So I was driving down the highway in the '01 listed in my sig doing about 75 unloaded the TC was locked and it felt like I went in to neutral and got a bad vibration, so I went for the shoulder and shut the truck off, upon trying to restart it sounded like the teeth were gone off the starter, I assumed it was the flexplate which was stock and pulled the cover off to find chuncks of metal in there.

I am certain the flexplate gone, and hopefully the TC is still okay since it's a new billet one that's only about a year old and there was no fluid leaking but who knows what all is bad until the tranny's pulled.

Questions are, does anybody make cheaper flexplates? I searched and found a lot of talk of laminated ones for $150-200 that would hold the hp I have but it doesn't look like you can find them any more and all there is are billet ones for $400 plus. The truck is just a DD and not a race truck and there aren't any plans for much more power and I'd like to save money if I can.

Links would be nice if you have a place since google doesn't come up with much as far as where to get them.

I see there are spacers sold for the bellhousing for aftermarket flexplates too, is this a must? I can't find much searching on here for people needing them, so if you have an after market flexplate let me know which one you got and if it required a spacer.

 

when mine broke the tc was not damaged, pay attention to the snout part of the tc as it will get churned up when the plate breaks, and it could damage the tc so it cannot be re-used. my advice is you just get a billet flex so your not doing it again later...money well spent

 

I just purchased one of these, SFI approved, for $139.

http://paceperformance.com/i-5148443...t-balance.html

Then only thing that you have to be aware of on install is that you have about 1/8 gap between the tc and the flexplate, otherwise you will hurt the pump in the transmission.

If there is not enought clearence you have to put a shim between the trans case and the back of the block. Either you can make your own or you can purchase one throught PACT, part# #BHS

From what I have found is that most of the time the spacer is NOT needed unless you have an aftermarket torque converter that is a bit thicker than the stock one resulting in it taking up just a bit more room.

 

That looks like the way I will probably go, thanks for the link. Is that flexplate much thicker than the stocker? If so it might be safe for me just to get the spacer so I have it and can get the truck back together quicker.

 

I believe that it is twice as thick as the stock one.

 

After some more research I found the one at pace performance was only rated to 800-900 ftlbs so I went with this one http://sourceautomotive.biz/heavydut...flexplate.aspx

After talking to the guy he said they run one on thier race truck that's over 1000hp @ 25psi boosted launches. Not to mention the price isn't much more than the pace one and a spacer which I was guaranteed not to need with the source automotive one since it's the same thickness as the stocker.

toms73novass, thanks for letting me know on the thickness.

 

The laminated one from Source is what I have. I did the tranny and TC and thought I should do the flex plate while I was in there. At the time, I couldn't get a billet one, so went with this. Has been working fine for me. And I am even happier now that I know they use one on their race rig!