Oops The road test was for only a mile or less. Yesterday evening I went to a local cruise-in. It was 5 or 6 miles one way, enough time to better evaluate the vibration. Now it vibrates starting at 20 MPH and continues to about 45 MPH, before it was only around 40 MPH, it is worse now than before, even made something in the passenger door rattle, that never happened before. All this means it is the torque convertor. My guess is that a balancing weight came off the convertor at some point or it was never balanced correctly. Sooooooooooooo, now the convertor has to be replaced. The good thing is that the vibration will finally be gone. Is anyone going on a Florida vacation anytime soon, I know where you can spend a fun filled day laying under a truck and turning wrenches. ( just kidding ) I thank everyone that contributed comments. Your support means a great deal to me. When the new convertor is installed I will post it here. A little about us We live 60 minutes from Orlando attractions and 90 minutes from Disney but we never go there, we drive to the Smokey mountains for vacations. The highest point in Florida is about 350 feet above sea level so to us a mountain is a fun place to go to. It is bike week in Daytona if you are into that kind of thing. Lots and lots of bikes even here in Slowcala, oops, Ocala. Don't ya just love small towns, we do. Thanks again Gerald in Ocala, Fl.
Progress ! Very good to hear . I hope you have a competent local TC rebuilder , I don't trust the new ones , even @ The L.A.P.D. , we use rebuilts . Make sure to get the correct stall speed ! a high stall converted is fun for street racing but wa$t$ fuel and beats the crap out of the engine and every thing else , making it a poor choice for the real world .
Tc Tried a stall convertor years ago, hated it. Been runnig a stock convertor and like it except for the vibration. No one in this small town rebuilds TCs. It will be a couple of weeks before the old one is pulled out, I will shop around and see what is available. Thanks again for the help Gerald in Florida
update Got under the truck and moved the torque convertor to the next set of holes that are in the flex plate. Turns out there are 6 holes in the flex plate that will line up with the 3 holes in the torque convertor. Anyway, good news, where it is bolted now has the least vibration ever. At some speeds you can not feel any vibration. This is where everything is going to stay. Thanks everyone that helped me. This ends 5 years of trying to figure out the problem. What a relief.
You are saying that the vibration is not all gone? but still lingers at certain RPM's? You stated that the engine is a 350 from the 70's, are you sure it is a 350? have you any proof of this? No I'm not putting you on trial..... I'm just curious if there has been any parts swapped over the years. Maybe your 350 is a 400...? with a 350 flywheel / starter ring, or vise-versa, small block 400's and big block 454's are externally balanced,and require a certain flywheel and balancer, others are internally balanced. Just curious if the flywheel is wrong and is giving you fits.....?? Jim
350 The engine and transmission both came out of a 1975 impala that was in my family for many years. I had the block bored out 30 which makes it a 355 cu inch, installed new flat top pistons, cam from Comp Cams, new lifters, comp cams double row timing gears, new push rods, new oil pump. At first I used roller rockers, later changed to a set of new original type of rockers. From Edelbrock, performer intake, 750 cfm carb. New distributor. Used a better set of heads than was on it, heads were sent to machine shop and leveled, new Manly valves, new springs and etc. Used the original flex plate. Tried 2 different harmonic balancers with the same results ( no difference). Tried a 2500 stall torque convertor at first, hated the thing, installed a stock convertor, not the original. Had a new driveshaft built with Spicer u-joints. Also added a new slip joint. Put in 4 degree wedges in rear sprigs to achieve proper angle at rear end. Transmission tailshaft bushing was replaced to remove any wobble there. Rearend is tight, no slop. All this is why I am happy to live with what little vibration is left. Thanks for the concern. Gerald in Florida
This is so weird . As an engine builder , I like to balance everything to zero , this is really a serious time consumer and many Machine Shops don't care and will charge for balancing not done . If you're happy with it , well and good ~ go drive and have fun .
