Can anyone tell me the nominal center-to-center distance between a 168 tooth flexplate and the starter pinion?? I'm building a one-off tranny flange and need this number.....

TIA

Bill

Bill, adding a trany flange will not decrease the distance from flywheel to starter, it increases the distance from the torque convertor to the flywheel distance. You have to be careful not to pull the convertor to far out of the transmission or severe damage to the pump will occur. You may be able to run small spacers between flywheel and convertor to maintain it in trany. The hub on the convertor that rests in the back of the crankshaft is the next problem. I own a sandrail that runs a mid-plate and I had a convertor custom built for it. It has the longer mounts for flywheel bolts as well as a deeper hub for the crankshaft. Whatever you do be sure that convertor is not bottom out in trans either as this will also cause damage. Good luck with your project, Jason.

Jason,

Thanks for the reply. What you've mentioned I already am aware of.

OK, I'll go into what I'm looking to do. I wanted to avoid this, as it'll likeky just create a lot of Internet noise. Anyway..........


I'm building a light front engine buggy, needs to be front engine due to our crawling series rules. However, I want to minimize the front fender and hood height for visibility. Therein lies my ideia to use a VW flat 4 engine mated to a Zuk TH-180 auto tranny.

The crank to torque converter and bell housing adaptations are no big deal, but I'm having a fit trying to find a place for the starter. The original VW configuration has the starter alongside the tranny, but with an auto, the torque converter does not permit this. I thought of an idler gear between the flex plate and starter pinion to push the starter further out, but this idler gear would rotate constantly with the engine, so would require lubrication. And to desengage it would require additional mechanism. Both of these aspects I want to avoid.

I even thought of a belt driven starter on the front, but from internet searches, this seems to be "no man's land" and I already have enough new developments in this project.

So then I thought of increasing the diameter of the flexplate so that the starter could be positioned centered over the engine. I measured roughly the flexplate and starter on my C1500 pickup and have found that they will fit nicely with what I want to do. However, I need to know the exact nominal center-to-center distance so that I can machine the mounting surface for the starter.

Regards,

Bill

Just mesh the ring gear with the bendix and measure it. Chevys use shims to determine the final fitment within 1/16" or so, so you can too.