Installing rebuilt 427 with tko 600, lakewood scatter shield, centerforce flywheel and McLeod clutch.
Got it all together and installed... but I noticed tonight when turning the motor over by hand it is binding in a spot. I marked on the balancer where it got stuck and rotated it around backwards and it gets stuck at the same spot (360 degrees on the crank). I loosened the bellhousing bolts and pried it away from the block .015"or so. Tried hand cranking the motor and it is now free. I tightened two of the bolts back up next to the dowel pins and tried hand cranking the motor again. I can feel it start to bind in the same spot but just a little. I'm sure if I tighten them all back up it will be binding again.

What can be hitting against what in there? On the crank it is binding at 45 degrees after TDC. Any ideas?

 

Hello
You said that when you loosened the scattershield it was OK. I heard of someone accidentally installing the clutch disc in backwards, so it locks up when it was tight.
Just a thought
Tom

 

After working with it more I'm thinking the problem is that the outside portion of the McLeod pressure plate is hitting against the inside of the Lakewood scattershield. The McLeod clutch is a little larger (11"). McLeod said it would fit and I've read on the forum that others are using it. It is strange it is only hitting on one spot (over 360 degrees) on the pressure plate though. It would mean the outside housing of the pressure plate sticks out more in one spot. Anyone else ever have this problem?

I don't want to pull the engine back out again!!!!

 

I had a similar problem with a balencer on my 383. The balencer was hitting a bolt on my timing cover. It wasn't obvious and it didn't touch all the way around in rotation. What you need is another set of eyes to see things you can't, ask a gearhead friend to take a look.

 

Did you check the alignment of the new bellhousing? With aftermarket ones its really a good idea to use a dial indicator to verify the trans will be perfectly aligned with the crank. Shims and offset dowel pins can be used to adjust.

Also cures a lot of shifting problems people have...

 

Thanks for the help. Yes, did this the first time installing the motor last month. Made offset dowels to bring it in to .004" ailment and .002" parallel. The motor had too much blowby and had ring problems. Took it out and apart to take care of the ring problem. I had a centerforce dual friction in it the first time, but decided I wanted to go with a McLeod and put that in this time. I didn't check the runout this time since it shouldn't have changed as I didn't remove or mess with the offset dowels in the block.

Just got off the phone with McLeod. They didn't know what is going on either. He said there is lots of room in the Lakewood and their scattershield and he didn't think the od of their pressure plate housing could be hitting against the bellhousing. I had my wife hold the clutch fork while I hand turned the motor over to the binding spot and she couldn't feel anything, so I don't think it is problem with the fork or throwout bearing. Doesn't make any sense of what is hitting what.

 

Okay.. figured it out. The flywheel teeth are coming in contact with the inside of the scatter shield in a spot. I can see orange paint on the rear corners of some of the teeth. When looking into the clutch fork hole in to the to flywheel teeth I can see that they are right up next to the inside of the scattershield. If I look in the starter hole to the flywheel teeth they have probably .100" clearance. I have offset dowels of .012 to bring the lakewood scattersheild into alimament. I checked the flywheel and it has .004 wobble to it. I had shimmed this .004" out the first time I put it together but I didn't this time. It must have been there on the verge of touching the first time I had it together... but since I didn't shim the .004" this time, it is enough to hit in a spot. I did notice this new centerforce flywheel was quite a bit thicker than stock. I don't remember how much thicker any more, but it was definitely thicker. This together with a crappy off center lakewood scatterscatter shield. If I ever take this motor out again I'm going with a McLeod scatter shield that are suppose to be more accurately made, so that the front and back openings are in the center in reference to the bolt and dowel pin holes.

Here is the fix.. A little bit of bubba... Made some shims from .015" shim stock that go between the scattershield and the block around each bolt. This does the trick and it now clears.