I am in the process of putting a sm465 manual transmission behind a 472. This will go in my 1946 Dodge truck when I get it all worked out. (full build thread with lots of pics I promise) Right now I am having trouble finding a flywheel that will work. I need a flywheel with a 3" center hole and 4.25 bolt circle. (Yes one of the holes does not quite line up but I have a fix for that) I dont care if its internally or externally balanced or what the tooth count is. I would prefer to stick to junkyard parts (read: really broke). Do you gentlemen know of a flywheel that will fit? Thanks for any help Al
I would talk to these guys, if they don't have it, they'll know who does. http://www.cad500parts.com/parts.htm I've seen them in the past, just forget who had them. They were popular with stock car claimer classes, seen them in IMCA stock cars and modifieds as well. Bob
Cad500parts does sell several flywheels for this purpose, it just I cant afford a $380 part right now. Besides I really like making junkyard parts do good things.
Look at some of the Caddy forums, may as well not reinvent the "fly" wheel if you don't have to. Someone with superior machining skills can probably be of help. What are you using for a bellhousing? Bob
Cad 472 and 500 (and the 368 or whatever that small one was) have the std B-O-P bellhousing pattern. So any Buick, Olds or Pontiac bellhousing should work, assuming the trans center hole is the right size.
I have a bop bell that has a 4 11/16 hole and the sm465 has an input snout that it 5 1/8. I will turn the snout down to 5" and bore the bell out to 5" to match. I should have mentioned before I have a pretty well equipped machine shop. I recently picked up a 24" lathe that I have been dying to use to its full capacity. Still it will be much easier to start with a flywheel that is close than to start from scratch.
here are is a pic of a steel flywheel I had made for a 500 caddy I was going to put in my 39 lasalle coupe but some one wanted the car real bad so I sold it but he decided to put a supercharged chevy in it and still has to come by to grab the 500 as well as this steel bellhousing and flywheel. Like I said its steel so it weighs a little more than a cast iron flywheel but it may very well be for sale but the shipping might be a killer. The bellhousing is for a pontiac so the starter is on the wrong side. Seems Ive seen a number of broken bop bellhousings so you may want to find a steel one. I was going to modify this one for passenger side starter clearance.
I had a sneaking suspicion that the aluminum bop bell housing was not very strong. Thanks for the heads up, I guess I will start looking for a steel bell. Is the odd hole in the crank 5* from where it "should" be? Am I reading the notes on your flexplate right?
the pontiac flywheel won't work ,I tried that, the offset on the flywheel is different as well as the bolt pattern,however I did use a pontiac ring gear.The flywheel in the pic is made for a 425 500 caddy and will take the 11" or 12" pressure plate.The flex plate next to the flywheel was used for reference so that the we could make sure the ring gear would end up in the right place so that the starter would engage properly.
Interesting package! The 472-500 are torque monsters in stock form. I still don't know why more aren't used in trucks. You really need to care about the tooth count/diameter. The OD will put the ring gear where the starter is and the tooth count needs to be compatible with the pinion. Yes, you can muck about and modify a starter or make/modify a pinion but it is a huge waste of time when a proper wheel is available. It would be easier to modify the mount to the crank in many cases. As mentioned, the other BOP wheels should be checked. This is easy to confirm by rounding up some flex-plates and using them to compare. .
Will the SM465 front retainer go down to match the bellhousing without breaking thru somewhere? Just hate to see you do a lot of extra work. Other Chevy retainers may bolt up to your transmission too, worth a look. Bob
Bump for the Friday crowd. Anyone have a B-O-P flywheel / flexplate laying around they could measure?
Since I have a couple of 500's this thread piques my interest. ...found this in a Scat listing for the Pontiac: This flex plate fits some 1965 - 1978 350, 389, 400, 421, 428, and 455 V8 Pontiac engines. It is 13.96" in outside diameter, has 166 teeth on the starter ring gear, for 2 3/4" mounting flange Also found this, fits a bunch of Cads including the 500: ATP #Z-124, 166 tooth count, 13.9 OD, UPC 00740993023012 Can anyone confirm the crank bolt pattern? .
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