Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

Hello! Welcome to Mart's garage. I have been struggling with a big vibration on my 41 pickup. I couldn't drive it above about 45mph it was just too harsh. It dawned on me that the Old 59 flatty in the truck had a modified flywheel. I decided to pull the motor and see if I could improve on the balance of the flywheel. In this video I show that job. I skim through the removal and refitting because I have shown that before. The setup I used was a little crude, but did yield a positive result. Although I am pleased to have made an improvement, I am not 100% happy and have yet to decide if the motor will stay.
So sit back and relax and watch me tackle a job I have not tried before. Just like normal then.
Mart.
https://youtu.be/PE2YRmar56A

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

Mart: interesting video, I’ve come to the conclusion you need a bigger garage(then you’d have room for more cars lol).

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

Good one Mart! Quite a bit of work to accomplish, but worthwhile.

Al Hook

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

I balanced my flywheel as I removed around 5lbs from it. Got it down to 2 gr so no vibes at all. You should look into the clutch as well. One of the reasons I used a modern clutch.

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

Me, I'd surely rather use a dynamic balancer - with the clutch mounted on it as well. Cast flywheels make me nervous - so I like them to be as close to neutral balanced as possible.

But hey, folks used static balancing methods for years and they can work pretty well. I watched my neighbor balance his Harley Davidson flywheels using a static method . . . he was pretty good at it. His setup used extremely low-friction "centers" to rotate the flywheels on.

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

Two model T transmission input shafts bolt directly to ford flywheels for static balance on knife edges

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

A worn out U joint at the transmission in a torque tube rear was recently discovered the cause of a similar vibration in a Deuce coupe. Balance on the flywheel and PP combination was less than 20 grams which was not enough to create the vibration.
Ronnieroadster

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

You can fine tune the balance by adding a lock washer to each bolt. Adding, removing and moving to the next one around the circle until you get the best result. I always doubted this process until I replaced a clutch and PP in my '46 Buick and it vibrated.. In the Factory service manual it said to use this method. I always thought someone was nuts but I tried it and it worked (!). But then, that was over 50 years ago so it might not work any more. :)

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

Mart, I DO love your videos, but like so many I don't have any real machinist tools. I have balanced a flywheel by using an inverted plumb bob with a threaded tip ground off to expose a hole for a wire which I hung from a ceiling joist. Even the smallest weight would tilt it one way or the other. This was for a one lung flywheel engine I made from a bunch of different parts. Set above my workbench, which is perfectly level I could measure up to check equal distance. I don't think friction comes into play. I got the idea from the old bubble balancers and JC Whitney Lawn mower blade balancer. Perhaps way too crude for an automobile engine.... OR?

Re: Balancing the flywheel on the 41 pickup at home.
 

I guess one thing to see is if the vibration is there at the same rpm setting still in neutral, Years ago I was fighting a bad vibration at 50 mph (on a 71 Ranchero)and went thru all the normal things, tires, ujoints etc until Dad revved it setting still and it was still there. After taking the fan belt off it was gone. After some part swapping it, it ending up being the alternator, Who would have thought! Steve