grinding noise/ hard to shift/ 1-3 gear whine

[cvargas0003]

It used to to down like a feather but now its gotten harder

[H311RA151N]

"Used to" as in after the engine and clutch being replaced (recently) or as in a comparison to before being replaced?

I'm not convinced it's the clutch. But, I have no experience with using horrible clutches. Just Sachs, other parts store clutches and Exedy.

[johnl]

When the clutch was changed, was the flywheel removed and refitted? If so are you sure the flywheel bolts were properly re-torqued? The flywheel should have been taken off for resurfacing as they are rarely in good enough condition to just fit a new clutch onto.

A loose flywheel can make some awful and erratic noises, and cause shifting problems. I'm far from sure that this is your problem, and some of your descriptions of the problem don't quite fit (but the descriptions aren't all that clear), but a loose flywheel is a potential worst case type of problem. If a flywheel becomes fully detached from the crank then it can cause a great deal of damage because it's a very massive component rotating very fast (even at relatively low rpm). It can also cause a lot of damage even if it doesn't become fully detached.

Just to frighten you, people have been killed by flywheels that become detached at high rpm (say bolt failure or fracturing of the flywheel). The heavy flywheel will rotate non concentrically when it detaches, and then may rip the first motion shaft out of the gearbox, then destroy the bell housing, then erupt through the firewall, then through the driver. This is an extreme failure as might occur at high rpm, more likely on a race track, but...

[deevergote]

At least those of us in the US are safer in that regard... the flywheel would rip through our passenger instead!
I've seen a video of a flywheel being thrown clear out of the car. Fortunately for the person in the video, that flywheel went through the hood... but it was still very eye-opening!

[johnl]

I believe drag cars are required to be fitted with a very robust steel shield surrounding the bell housing in order to contain errant flywheels (or parts thereof). Even if the flywheel is not in a location to present a significant danger to the driver, there may still be the driver of the other car alongside, and spectators are also at risk. There can be a frighteningly massive amount of kinetic energy in a rapidly rotating flywheel...

[H311RA151N]

Most drag cars are automatic's thus have flexplates. It's called a scatter shield. Some companies also call their products flexplate shields as well.

[H311RA151N]

Couldn't find a good flexplate or flywheel explosion video. But I found a torque converter ejection video.




I bet if there was a thought bubble above the grey haired guy in black shorts and black shirt in the left lane at :25 it would say "Hey... that looks like a torque converter..."