how hard to change flexplate 500 miles from home

mopar or no car

mopar or no car

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Apr 9, 2008
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From my diagnosing and couple conversations with performance shops, I believe I have either cracked my flexplate or its coming loose. I'm working 500 miles from home in a man camp south of Williston, ND. How fixable is this in the dirt parking lot? can I just undo drive lines and mounting bolts and slide everything back to get access to swap flexplates? I'll be putting a billet one back in. It's an early '04, 2500, cc, sb, 4x4. I am all to familiar with taking nv4500's out on my two previous trucks, but this is my first auto. Can I just go to Tractor Supply and get a floor jack and get lucky scooting or.......?
 
i just pulled and installed the tranny on my g56 yesterday. if you are in a dirt parking lot, i would get a sheet of plywood to work off of. a smooth rolling surface is nice. I jacked the back of my truck up and used a floor jack to push my engine down trying to keep the engine to trans mounting surfaces square to the ground. then with a trans jack it wasn't very hard to slide everything straight back and down.

you CAN do it yourself, but its so much nicer to have a set of eyes and hands to help out.
 
Going to be a pain in the rear but u can do it. It is def easier saying I'll just slide it back a little!!


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What they said. I just did a rear main seal in my 2wd 1st Gen. Took around 10 hours for me and add another 5 for another guy who helped. 30mins for supper is part of that time. If you don't have to drop the trans, you'll be a couple hours ahead.
 
I might try to find a tranny jack incase I cant get enough wiggle room. Any tricks I should know or extra items to have on hand since I won't be just down the street from a parts store?
 
ratchet straps to hold that tranny TIGHT to the tjack. I left my rear drive shaft on the tcase and it was a nice handle for maneuvering it around as needed. i zip tied my front shaft up and out of the way.
 
Super Duty transmissions are super easy to pull but it will suck on the ground. I bet you could find a local shop to do it for under $400

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you should be able to kill it with a buddy, and you know what you are doing in about 4 hours...
the part that sucks is the fluid draining out of the lines once you connect them..
while its out put a lower stall converter in it and front seal.. you cant go wrong with that!
 
Remember to strap down for safety, leaving tcase on tends to make it roll


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Fab up a piece of flat plate and pipe/tube stem for floor jack to better support tranny pan. A lot cheaper than tranny jack. Ad bolts on perimeter or holes for straps if you like.
 
Thanks. Now I'll see how long it takes a flexplate to find its way to me.

I wish I had my welder with me to fab with, but I'm equipped with sockets and wrenches.

Wish it was was in my budget for a converter, but that's about another month from happening. AAAAAAA
 
get a set of wiggly sockets, or a wiggly extension. live savers for top trans bolts.
 
Put ratchet straps under trans around frame for safety ,and you can leave it down on those while you change flex plate
 
4x4 is PITA in a good situation! Tranny jack is needed no matter what! Is there a Harbor freight near you? They have a cheap jack that works well! No air no jack NO WAY! Dirt lot HA HA HA Find a walmart parking lot!
 
for the little extra time I would take the tcase off. Its only a couple extra bolts. And I wouldn't buy a billet flex plate call up DPC and he will hook you up with a equal plate for less.
 
Yes I would drop the tcase. I had my flex late bolts come loose. Took me about 4 hours. I have a brand new ats billet flexlate for sale as well. :)
 
The closest Harbor Freight is almost 300 miles away:(

Thanks for the tip to call DPC. I will check him out.

You guys are seriously voting for taking the tcase out separately? I'm hoping to do this project that I haven't done before in a dirt lot while I'm on call to go to work, and hopefully before I get called up on another crew so my work area doesn't turn into a flood or dust storm. There is some concrete nearby, but its right infront of a restaurant.

I'm hoping to unbolt everything and slide everything back on the crossmember to r&r a flexplate. Hoping this is the simplest method in my situation, but am I wrong?
 
mopar or no car said:
The closest Harbor Freight is almost 300 miles away:(

Thanks for the tip to call DPC. I will check him out.

You guys are seriously voting for taking the tcase out separately? I'm hoping to do this project that I haven't done before in a dirt lot while I'm on call to go to work, and hopefully before I get called up on another crew so my work area doesn't turn into a flood or dust storm. There is some concrete nearby, but its right infront of a restaurant.

I'm hoping to unbolt everything and slide everything back on the crossmember to r&r a flexplate. Hoping this is the simplest method in my situation, but am I wrong?
Click to expand...

The problem with leaving the Tcase on, especially without a transmission jack, is that it makes the transmission want to tip to the side, and makes lining the transmission up very cumbersome. If you had a good trans jack, with the transmission bolted on tightly, you could use the transmission jack to tweak it around and get it aligned.

Harbor freight will deliver, and I was thinking when I did mine, I just slid the transmission back to the crossmember, but I did have the tranfercase off.
I had flexible transmission cooler lines, so I didn't even have to disconnect those.
 
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