Flywheel Gone?

JAFO · May 16, 2008

Our company took the cube truck to the dealer for a rattle that sounded like a loose heat shield. They said that they looked into it and the flywheel was missing teeth and had visable cracks in it.

Can't give you a whole lot of info about the truck... it's a gas engine, dual wheel "Ryder" truck type.... Believe the box was made by Bay Bridge (???) if that makes a difference or helps identify it better for you.

Just wondering how common a flywheel coming apart this bad on a truck that has less then 60,000 miles on it and is even at that mostly a longer haul truck. Some of us had wondered if perhaps the starter wasn't quite aligned with the flywheel, service department said that wasn't the problem, but he had no idea what happened. We have a 2000 Express van that has about 262,000 miles with no major problems and a 1999 Astro with nearly 300,000 that had a new engine, tranny and flywheel put in it about a year ago. So a flywheel this soon seems out of character for our experience with Chevy trucks.

Sorry can't be more helpful, I'm in SC and we are hoping the truck is going to make it to Homestead FL... and possibly back... well it is our VP that would be stuck in a dark parkinglot is central FL not one of us peons!

Just curious! thanks for your time.

Wingnut · May 19, 2008

Starter being misaligned could, over time, wear on the teeth...Also, not having the bolts that go into the torque converter not loctited might have them come loose and it will rattle like a mofo and could crack out around the holes in the flywheel.

JAFO · May 20, 2008

Thanks for the input Wingnut. As I said it seems odd that just out of the blue the flywheel would be destroyed. Haven't really noticed any previous noise, besides the aforementioned "heatsheild" sounding rattle. Didn't speak with the service department myself so don't know exactly what they said but I think you're probably close to the cause.

Once again thanks for the input.

Brian

C6Racer · May 20, 2008

Well my older brother used to have a 2001 GMC Sierra C2500HD with the 6.0L engine. The flexplate(equivalent of a flywheel for an auto trans) bolts, for some unexplained reason(maybe a union worker that fell asleep), loosened up after just 15k miles! Good thing it started making a loud clicking noise or else we would have never noticed. This may or may not be related to your issue, JAFO, but that's my 2 cents.

Wingnut · May 20, 2008

Well my older brother used to have a 2001 GMC Sierra C2500HD with the 6.0L engine. The flexplate(equivalent of a flywheel for an auto trans) bolts, for some unexplained reason(maybe a union worker that fell asleep), loosened up after just 15k miles! Good thing it started making a loud clicking noise or else we would have never noticed. This may or may not be related to your issue, JAFO, but that's my 2 cents.

Yeah, when those bolts come lose...It's a helluva racket. Sounds like a thrown rod...Only quieter.