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Not to give you a scare, but the externally balanced flywheel is not an urban myth. It's very real on a small percentage of the cars, and will totally ruin your year if you are one of the unlucky few, as I was
20 years ago. There's a ton of good info here on the forum to explain it, and get you through it if necessary. Page 6-158 of the FSM (2000 model in my case) is a good place to start.
Now, if you want to easily verify that you're in the lucky 98%, and not worry about it, just carefully inspect your original flywheel. Look in the small pencil-sized holes along the outer circumference.
If one of these holes has a small lead plug stuck in it, about an ounce or so, then I recommend you take a deep breath, then go into panic mode, and read all you can about it, and act accordingly.
Believe me, this is no trivial matter. Spending two weeks under the car, then having it buzz your teeth out at 4000 RPM is NO FUN.
Sorry to rain on the parade a bit, but better to be safe than sorry.
Cheers,
DG
We are close! This has been quite a journey. I have to reinstall the headers and exhaust, spark plugs, bleed the clutch and fire it up. Thanks to you all for your input and suggestions. I have to work the rest of the week, so we we hope to fire it up next week. We will keep your posted.
It is finished! All is in and assembled and I fired it up this morning. All is smooth, no strange sounds or vibrations and all spears well. I have to bleed the brakes because I had to move a brake line, but we are ready to put it on the ground. Gear shifts are smooth and the clutch feels good. I will update after a get a few hundred miles. Thanks for all of the input, feedback and encouragement. Now it is time to hit the road!
I just finished up my clutch install last week. My 97 flywheel had one tiny little weight in it the size of a pencil eraser. I'd be willing to guess it's maybe a 1/4 oz not a full oz?
That being said my car doesn't vibrate any more or less than it did with the stock flywheel. I also have semi solid motor mounts.
I'd really like to see what an original flywheel looked like on a C5 that vibrated someone's teeth out after a clutch change with a zero balance flywheel.
Last edited by Mr. Black; Mar 21, 2022 at 07:33 PM.
I, too found a small weight in one of the holes on the flywheel. I saw some posts that said transfer the weight, others said do not transfer the weight. I took as chance on not balancing the assembly because it was a LS7 clutch kit. If it did vibrate, I was going to use the washer technique to deal with it. Thank God, I did not have to deal with it!
