Flywheel bolts too long??

[Tempest]

99' Ford Ranger 4.0 OHV Manual trans.

My original trans was going bad so I decided to get a rebuilt and put it in my self along with a new clutch and flywheel. This is the first time I have ever done something this involved on a car before so I wanted to give a shot and hopefully learn something.

Unfortunately, I seem to have made a newbie

mistake and something has gone wrong. The engine will not move at all, even with a long ratchet on the drive pulley. I though it was a battery or starter (replaced starter anyway since it was 13 years old) and all checks out after much work.

So in researching I find some posts on various forums about flywheel bolts being too long causing this, but on different cars. New flywheel is from NAPA, original was factory. Didn't check thickness of mounting area on new flywheel as I had never heard of this problem before.

I'm not familiar with what is behind the crank mounting area on the 4.0 that might cause binding.

Clutch seems to work OK and move. Master cylinder is rock solid when detached from trans (no air). Clutch pedal interlock is working fine (no starter action at all). Upon normal start, the starter engages (clack!) but goes no where with clutch depressed, lights dim.


Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jeeprnovru]

Ive seen some aftermarket flywheels bump up against an area in the bell housing that had to be hit with an angle grinder to make it work....you are gonna have to tear it down either way, so just pull the trans off and take a look see inside...the issue should be obvious.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: jeeprnovru
Ive seen some aftermarket flywheels bump up against an area in the bell housing that had to be hit with an angle grinder to make it work....you are gonna have to tear it down either way, so just pull the trans off and take a look see inside...the issue should be obvious.


Either this^^^^^^^^^^, or is it a possibility that that you've got the pressure plate on wrong?

 

[The_Eric]

Sorry, meant to say clutch disk. Between the pain killers and being tired, I messed up. It'd be pretty hard to get the pressure plate backwards.

 

[mechtech2]

Sorry, things have to come apart again.
We've all done similar things.

 

[The_Eric]

Agreed.

 

[Tempest]

Since it's 105F outside and I'm short on time anyway, I took it to a mechanic to get it fixed. He called me up today and said it was the flywheel itself binding up against the block/shield. Everything else was fine and reused.

Luckily I still had the factory flywheel and he was able to resurface it. He says it works great now and is ready.

Thanks NAPA for those quality parts!!

Scratching them off the list.

 

[Steve S]

NA frikin PA