How to dial in bellhousing/scattershield - Lot of pics

[scherp69]

So this is one step that I found really frustrating. One reason is there wasn't a whole lot of info or pics on how to do it. I took a ton of pics and thought I would create a thread to show how I did it. If anyone finds anything wrong, or wants to add to this...please feel free. Mods...if this is all BS...please just delete the thread or if you think it will help many..please make it a sticky.

What you are doing with this step is centering the scattershield with the center of the crank shaft. If you miss this step, you may wear out the pilot bearing and have clutch engagement issues.

From what I have read, this step needs to be done if you are using a stock GM bellhousing or a Lakewood scattershield (which is what I have). There are some differences with McLeod scattershields so make sure you find out what else has to be done.

There are other ways to do this, this is only an idea of the way I did mine. Here's what you will need to do it this way
- a dry erase marker
- a dial indicator
- a magnetic base to mount the dial indicator
- ratchet and sockets

Make sure the magnetic base is an adjustable one. Even better if you get a fine tuning one.

Dial indicator and magnetic base. You'll notice and On and Off switch. This is to turn the magnet on and off. Comes in handy when trying to put the magnetic base through the scattershield.





The dial indicator that I have goes from 0 - 100. What I did to make things easier was to mark one side of my dial indicator as positive and the other as negative. I didn't clue in until later how much easier this would make things. With the + and -, now if the dial goes to the right, you know you have a + number and if it goes to the left, you have a - number. That will make a huge difference knowing that. Here's what I mean. I used the dry erase marker so I can wipe it off later.



If you are using a scattershield, you need to mount the motor plate. Also attach the flywheel



You will notice there is one bolt missing from the flywheel. This is where you are going to mount the magnetic base. Here is a pic of how it mounts without the scatter shield on.



The one thing that I found while doing this was that my magnetic base would not fit completely between the flywheel bolts and was sitting on a bit of an angle. Also, it was hitting the lip of the crankshaft where it came though the flywheel. These were giving me false readings. The easy fix I found was to grind down the parts of the magnetic base that were hitting.



Now that the magnetic base in sitting properly, put the scattershield on and mount the magnetic base the same way it was before



Here's a couple of pics of how it is sitting against the flywheel





The important part here is make sure that the dial indicator can make a full 360 degree turn without hitting any part of the scatter shield. There was a weld on the inside face of mine that it was hitting, so I had to adjust it accordingly. You also want to make sure the dial indicator is as flat as possible.

This is how NOT to do it. This will give you false readings.



This is how you want it to sit. This part may take a bit of time and playing around as you will need to make several adjustments with the magnetic base to get it right.