liteweight flywheel ring gear diameter difference

[mrcrsr]

A customer of mine picked up an aluminum flywheel, supposedly from a 2.4. Anyway put it in the engine and it seems like the ring gear diameter is too small, it measures almost 1/4 " less in diameter. His starter pinion does mesh up to it, but it is to far away. I have a 9 tooth pinion and I tried to see if it would mesh to it and it doesn't, the standard 8 tooth pinion meshes with it perfectly. What is this flywheel I have here?

[outasite]

Picture,and tooth count?

[baja200merk]

Im not sure what your the problem is but I learned the hard way there is about 39 different Bendix for v6 mercs. I can get pics of them if it helps.

Dont get me started on drive shaft splines.

[tlwjkw]

seems like I 'member a first gen 175 hi po that had small shaft starter and flywheel... I do know one would not work without tha other......

[outasite]

There were some steel flex flywheels with a different tooth count and pitch angle.Dont know if this is possable ,but maybe someone took one of those ring gears and machined it to fit a hippo aluminum flywheel body?

[mrcrsr]

flywheel has 92 teeth, stamped a6 in the aluminum hub above the ring gear, but, the 25 deg mark is below the ring gear`stamped in the aluminum. same gear pitch as the normal ring gear for the 8 tooth pinion on the starter. as far as i knew, there were only 2 variations, one took the 8 tooth pinion, which is the ring gear style used on the production stuff, and they made a 9 tooth pinion, used on some hi perf stuff and some 2.4's, but the 9 tooth pinion is actually smaller in diameter(i have one here). never seen a smaller diameter ring gear though.

[wired247]

Sure its not a left hand rotation flywheel?

[outasite]

Have five in my shop,all have 94 teeth and measure .350 from the aluminium body to the outside of the ring gear tooth.Also marked A5

[mrcrsr]

That's what's weird about the tooth count is it possible it came off and inline 6

[Raceman]

The first V6 Mercs in '76 & '77 had a different starter. The first T3 Merc race engines had an aluminum flywheel that matched these earlier starters which had a larger starter bendix and one more tooth if I remember. The only inline 6's ever made with an aluminum flywheel were the T2 and T2X and both of these would have had the geared pulley underneath for the tooth belt, so it's DEFINITELY NOT from an inline 6. I could be wrong, but I only know of 3 ring gears for the V6 alum. wheels. The early T3 style, the replacement one that matched up with the perma mag starter beginning in ABOUT '78 and then the reverse rotation one used on the S3000 which has a smaller ring with a few less teeth also.

[wired247]

Check the timing marks and make sure theyre not on the "wrong" side of zero. The 92 tooth count flywheel is a LH unit and use a 10 tooth count reverse rotating starter gear.

[outasite]

Ok i'm getting close to what you have.Look at the bottom side of your ring gear,and see if there are a bunch of lighting drill holes that were used to balance the flywheel.Also look for marks where that ring gear may have been welded to something.I have a flywheel here with 92 teeth,but its from an inline with a keyed hub.I think someone has drilled and fitted an inline flywheel ring gear to your aluminum body----After rereading your post #6 as to markings "above and below the ring gear" that does not sound like a V6 flywheel.

[mrcrsr]

It does have litening holes in the ring gear. I already gave the flywheel back but it would be good to know what it is

[outasite]

Between mother Merc, and all of us inventors.There's a LOT of Hienz 57 stuff around!

[Raceman]

Check the timing marks and make sure theyre not on the "wrong" side of zero. The 92 tooth count flywheel is a LH unit and use a 10 tooth count reverse rotating starter gear.

I'm not sure that's completely true. I don't think the earliest flywheels had timing marks placed that would make that an easy distinction without setting up on an engine with a dial indicator. If I recall, mine only had a small slash, almost like a chisel mark and we had to go from there with a fabricated pointer and dial indicator. I'm also not sure that the earliest 2 liter alum, like used on T3 and first Formula 2.4's didn't have the same number of teeth as the S3000 type leftie.