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Question about flywheel counterweight... At first I though the OE part here needed to be removed, but upon closer inspection it appears to be an oil seal -- so leave it alone?
How does the auto counterweight installation work? I see the extra weight in the back of the OE flywheel, and the location of the keys on the flywheel/counterweight/eccentric shaft -- do you just bolt the counterweight to the back of the new flywheel and then line the keys up upon re-installation? Assuming around 25ft-lbs with some thread locker for the counterweight is about right...
Yes, that’s your main seal in the first picture. You can put the bolts back in to the seal seat/ring and leave it alone. But fwiw the (MAZDA only) seal is cheap and it’s easy to put a new one in (you do NOT have to pull that seat/ring) while the FW is off.
You can take another 5 minutes and re-torque the tension bolts at the same time in the order set out in the FSM.
You removed the bolts for the rear stationary gear in the picture, I'm glad you didn't go further and try and remove that. It's VERY hard to remove that gear in the car, the rotor can shift and go out of time if you don't have things lined up just right and would require a whole engine teardown to fix. Put those bolts back in pronto!
The stock flywheel has a counterweight built in. Automatic cars just have a flex plate so that's why it has the smaller and simpler rear counterweight.
It's up to you if you want to mess with replacing that orange rear seal. Big thing is to get the proper Mazda seal, there are some aftermarket ones that are thinner and don't fit as well, they almost immediately leak oil and you have to pull the trans back out to fix it.
I'd bolt the counterweight to the engine, bolt the new flywheel to the counterweight, and away you go. Use thread locker where specified in the shop manual and use a torque wrench. The big nut just needs to be tightened as much as possible, it's impractical to try and actually torque it to 350 ft-lbs or whatever, just get it as tight as you can and you'll be fine.
You removed the bolts for the rear stationary gear in the picture, I'm glad you didn't go further and try and remove that. It's VERY hard to remove that gear in the car, the rotor can shift and go out of time if you don't have things lined up just right and would require a whole engine teardown to fix. Put those bolts back in pronto!
The stock flywheel has a counterweight built in. Automatic cars just have a flex plate so that's why it has the smaller and simpler rear counterweight.
It's up to you if you want to mess with replacing that orange rear seal. Big thing is to get the proper Mazda seal, there are some aftermarket ones that are thinner and don't fit as well, they almost immediately leak oil and you have to pull the trans back out to fix it.
I'd bolt the counterweight to the engine, bolt the new flywheel to the counterweight, and away you go. Use thread locker where specified in the shop manual and use a torque wrench. The big nut just needs to be tightened as much as possible, it's impractical to try and actually torque it to 350 ft-lbs or whatever, just get it as tight as you can and you'll be fine.
Dale
That’s what I did. I tightened the counterweight to 40ftlbs based on the 32-44 range for AT “drive plate” in the manual. I actually borrowed a friends big-*** torque wrench and tightened the flywheel nut to 310 — its more than you think! I was worried I was over tightening it when the wrench wasn’t clicking.
