Advice on Flywheel Serviceability

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thspeller

Active Member
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118
Location
London
Hello All. A conundrum for you. I have a pitted flywheel on my series 3 (photo attached - I don't know how bad this is as I haven't inspected many). The issue I have is that I have a rare combination of Series 3 with 5MB engine 2.25 (branded 2.3 / 11H) from early ninety. The flywheel for this particular model is no longer available (different from normal 5mb flywheel) so to replace it, I would also need to replace starter and housing - around £6-700 in all. Alternatively, I could try and get the worst of the pitting our by resurfacing. Can I please get your advice as to how bad this pitting is and whether you think resurfacing could get it to a serviceable condition. I understood that you can shave down to 34.72mm on a 5mb series 2.25 petrol. Welcome thoughts and advice please? Tom
 

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Could you not just buy a flywheel, housing and starter from a 3 mb and fit them as a set? Cheaper than £600.
 
Honestly, whatever setup you try, housing, flywheel and starter come to near £600.

I think the putting was caused by rust. The engine obvious sat for a long period once.

Trying to gauge whether we think this one is salvageable? You can skim up to .74mm
 
Honestly, whatever setup you try, housing, flywheel and starter come to near £600.

I think the putting was caused by rust. The engine obvious sat for a long period once.

Trying to gauge whether we think this one is salvageable? You can skim up to .74mm
I’m sure you can skim a bit more. Unsure by how much but we used to lighten/balance them to Rev quicker.
 
Honestly, whatever setup you try, housing, flywheel and starter come to near £600.

I think the putting was caused by rust. The engine obvious sat for a long period once.

Trying to gauge whether we think this one is salvageable? You can skim up to .74mm

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LAND-ROV...1a929999f8:g:LIgAAOSwHwReU~ll&redirect=mobile
£85
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FITS-Lan...5b55778c17:g:aD0AAOSwYd5cEm9j&redirect=mobile
£99
I have a petrol flywheel you can have for £20
Solenoid for the starter £10
Total, £214
Just an idea
 
Thanks. I appreciate the effort to do the research but there’s a fair amount of questions out there as to whether you can fit a 3MB housing onto a 5MB engine. I think I’ll focus on skimming for now.

Alternatively, would it be possible to get a 5MB series flywheel and add a ring gear from the 5MB ninety? It’s the number of teeth which mean a straight 5mb series flywheel won’t work on my engine. No idea how you work out whether the flywheels are same diameter....?
 
I would happily reuse that, I bet the pitting is not even 10 percent of the total friction plate surface area.

I have refitted rusty ones, cracked ones, severely cracked ones, one with massive tramline grooves caused by the plate rivets, even ones with huge areas of blued/torn up steel, all drove fine afterwards, yes clutch life will be effected but even if it is halfed who cares? it will still be years before you need to go in there again.
 
I would happily reuse that, I bet the pitting is not even 10 percent of the total friction plate surface area.

I have refitted rusty ones, cracked ones, severely cracked ones, one with massive tramline grooves caused by the plate rivets, even ones with huge areas of blued/torn up steel, all drove fine afterwards, yes clutch life will be effected but even if it is halfed who cares? it will still be years before you need to go in there again.
I have to agree with this, I would just reuse as is, it does not look bad enough to be likely to cause any drastic issues with either balancing or clutch bite. It is not a high revving performance engine and I assume you are not using it to hauls 8ton trailers around and doing racing starts where you need a high performance clutch.
 
Hello. So thought it is good etiquette to update on the final outcome for future users of this thread. I consulted 3 expert firms (including turner engineering) who all said i could be ground down to give a decent working surface. Their view was if expensive disc brakes can have grooves and holes in them, why can't a fly wheel have some minor pitting. They reckon they can get the worst off to give a decent finish (albeit won't be perfect). Land Rover manual say you can take off 0.74mm off a petrol flywheel but no firm was worried about taking off more than this. Apparently diesel and 2.3/2.5 Petrol wheels were build heavier so can have more still removed. I understand that removing the clutch plate studs without braking them is the hardest part. I also had my ring gear replaced whilst they were at it. Since I have a rare flywheel it all added up to £330 (mug) but the basic grinding at a specialist was around £90. Hope that helps anyone in future.
 
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