What were they thinking

[Caveman]

I just replaced my flexplate. I can't believe this piece of junk they call a flexplate. The picture below are too 2 dimensional to see the angle at which some of the pieces on the larger plate are bent.



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[jwilliams3]

Well at least it did its job of flexing.....

 

[Smokin Joes 2500]

P. S. I bet your making more power than stock too???? I think all too often guys expect these trucks to be invinsable... I'm not saying you do, just an observation. The only thing htat CLOSE to invinsable in our trucks is the motor. I guess its good the flexplate broke and not the crank or the input shaft... .

 

[DPKetchum]

1st generations did that also. I had one break like that towing 10k at 2am on I40 out of Knoxville. What a mess.

 

[jelag]

As you replace these flex plates please take the time to look at the dowl pins that align the transmission to the engine and look for fresh wear... ... as if the transmission wasn't sitting tight to the engine or the transmission was loose... .



These kind of fractures in the metal as seen from the clutch side of the world tends to have us look for a miss alignment problem..... after all some disc's fail the same way... the pressure plate clamps them up out of alignment and every time the engine goes around. . it wears the disc... . I'm also guessing that a torque converter out of balance might cause the same failure.....



And like mentioned above... HP and torque improvements alone can cause this... .

 

[Caveman]

Yes, a little extra HP and TQ made this happen. It was inevitable given the quality and durability of the part. I am truck number four or five that I know of where this has happened. I saw one from an 05 dually with just a Hot Juice. DC has changed the quality onthis part. I would expect something more heavy duty in our trucks.

 

[MSalvatore]

Is a weak flexplate also a problem with 2nd gen?

 

[BIG BOB]

I am as we type having a DTT Billet Flexplate installed. I blew the rear freeze plug out of the back of the block, had to pull the transmission to fix the freeze plug so I figured there was no better time than now to replace the flexplate.

 

[jwilliams3]

Salvatore,

Its the same flexplate.

Most never fail until you start hot rodding them.

 

[KennethS]

I seen a flex plate brake on a plymouth 318 engine

and It was new. The people just bought the car and drove down the road got about 10 miles from the dealer and the trans went out. The dealer towed the car back to the garage and they put a new flex plate and tourque converter In as the factory said to. Guess what as the people left the garage again and got down the road about 20 miles this time BANG again same thing. We had to give the people a new car and this time I put a dial Indecater on the crank and the flang where you bolt to was off center and that was the problem. We lost 1500 dollars on that because we had to sell the car as used because the paper work was sent In. Chrysler would not help us on the loss. I have found If you blow the flex plate something Is off center to cause It and It don't take much.