Aligning Lakewood Bell 427 FE
 

Hello All,

I would like to know what exactly is needed to be done to a lakewood bellhousing. I just got off the phone with Lakewood and they are tell me that I do not have to algin the bell housing.

Does anyone have a step by step proceedure for me to check to see if I need to align this bell housing.

I already mounted the bell housing and trans (toploader) and it slipped in.

Please help

Although you MAY get lucky, in my experiances, with both Lakewood scattershields, in both FE & SB Fords, and the current McLeod in my 85 302 Mustang "Stocker", each housing needed to be "dialed in". 25 years ago, I just bolted my new Lakewood scattershield onto the 428J in my 70 Mach 1, & stuck the Toploader back in, and never noticed any problems, every time since, when checking for run-out, every scattershield I`ve installed required the use of the eccentric dowel pins. The procedure basically consists of using a small dial indicator, & a magnetic base, attatched to the crank flange, or flywheel. You need to have the tip of the dial indicator against the transmission register hole, & slowly rotate the crank for 1 revolution, while watching the dial indicator. Ideally, you want ZERO run out, but if you are within .005", you should be OK. Otherwise, you will need the Lakewood off set dowel pins, which are available in 3 different offsets. after you get the housing within spec, I always drill a small hole in the block, & into the dowel pin itself, & then tap the block, & install asmall Allen head set screw to ensure the the dowels stay in position. Have fun!

I am in the process of installing my Lakewood now. I did a fair amount of research before ordering the bellhousing and 90% of the responses I got said to "dial-in" the housing. Here is a link with the procedure:

http://www.cobragarage.com/lakewood_scattershield.htm

Sounds like a PITA, but better safe than sorry. If you have slip than you are not aligned and the clutch is offset from the fly wheel because the bell is pushing it off center a little.

:D

--Mike

Mine slipped right on, but they had been previously mated. Got a dremmel?

Unfortunately, the bell housing MUST be dialed in or you will experience a terrible problem with transmission shifting and you will eventually loose the front bearing on the input shaft of the tranny.

I just dialed my own bell housing in (Lakewood) and it was out 0.018" on the dial indicator. I was only able to get the bell housing within 0.005"...because the bell housing hole was 0.005" out of ROUND!

We actually dial them in a little differently. We drill the pin holes out to 3/4 of an inch and then dial the bell housing in. When it is right, we lathe a tight fitting bushing and slide it over the engine block pins and then weld the bushing to the bell housing.

David :):):)

Thanks, for the reply.

I have a dial indicator but I need the shaft that it mounts to. Can you please tell me what is the name of the shaft so I can order one.

Thank you,

Hey Michael. you said your bell housing slipped right on? They ALL bolt up to the block. The allignment process is alligning the center of the bell housing with the center of your crank. You want to have a perfect straight line from the front of your crank to the rear of your transmission. This is either done by offset dowel pins or by drilling out the bell housing mounting holes and welding a spacer (kinda like a bung) over the old hole to make a new hole that will allign the bell housing. I would venture to say that NO aftermarket bellhousing is correct.
Tim

Priobe,

Don't knock yourself out finding the "right" mount for your dial indicator. I used a dial indicator with a magnetic mount base. I fiddled around with it for an hour before I finally concluded that there was no way I could get it to mount right using the magnetic base. I then made a simple bracket out of scrap steel. It was basically just L shaped. I mounted it under one of the flywheel bolts and then secured the dial indicator to the other end using a small bolt. Just make sure the bracket you make is rigid so it doesn't move as you do the dial in procedure.

Chris

I perfer the offset dowels
 

Although Lakewood sells a kit that allows you to drill the dowel holes oversize, then dial in the housing, & finish it off by welding the thick "buttons" in place, there is a problem with this method. Since I race 2 4 speed cars in NHRA, my scattershields are required to have current SFI certifaction. This is the chrome label on the scattershield, with the date of manufacture punched out, similar to when you buy a new battery. The NHRA rules require the scattershield to be no more than 5 years old, based on this date label. For example, if you buy a new scattershield now, but the date is already 2 years old, out of the box, (a fairly common occurance), you can only use it for 3 years. If this same brand new scattershield sits in the box for 5 years while you are building your car (again, fairly common), you "new" scattershield is now not legal. Now, you can send the scattershield back to the manufacturer for re- certifaction, however, ANY modifacation can deem your scattershield unfit for re-certifacation! If you drill an extra hole in it, weld a tab to it, trim a small bit of the flange to clear headers etc, they will not re-certify it! I asked a Lakewood rep at a race last year if Lakewoods OWN weld on dowel aligning kit would also fall into this no modifactaion clause, and was told, yes, it would. For a street only car, or one than won`t run quicker than 11.50 at the strip, this may not be a big deal, but I like being able to have my scattershield re-certified, rather than buying a new one every few years, as every sacttershield I`ve looked at seems to be at least 8 months "gone", right in the box.

chris,

Correct me if I am wrong but if the steel or rod is not exactly in the center would that throw of the reading. I am going crazy trying to get this thing right. Everything already mounted up and now I have to disassemble it.

Any thoughts on to do this easier

Thanks

No, the mounting bracket does not need to be exactly in the center. You just need to mount it up so the tip of the dial indicator contacts the scatter shield lip throughout 360 degrees of rotation. It won't matter if your dial indicator is centered or if it's off center by as much as an inch or 2 as long as it touches the lip all the way around. It's hard to explain but as long as the dial indicator fits within that scattershield opening, it works.

Chris

I would think you need to at least check for proper alignment, if too far out, then you ruin your tranny input.

Lakewood sells the dowel alignment kit, but you need to pull the old dowels out, as they are too short to use with the lakewood bushing kit, which welds to the surface of the bellhousing.

What I did, actually was the same as the Kirkham's, was I kept the original engine dowels. Instead of machining a bushing, I got plumbing 3/8 pipe, which has about a 0.493" ID, and about a 0.700" OD. I reamed the pipe to .500" with a drill, the same diameter as the alignment dowel. I drilled out the bell housing to about 0.750" (actually I think I used 23/32") , as said above. I cut off a piece of the reamed pipe, and slid it over the dowel, through the enlarged alignment hole in the bellhousing. With the block plate installed, I moved the bellhousing until I got proper aliognment, but I noticed that I think you really need to place ALL bellhousing bolts, and torque to proper tightness, and then check for final alignment before welding the pipe pieces in place to the bellhousing.

Wow,

This semms to be a mission. I do not have access to a welder nor do I know how to weld.

Would the dowel pins from Lake work without welding?

Priobe,

I had similar concerns to yours but I dialed mine in and it was only off by 0.002. Don't worry too much until you figure out whether or not you have a problem. Scatter shields that are out of alignment seem to be caused mostly by engines that have been align honed (because align honing the crank moves the centerline of the crank).

Chris

Chris,

Thank you for that update which makes perfect sense. Luckly I did not have mine line bored. I will however remove the tranny and verify the results.

The only thing that might be different from being standard is that I am using a Nascar Crank (with the $ symbol) and rods. Do you know if this will make a difference.

Thanks

Thanks again

The $ symbol on the crank signifies a steel crank, not the Nascar one, which was also steel but with wider rod journals requiring special wider rods. Really too heavy a unit for what most of us are using our engines for. The $ steel crank won't make any difference, nor would a true Nascar crank.

Carnut 427,

Thank you for the information with the symbol $ on the crank. The crank does have the wider journal with the Lehmans rods. I do understand that I will take a performance hit for the weight but If I am producing 550 hp with a steel crank or a Billet aluminum the horsepower is still the same.

I have seen some people paying top dollar for these items maybe because it is rare or for bragging rights.

Would you know why people have an iterest in this?

I think you hit the nail on the head. There can't be many of these around.

A lighter rotating assembly will accelerate faster in any type of racing. You may be able to offset the extra weight of this crank/rod combo by running a lightweight flywheel.

That is exactly what I have, with a lighter crank pully.

Carnut,

This is off the subject but would you happen to have a picture of your steering column. I am looking for an original style column without turn signal switches or ignition on the column.