All my life I heard this and never looked into it but today is the day. Everyone always told me that diesels are known to eat flywheels because diesels always stop in the same exact spot? I find this hard to believe it would stop on the same cylinder(s) every single time. Is this true or am I talking to idiots?
This is the first time I've ever heard that in my life. I have seen maybe 1 or 2 ring gears in my entire career wrenching that were damaged and they were all on gas engines in cars.
In the 40+ years I worked on equipment a the quarry I think I could count on one hand the number of ring gears I had to replace. I think most were damaged by a faulty starter drive. As to always stopping at the same place I could see that a four cylinder engine might tend to stop in one or two spots a six cylinder probably three places and a V-8 four. One easy way to test this would be to mark the vibration damper the next time you shut the engine off then check it the following day, if it stops in a different location mark with a different color and keep an eye out for how often the marks are at in that location at the end of each shift. So, Johndeere120 you have your assignment and we expect a weekly report preferably with a spread-sheet to track the data!
Lol thought about trying that just never felt like laying under there taking notes
I have replaced several starter rings years ago but none lately. I told this story before but i when out of state and had to stay at a motel . I got in the room and could hear a noise out back before i went to bed i opened a small window in the bathroom to see if i could figure out what was making this noise? It was a 80s ford pickup in a fast food parking lot the starter wouldnt engague . I how he tried for more than a hour . I fell a sleep and looked the next day it was gone.
Correct--The old FE fords with the cheap Autolite starters, would eat at least three spots in a ring gear. It's one of the few truths--isn't a wives tail. Pretty common on a 855 Cummins.
It all depends which cylinder is coming under compression and which valves are open.
I've changed 5ish ring gears in my life thus far. 950 cat ate by a bad starter Manitou telehandler had a software glitch that made the starter engage when running. And atleast 3 farm tractors that they where just getting worn in one spot. Always mark you truck engine where it stops so you can put the clutch adjust at the hole so you don't have to fiddle to adjust the clutch.
Half of the time.
If you shut one off with a compression release, its a toss of the dice where and how it can stop the rotation. Also I would think flywheel inertia limits the possibility of compression causing a stoppage in a certain orientation. Some times its the nut in the operating compartment that is causing ring gear teeth issues, the one I replaced on a D7 all teeth were trashed.
Not on the last few rotations the compression starts to over ride the the reciprocating mass. Not to many would use a compression release on shut down, if there was a compression release.
It's a honest effort any way
I know for a fact that the 4 cylinder John Deere diesel in my old man’s 4895 stops in the same spot every time, cause there is a grease zerk on the drive shaft coming off the engine that is inaccessible when it is pointed up. And that grease zerk is pointed up, in the same spot, EVERY SINGLE TIME.
That's interesting. Like above I too would think it would have a couple different spots that's strange. Perhaps there's some truth to it at least on some engines
Some truth to that with 4 and 6 bangers. The randomness increases with 8 or more.
I find this pretty nuts, I'll have to make engines now as see for myself
I used to change a lot of them on 4 cylinder diesel engines. The bad spots were 180 degrees apart
I have a FT 330 that i have run alot . I would agree that the Autolite starters were not that good. I am a GM nut but i needed a truck and didnt know or think how use full this truck could be. It has been one of the best things i have ever owned . I am going to mark its balancer just to see.
I forgot my first truck, a 74 f150 with a 390 had a bad spot in it that would be hard to get it to engage, but it wouldn't happen that often, maybe once a week if you were unlucky. We drove that truck everywhere it was our only way to get around.
The old trick with FE's was just heat remove flip and install, kind of like turning your underwear inside out on the second day.-----it's all about mileage hansen.
Folks it's pretty simple to see with a 6 cylinder 855 crankshaft, noting the corresponding crank pins, 1-6, 2-5, 3-4----It has three choices of cylinders to consistently stop rotating on. *
I wear them front, then back, then I turn them inside out and wear them front and back!
Yup, it's all about the mileage.
An old trick for unobtainable ring gears was to remove them and if the damage was not too bad, just reinstall about 90 to 100 degrees from where the wear was if it was a good section of the ring gear. If flipping the ring gear, i used a Dremel to put the small chamfer on one side of the teeth just like the original side
I have had a couple of pickups where I rewelded the teeth on the flywheel with an acetylene torch while still in the truck. It's just a couple of teeth. 10 minutes and it starts again. The price of a new flex plate was more than the value of the truck not even counting installation.
That’s crafty.
A chevy C-10-20, leave coolant hoses hooked remove everything else support trans, pic & move ahead 3" remove bolts with breaker slide flex down reverse to replace, pretty quick.
Thats what they were, C10 Chevys with a small block V8. I wouldn't have thought of shifting the engine forward.