2001 GTP Cracked Flexplate...again!

[btay801]

Last week my car started to make a knock noise. Well it turned out to be a cracked flexplate, again! I changed the motor at 138K two years ago after it spun a bearing with a motor that had 60K. When I was swapping everything over I found the flexplate was cracked in two places, so I got another one from the junkyard and installed it.

I have read online that 3.8L GM's are known to have problems with flexplates cracking due to misdrilled cranks and housing dowel pins missing.

Is there a special tool to aign the torque converter and flexplate?

The harmonic balancer does look like it has a slight "wobble" when rotating. I have not had the time to pull the serpentine belts yet to check the balancer.

Any ideas guys?

[Tech II]

The only cracked flexplates that I have run into were fairly new vehicles with low mileage....

There is no alignment tool.......basically, the only thing I can think of is if the flexplate is not properly torqued(should use new bolts), or if that tranny is not pulled in evenly to the rear of the block.....

As for the wobble on the harmonic balancer, you might need a new balancer....rubber in between the balancer could be deteriorating....