The '72 has been running and driving for several days now with the engine from my wrecked '74 and the transmission I got from Scrapper60. I have been doing alot of crusing around the old one lane gravel back roads around here just testing and tweaking to make sure it's ready to face Atlanta traffic on a daily basis... Today it started makeing a strange noise. It sounds like it's comeing from the bell houseing/torque converter area. It's like an intermittent chirping/squeaking noise that speeds up and slows down with the RPM of the engine. It dosen't do it when you first start it up cold, it only starts doing it after the temp comes up to about 130. The bell housing came off the 74's original transmission that burned up back in june and the torque converter is originally from my '73 4 door and was working fine prior to wrecking the '74. Tomarrow is the deadline that I have to have it ready to drive 100 miles home, grandparents are going out of town Sunday... My grandpa says it sounds to him like the flex plate might be slightly bent, but I don't see how that's possible. I was pretty careful not to bend it when disconnecting the old transmission and bolting up the new one. Any ideas?
I believe Jim is right......loose or missing flexplate bolt......pull that tranny quick before you mess it up.....
Jamie, another possibility is the starter. There is a little half moon shaped keeper that stops the starter drive from going too far. It's a fairly common problem for the keeper to come off and if that happens the starter drive gear can slide in and out touching the flywheel as the engine is running. I use to work at an electrical shop years ago and saw this problem quite often. It may not be your problem but is very easy to check. Simply take the starter off and look in the end of the nose cone and check for the keeper. If it's missing you'll notice the shaft will move out of the end of the nose by holding the starter with the nose facing downwards.
Well I'll tell ya right now in jamies rush to get the car going there is 1 bolt missing holding the flexplate to the torque convertor.
Yep, I just checked and one of the 4 bolts that holds the torque converter to the flex plate is missing. Opps... Now to figgure out what I did with it.
how good are the flex plates ring gear welds? mine started making that noise on my bronco, ended up the welds were weakening. was this the one on the other car when it was hit?
When my car had a 200-6 in it, It started making a funny noise from the bellhousing. Turned out to be a cracked flexplate. Hard to see with the tranny in the car but you may want to remove the inspection plate and turn the engine by hand and look at the flexplate carefully. Especially just outside the bolt circle.
this is what i would do... \ get the car up off the ground,... jack stands.. drive up ramps.. anything.. take a small peice of metal brake line or something similar and put a piece of rubber fuel tubing over it... use it like a stethescope.. start the car and get under near it and see if you hear the noice through the tubing.. this will allow you to pinpoint the noise..... if it doesnt make the sound when parked, then the noise is in the drivetrain... do you hear it while driving or parked? good luck with it
Yea, the engine, flex plate, torque converter and starter were all in the '74 at the time of the wreck. I drove the '74 three times after the wreck, put about 6 miles on it driving around my grandpa's fields and some old gravel back roads. Car drove pretty good considering the damage. Up here you can drive pretty much anything with wheels and an engine and no one cares... There was no noise during any of the 6 miles I drove it after the wreck. Nothing looked out of the ordinary when I bolted the new transmission to the motor. It dosen't matter if the car is sitting still in park or driving down the road, it always makes the noise. I didn't have time to pull the starter today, but I think it's the problem. Right after the wreck I tried to start the car to move it out of the road and the starter was jammed or something. Car just turned over real slow. After I had it towed back to my house it started right up. The only real out of the ordinary thing was the first time I started it after the wreck it smoked like crazy for about 3 minutes. Ohh and the engine is a 250, which has an entirely diffrent bell housing, flex plate and torqe converter then a 200. The '72 originally had a 200 according to the VIN, but it had no engine or transmission when I bought it.
Make sure the convertor drain plug is in one of the two or three holes in the flexplate. The first time I mated an engine to a transmission I didn't line the drain plug up with one of the holes. This put the flexplate in a bind when it was tightened against the convertor and it made some strange noises usually under hard acceleration. Also I have seen one of the frontpump/bellhousing bolts back out and get against the convertor.
