Congratulations on your purchase of the Quick Time RM130 indexing plate.
We designed our index plate to help you properly center and index your Quick Time T56 bell
housing or any other OEM T56 compatible bell housing.
Due to manufacturing errors that can occur during the machining process, line honing,
heat cycling, and other procedures, it's possible that your crankshaft center line and bell
housing might be slightly misaligned.
While most bell housings fall well within the allowable limits, which is typically around
5/1000ths, it's always a good practice to check the alignment when you install new or
a replacement bell housing on any of your engines.
Indexing your bell housing not only helps prevent prematurely transmission pilot and
input shaft bearing failure, it can also promote smoother shifting by eliminating unnecessary
silos on the input shaft.
Misalignment can also premature failure of your clutch disk hub, and best of all, taking
the extra time to index your transmission may just free up some extra horsepower.
When it came time for me to index my bell housing, I ended up with a lot more questions
than answers.
I did a ton of research and watched way too many videos, most of which were incomplete
and left me more confused than when I started or were just plain wrong.
So I hope that you will follow along with me as I show you what I think is the easiest
and best method for indexing your bell housing.
The first step in indexing your engine's bell housing is to thoroughly inspect all the mating
surfaces.
This includes the back of your engine block, both sides of the block plate if you are using
one, the mounting surfaces on both sides of the bell housing, and the front of your transmission.
Be sure to clean all the surfaces with some solvent and a rag, then use a wire brush to
remove any corrosion or rust that may be on your metal.
Look for nicks or damage to any of the mating surfaces and if you find an imperfection,
wrap a straight edge or block with some fine sandpaper and carefully sand it down.
Little imperfections like this one may not seem like much at first, but consider how
much it can actually change your measurements, a couple of thousandths here can translate
into a couple of hundredths here.
Take your time and do it right the first time.
It may seem a little excessive, but running a block with sandpaper over all the surfaces
can actually help pinpoint any imperfections that you missed with the naked eye.
Some engines may have threaded plugs and set screws or even a frost plug that can protrude
past the mounting flange and interfere with the installation of your block plate or bell
housing.
I see this on Mopar engines especially, just run a straight edge over the back of the engine
block and check for any issues before you mount anything.
Once you are satisfied that all the surfaces are clean and free of damage, we can mount
the flywheel to the engine crankshaft.
If your vehicle setup utilizes a block plate like this one does, you'll need to install
it first before you mount your flywheel.
Secure the flywheel to the crankshaft with the appropriate bolts and torque them to the
manufacturer's specs.
We can now position our bell housing on the engine block and use the supplied bolts to
secure it.
Torque them to the manufacturer's specs which is usually around 35 to 45 foot-pounds.
The actual torque spec is not as critical as the fact that you are using the required
bolts and torquing them equally.
I'll be using this magnetic base to secure our dial indicator to the flywheel but you
can also a bracket mounted one of the crankshaft bolts if you need to.
Position the base on the crank flange or the flywheel surface and make sure there isn't
any excess movement or rocking.
We can now install our RM130 index plate.
Slide the dowel pins already on your RM130 index plate into the dowel pin holes found
on the bell housing.
In some cases, it can be difficult to push the alignment pins into the bell housing holes.
I actually had this happen to me so I used a 3/8ths reem to remove any excess powder
coating from the hole.
Be careful when doing this though as you do not want to remove too much material and it
still should be a snug fit.
Make sure to take note of the markings top and back that are stamped on the index plate.
The correct orientation of these markings should be with the top of the plate in the
same relationship as the top of your engine and the back should be facing away from your
engine and bell housing.
In some cases, there may only be three mounting holes available since some bell housings have
a large clutch fork cut out, it's perfectly ok to mount the index plate with only three
bolts just like I did here.
Using the bolts that are provided, secure the RM130 index plate to the bell housing
and evenly torque them to 25 foot-pounds.
We now have a precision hole that we can index and center our bell housing with the crankshaft.
Another good practice is checking the bell housing parallel.
We can do this real quick with a dial indicator and it will tell us how close to parallel
that the back of our engine block is to the back of our bell housing.
Tolerance varies but look for something within 5/1000ths of an inch.
If yours is not within spec, double check for any debris or imperfections between any
of the mating surfaces.
Now we are ready to index the bell housing.
