Cooters Goat

[Shaun Quill]

Next question is what flexplate manufacturer?

[Rich Biebel]

Made in China probable......could be just about any brand other than a few....

It's happened before in various cars.

Very fortunate no one was injured. That could have been really bad...

[Casey Miles]

Does anyone know if the car that had the part come apart was inspected by NHRA for SFI Certification? At this time that we race under SFI that anything like this incident would happen.

Casey Miles
248H Stock

[Shaun Quill]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Made in China probable......could be just about any brand other than a few....

It's happened before in various cars.

Very fortunate no one was injured. That could have been really bad...

Big time!!!

[Pistol Pete]

I’m happy nobody was injured.
That could’ve been very bad.

[Rich Biebel]

Originally Posted by Casey Miles

Does anyone know if the car that had the part come apart was inspected by NHRA for SFI Certification? At this time that we race under SFI that anything like this incident would happen.

Casey Miles
248H Stock

Do you really think NHRA is going to have a Tech person trying to inspect SFI stickers on flexplates on Stockers or any other car for that matter ?

Even if they did it's a moot point because the Made in China stuff gets stickered just like all the rest....

You can buy a GM SFI stickered flexplate from many sources for as little as $50 for GM engines.....I could just about guarantee you those wheels are made in China or offshore somewhere...

I'm sick of seeing it and dealing with the consequences.....

[Jim Caughlin]

Somewhere out there on UTube is a video of Dan Cyr's A/SA Camaro exploding the transmission in the water box at the Mission divisional a few years ago. It went through the floor and the windshield and absolutely disintegrated the entire trans. As an interesting sidenote, in what was an epic thrash, everyone chipped in and he didn't miss the race. The floor got reconstructed out a chunk of one of the 55 gallon trash barrels, a local glass shop drove out to the track and replaced the windshield and a bunch of under dash wiring got spliced back together. Not perfect but a pretty impressive team effort on a very short timeline.

[Greenlight]

Originally Posted by Danny Rucker

I was in the barn when they pulled the trans.
Crankshaft was not broken. What remained of the flexplate was still bolted with all bolts to the crank. Approximately 2/3 of the flexplate was still there.
Parts of flexplate and ring gear were gone. The Trans case bell and ears were broken off.

I'm curious if all the transmission bellhousing bolts were tight?????

If bolts were loose, and transmission/converter were slightly cocked, the flexplate would be the first thing to go as it continuously bent back and forth with each rotation.

If so, the broken surface of the flexplate would leave clues if the failure was a cyclical bending failure.

[HR9121]

Originally Posted by Greenlight

I'm curious if all the transmission bellhousing bolts were tight?????

If bolts were loose, and transmission/converter were slightly cocked, the flexplate would be the first thing to go as it continuously bent back and forth with each rotation.

If so, the broken surface of the flexplate would leave clues if the failure was a cyclical bending failure.

Agreed. The ears of the bellhousing being broken off indicate to me there was something else going on there other than the flex plate coming apart.

[Regan Wilson]

We helped Bill get the car in the building and my friend Ken helped him pull the transmission. The broken ring gear busted the transmission case. The flexplate looked like a TCI to me. When all was said and done Wesley with NHRA told Bill he had done nothing wrong. All Wesley said was it was a parts failure so there was no infraction on Bill's part. I can access pictures if y'all want. I advised Bill to invest in a better plate.