
ok, i now know why i thought i'd solved my ring gear problem a year ago.
Removed engine and box from car and found the flywheel has a chamfer on the engine side of the flywheel for a pre-engaged starter.
Is it possible to remove the ring gear and turn it round so the chamfer is on the gearbox side?
(trying to save myself 70 odd quid for a new ring gear)
To get it off without breaking it will involve using heat more than was needed to put it on -- quite a lot which will ruin the heat treatment.
read something last week about someone who had transfered the ring gear from one flywheel to another os it is possible; dunno how they did it! 
guessing heat it up then if you can rig up something that presses evenly on it, it may pop off.
quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
read something last week about someone who had transfered the ring gear from one flywheel to another os it is possible; dunno how they did it!
guessing heat it up then if you can rig up something that presses evenly on it, it may pop off.
It's worth pointing out that heat will do nothing to help you get the ring gear OFF. Since they are both made of the same material, they will
both expand at pretty much the same rate.
For putting it ON, do as explained above. But you will have to be quick!
my oven will go to 250 as normal and if i can bypass the safety mechanism i can go to something like 350 to 400.
The ring gear i fitted to my ally flywheel came from a torque converter backing plate. Just a thin steel plate really - so it was easy to grind down
the few spot welds and cut the plate out from inside the ring gear.
Perhaps an auto version of whatever car your engine/box is from would yield a similarly easy to acquire ring gear? If you have to get it off a
flywheel good luck! Heat will help actually - you'd heat the ring gear with a flame and it'll expand. This will only heat the edge of the
flywheel so it wont expand so much - you'd have to heat the whole flywheel for it's od to expand as much as the ring gear will expand.
My ring gear just dropped on without the need for any major force at about 250-260 degrees, with the flywheel just out the freezer. It cooled
within seconds of contacting the cold flywheel - if i was having to tap it on i wouldn't have managed in time!! (Doesn't slip when cranking
so hopefully i got the interference fit right on my flywheel design!).
Liam
Liam - when i first read what you posted i could scream. the car was an auto origianally. Luckily i remembered that thats the problem, the car has pre-engaged starter which fouls my westfield exhaust. One of my fly wheels has a ring gear with bevelled teeth which if i put on the other face should / might work and save me a packet.
So what gearbox/engine are you trying to fit together out of curiosity? Just a thought but maybe it'd be easier to mod the exhaust slightly than
to be swapping a starter from engine to gearbox side with all the bellhousing chopping and flywheel modding that will entail? Even if you can reverse
the ring gear, will the flywheel shoulder not stop you getting at the teeth from the other side? I'm sure you've thought of it - but you
have got a starter that spins the other way if you're swapping sides?
Apologies if I've got completely the wrong idea of what you're trying to do
Liam
[Edited on 8/5/06 by Liam]
Liam, i've probably not explained myself very well (accused of that a lot at work at the moment).
Its a crossflow and type 9.
The westfield exhaust (that cost me a fortune) fouls the existing pre-engaged starter motor.
I want to fit a inerta. The inerta needs the beveled edge to be on the gearbox side of the ring gear.
All my flywheels are pre-engaged with either no bevel on the engine side or only a bevel on the engine side.
The idea was to remove the ring and put it on the other way round. Hopefully saving me all the cost (and not the hassle of getting a new ring gear
fitted.
I'm now wondering if i froze the ring gear and then used a blow torch around the outside if it would tap off easier. (heat difference and all
that)
quote:
Originally posted by wildchild
It's worth pointing out that heat will do nothing to help you get the ring gear OFF. Since they are both made of the same material, they will both expand at pretty much the same rate.
For putting it ON, do as explained above. But you will have to be quick!