM part number. Usually it's some common 3 digit prefix, then a specific 4 digits. I don't recognize 126xxxx though - maybe some Buick guys would. The notch in the back is for external balance, but I thought the odd fire flywheels had a rectangular plateau rather than a notch.

Maybe ask here - http://www.v8buick.com/forumdisplay.php?183-Small-Block-Buick-Performance-Book - I think this it the most technically savvy Buick place for the V6.

 

Interesting that there is no locator pin for the crank/flywheel joint.

Are the bolt holes all the same size, and spacing??

 

Mike-one of the holes is offset a little bit. I think I have found another thread where a guy ran into the same problem. From what I can find it sounds like he was able to ID it but the pressure plate has been discontinued accorder to Centerforce which I find hard to believe. I guess this flywheel is a lot more unique than I thought.
Zech

 

Will your back to either getting your clutch guy to take it apart , replace any worn parts & springs and resurface the plate.....done all the time ...................or buy a new flat flywheel and pressure plate and call it a day!
This is an Even fire motor .........Correct?

 

Im Pretty sure Its An Even Fire Motor. I Called A Shop Today About Rebuildin The Pressure Plate And They Weren't Sure. Said They Would Call Me Back And Never Did. I Can't Find Even Fire Buick Flywheel For Under 350 For Some Reason. They Are All Billet. I Can't Find A Cast One. If I Can't Find One, it's Just Going To Have To Go Back Together And Make Due Until It Tanks Then Decide If Its Worth The Effort Or Part It Out. This Cj Still Needs A Lot Of Work And A 500$ Clutch And Flywheel Job Wasnt In The Budget. Thanks For All The Help Though. Zech.

 

I have one of those flywheels. I was told by the wrecking yard I picked it out of that I needed a pressure plate from a late 70's Buick car, say a Century or something similar. Apparently Buick did put a manual transmission in some kind of car back then but it was rare as all their models came with automatics.
Might give you a starting point to find what you need. Let us know what you find out. Also, you can get a flywheel and all clutch pieces for an even fire from Advance Adapters but will be a little pricey../

FWIW,
Mike

 

So far Ive talked to AdvanceAdapter, Novak, TAperformance and Mcleod clutch and no one can id it. Finding more and more forums with pics of this flywheel and it has to be correct for this engine from what I can find. It did come in a few Buicks that were manuals in the late 70s but was extremely rare. The only company that could recognize it was Centerforce but said the pressure plate was discontinued. Just got off the phone with a local clutch shop who said he could rebuild it then asked if it was a diaphragm style pressure plate. It is. Said its not rebuildable then. He said I should bring it in and that he was 98% sure he could id it and find the part. I think he is a little over confident but worth the effort to know for sure. Looks like its down to deciding if I want to spend the money on flywheel and clutch kit which I think is way more than I can or want to spend. This thing still needs a full exhaust and I can not find manifolds for this motor either. None of the local wreckers has them and none on ebay right now. I am amazed at how hard it is to find parts for this motor when its supposed to be one of he most common motors ever built. Ive found a couple used I6 motors (stock for this year) on craigslist for less than it would cost to buy a flywheel and clutch setup and thinking it would be less of headache to just swap it back to stock. Parts seem a lot more common for older jeep engines and significantly cheaper too. Thanks everyone.
Zech

 

AMC 4.0L. Skip the 232 or 258 inline sixes - the 4.0L is the same block and comes with the excellent Mopar MPI, better economy, and significantly more power. And they are plentiful and in most cases well loved by their owners.

What transmission do you have? The Buick won't bolt to the original bell, so you'd at least need to get the original bell housing.

Nothing wrong with the 231, but it's a goofy choice for this application. Gotta be miles from the radiator. Likely someone simply had the engine and made it work - I don't see any reason why you would choose it otherwise. I'm sure you can sell the engine if you set it up to hear it run.

 

yup, the PO pulled the cooling fan and put a little electric fan on it. I can hop down in the space between the radiator and waterpump. I thought about putting the stock fan back on because the wiring caught fire from the PO's crappy wire job but I think its so far back it wouldn't work without a huge fan housing to direct air. Trans is a T14 I think stock for this year. Has an aftermarket bellhousing, from what I can see it was a common adapter for 60's era jeeps. Most of the people Ive shown pics to seem confused by this setup. The previous owner has a knack for rigging stuff together. Most of the conversion parts were "homemade" which is making it really hard to find replacements when you don't know the year or vehicle he "modified" the parts out of. Example is the clutch release arm is two different arms welded together. The TO bearing side is wide, the tail that the pushrod hooks into is about an 1/2" narrower and filled with lots of weld to make it hold together. The best part is the cut and smashed Coors beer cans that were tacked together to make heater ducting under the dash. It works but holy cow. I just talked to a local Jeep wrecking yard and he says he has a stack of 225 flywheels. I just need to do a little research on balancing an odd-fire flywheel for the even fire 231. I looked at a couple 4.0l and have read a ton about them. From what I gather, they are one of the most love motors for Jeeps and bullet proof. Most articles Ive read said they are trouble free for 300k with good maintenance. They were just pricey. I am on a tight budget right now that's why buying the stock flywheel is kind of out of the question. I can't find a 231 flywheel under 400$. Wifey isn't so excited about me dumping a ton of money into this rig. glad I found a ton of info in this forum. I had tried a two others and everyone directed me this way.
Zech

 

Hope I'm not alone in want to see pictures of that!

 

I will have to take some. Im impressed with the amount of time the PO took in "making" parts for this thing. Looks like I will be going to a 225 flywheel instead of trying to keep this stock setup. I just talked to the Jeep Wrecking yard and he does indeed have a couple 225 flywheels on hand, he wants a 100$ for one and I checked with the machine shop I use, said 40$ to balance it. Now I just need to make sure I can find a clutch kit for this setup. Zech

 

Mmm. There's no shame to putting it back together with a new disk and the original pressure plate and flywheel. You'll probably get a bunch more miles out of it, unless its really damaged now. All you are risking is your time to remove the engine again if the pressure plate fails.

 

Timgr- can I clean up the friction surface on the pressure plate? Ive already had the flywheel resurfaced before I figured out pressure plates were none existent. The clutch started chattering HORRIBLY. I found the TO bearing had completely failed and actually came apart. Im pretty sure this was the problem as everything else didn't look to bad. There was some corrosion on the surface but no hot spots are grooves. It was working fine up until the morning it failed. I let the clutch out and heard a grinding sound then it started chattering so bad I thought I was going to break the motor mounts. I immediately parked it and started pulling stuff apart. There were no other symptoms of slipping, missing gears or hard shift. I found no oil anywhere so I feel confident it wasn't the disc chattering, that it was purely the TO bearing but drivetrain stuff is a whole new animal to me.

 

Post a few pictures of your pressure plate and your clutch disc.

 

Heres the pressure plate and disc. you can see the TO bearing that disintegrated.

 

Cover looks fine to me, disc so-so, but usable IMHO.

Was it slipping or chattering before the T/O bearing failed???

I suspect I would put in a new T/O bearing and run it.

 

No symptoms at all except for a slight wine from what I was assuming was the throwout bearing when letting the clutch out. It was on my to-do list. I wasn't expecting such a catastrophic failure from it though. I have a new bearing arriving tomorrow. It would be nice to just put it together and spend that money on a couple other things it needs and get by for a awhile. Thanks for all the input. Can I clean it with a brake clean or something before putting it back together or just leave it alone? Thanks for all the input.
Zech