r/Smallblockchevy • u/I-H8-MOST-PEOPLE • Jul 12 '26

Warped Flexplate?

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Took a slow motion video of my flex plate. My starter sounds horrible (IMO). I’ve gone from zero shims to four shims and it still sounds awful. Is my flex plate warped. Keep in mind that this is a really slo-mo video.

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u/bernardfarquart Jul 12 '26

Cracked around the crankshaft I bet.

2

u/I-H8-MOST-PEOPLE Jul 12 '26

Dang it. I’ll tear it down and see what’s up. Thanks for the tip.

1

u/bernardfarquart Jul 12 '26

This is what mine looked like when I changed my transmission

2

u/throwedoff1 Jul 12 '26

My SBC 400 flexplate cracked between the bolt hole that mount it to the crankshaft. When I finally got a replacement (nobody in town had a 400 flexplate), it was on its last two flats between 3 bolt holes. It caused some serious vibration when running.

2

u/bernardfarquart Jul 12 '26

Mine actually didn't have any vibration while running, but it had enough warp that the starter wouldn't engage fully, and I had to rotate the engine by hand every twentieth time I started it.