Damper plate check

[MIKEGOUGH1]

Installed my rebuilt tranny over the weekend, had a lot of vibration and fluid leaking into the bell housing. Vince at Skidim rebuilt it for me, and he suggest that their may be a problem with the damper plate. Says that a worn out damper plate could cause vibration and leakage. Alignment looks good on the shaft. Has anyone out there had to replace their damper plate, and what are the signs?

[WakeGirl]

Hi Mike,

I don't have an answer to your question, but I'm curious to know why you needed the tranny rebuilt? Did you do the install yourself & if so was it difficult? If you've detailed all of this in another thread that I've missed, then please accept my apologies for the hijack.

[MIKEGOUGH1]

Yes, I had SkiDim rebuild it. Towards the end of last summer, it slipped a couple of times. I was leaking from my rear main engine seal, so while I had it off to replace the rear main, I went ahead and had a clutch pack put in it. The pump and gears were fine. The fluid was burnt due to pieces of impeller caught up in the tranny cooler. Pulling the transmission is not all that hard, its pulling everything off to get to the transmission that is time consuming. You have to lift the rear of the engine on the Echelon to get enough clearance to pull it out. Unfortunately i'm getting pretty good at it, this is the 3rd time I've had to pull it. I replaced the seals in it last summer. If you are real careful, you can just loosen the front mount bolts, remove the rear mounts and lift the engine without messing up your alignment. The only real problem I am having this time is that my interior and carpet is all brand new, just finished the install there, so to pull the tranny again while trying to keep everything clean is a bit tedious. Hopefully this will be the last time.

[WakeGirl]

Yes, I had SkiDim rebuild it.  Towards the end of last summer, it slipped a couple of times. I was leaking from my rear main engine seal, so while I had it off to replace the rear main, I went ahead and had a clutch pack put in it.  The pump and gears were fine.  The fluid was burnt due to pieces of impeller caught up in the tranny cooler.  Pulling the transmission is not all that hard, its pulling everything off to get to the transmission that is time consuming.  You have to lift the rear of the engine on the Echelon to get enough clearance to pull it out.  Unfortunately i'm getting pretty good at it, this is the 3rd time I've had to pull it.  I replaced the seals in it last summer.  If you are real careful, you can just loosen the front mount bolts, remove the rear mounts and lift the engine without messing up your alignment.  The only real problem I am having this time is that my interior and carpet is all brand new, just finished the install there, so to pull the tranny again while trying to keep everything clean is a bit tedious.  Hopefully this will be the last time.

Boy I hope so too! You've done it enough that you probaby know the procedure by heart. Hopefully this time around you won't have any more difficulties.

[Skiier64]

A sign that the damper plate is going bad is a rattle sound when in neutral or maybe even under power. The springs on the plate get loose and rattle when no pressure is applied to them. I have heard people describe the sound like rocks in a coffee can. Hope this helps.

[M3Fan]

That is correct. I replaced mine this spring. Fairly easy to do assuming you keep everything aligned when you take it all apart. You get a nice rattling noise, and eventually it just goes kablooey. They say whenever you pull the trans to do anything major you may as well swap it out for the hundo because it is such a PITA to get to. When I replaced it, in the back of my mind I thought if it was even the slightest bit off it would rip the trans apart!

[MIKEGOUGH1]

Mine is not rattling, and as far as alignment, it looks like it only goes on one way. The bolt holes on the flywheel look like it would be hard to install it the wrong way. Am I missing something? When I put the tranny back on, it slid in fine, did not look like any misalignment.