Adjust the plunger of your dial indicator so that it makes contact with the inside bore
of the hole found on the Quick Time indexing plate.
The ball of your indicator should be centered on the thickness of the plate.
For the best reading, try to get the indicator as parallel as possible to the plate.
I like to make a few 360-degree sweeps, that way I can make sure that we have full travel
and that the indicator isn't bottoming out or losing contact with the plate surface.
Also, make sure that the dial indicator and mount don't make contact with any part of
the bell housing or indexing plate while you are rotating it.
Have a buddy slowly rotate the crankshaft and watch the dial indicator carefully.
When the numbers stop increasing and just start decreasing, make a mark on the indexing
plate at this spot.
Zero the indicator, this is going to be our starting point and we can mark it with a 0.
Make reference marks on the index plate every 90 degrees.
You can also draw a diagram if you want to help you keep track of your measurements.
Now rotate the engine 90 degrees and write down the reading found on the dial indicator.
Ok, another 90 degrees.
Repeat this process two more times, recording the measurements at the 180 and 270-degree
marks.
Ok, another 90.
Slow down, and stop.
Alright side to side we are well within spec, our top measurement, however, is out of spec,
remember, we'll have to divide this number in half to determine how far it needs to be
moved to bring it back within spec.
The measurement found the opposite of the 0 mark at the 180-degree position is the number
that will need to help us determine the correct offset dials needed.
It also indicates the direction in which our bell housing needs to be moved.
Since our number was negative, the bell housing will have to be moved in the direction of
our 0 mark.
If it was a positive number, we would move the bell away from the 0 mark.
Ours measured 6 and a quarter thousandths so I'll be using the 7/1000ths offset dowels
to correct it.
Offset dowels are typically available in 7, 14, and 21 thousandths offsets, allowing you
to move the bell and bring it back within specs.
You'll need to select a pair of dowel pins that are the closest to the offset needed
for your scenario.
We offer offset dowel pins in multiple designs to help correct bell housing misalignment
on most vehicles.
A big confusion with indexing is actually the math so I wanted to try and beak it down
for you.
Using our measurements that we just took, here's the relationship from our bell housing
hole to the center of our crankshaft.
Taking the 12 and a half thousandths measurement, we need to divide this number in half, this
gives us six and a quarter thousandths, this is the number we'll use to determine what
offset we need to use for our dowel pins.
This is where we'll lose some people though.
Why do we divide our number in half?
Well, we only need to move it half the distance to center it.
If we moved it the full 12 and a half thousandths, we would end up with the bell housing offset
too far in the opposite direction.
By installing the 7/1000ths offest dowels and aiming both of the offsets in the direction
that we need the bell housing to move, we should be able to get the bell housing to
within a couple of thousandths of center.
To install the new pins, you'll first need to remove the stock dowel pins by either driving
them out with a hammer punch or pulling them out with a pair of locking pliers.
With the style of offset dowel pins that I'm using here, it's not necessary to completely
remove the bell housing.
Just be sure to loosen all the bolts which will allow it to move around.
You'll need to first determine the position of the offset.
I like to use a straight edge and I work my way around the dowel pin then I mark the highest
point of offset with the marker paint pin for easy reference.
Thoroughly clean the engine dowel holes on your engine block and lightly coat the new
dowel pins with some oil before you install them into the block.
Install both dowel pins with the offsets facing the same direction.
Point them in the direction that we determined earlier that the bell housing needs to be
moved.
After adjusting, tighten and torque the bell housing bolts, then recheck the run out with
your dowel indicator again.
To make minor adjustments to the alignment, you'll need to loosen all the bell housing
bolts and turn the dowel pins equally in the same direction.
After adjusting, tighten the bell housing bolts and recheck your run out with your dowel
indicator.
Don't forget to install and tighten the head screws if your dowel pins require them.
We'll re-zero our indicator and rotate 90 degrees.
Slow down.
And stop.
Ok, 90.
Ok, slow down.
Stop.
Ok, 90.
Slow down.
And stop.
You are good right there.
Ok, you can see that we are only 5/1000ths off but it's actually half of that so we are
2 and a half thousandths off, well within specs and we are good to go now.
With your bell housing now properly indexed, you can rest assured that you are getting
the most out of your transmission's potential as well as extending its life too.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
For more information on our RM130 indexing plate or any of our other great products,
visit our website at QuickTimeINC.com