Type 4 Bus Flywheels Questions

[Ceckert64]

Hello,

I've been trying to find a stock weight flywheel for my bus, 210mm, 215mm, or 228mm, I don't care too much. I've been rebuilding an engine for my bus and the biggest issue I have ran across is getting a flywheel. I found a local place and had them machine a flywheel and they did a nice job, but I cannot find a place to balance a type 4 flywheel. It seems that they do not fit on many machines.

My first question is there anywhere you can buy a new flywheel that is balanced? I know there are a few new type 4 flywheels for sale, but none seem to explicitly state that they are balanced.

I was also wondering what shops balance type 4 flywheels? I've even contacted VW ones and they did not do type 4.

I've done a bit of looking and research, but I have not found much.

Any help is appreciated,

Aiden
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[modok]

What planet are you from? I need to move there.

It's not that I don't want to balance flywheels, just, nobody EVER asks.
I've done 2 in twenty years. That were separate not part of the full engine, or after lightening the flywheel.
So here the chances a customer wants their flywheel resurfaced AND balanced is about one in five thousand.
If a shop is profit motivated then they are not going to bother offering that service.

Buy one from DPR or possibly Mofoco

[esde]

Any shop that can balance a crankshaft or "rotating assembly" can balance a flywheel. Or sometimes shops that balance driveshafts..
I run into this somewhat often, as several modern engines are balanced with weights on the flywheel (offset balance). When doing engine swaps with custom flywheels, I need to have the new flywheel made with the exact same imbalance as the original... never an easy thing to explain the first time

And, the first time I lightened a flywheel on my lathe, I wanted it balanced. Really just to check and see if I had somehow screwed it up, though in theory if it was balanced before lightening it should be balanced after.. and they said it was still balanced so I haven't sent another one since then.
SD
_________________
modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[Clatter]

[modok]

A lot? well, not as many as I used to, it comes in waves.
The idea is..... if a flywheel was SIGNIFICANTLY warped and then resurfaced, it could be thrown out of balance enough to matter.

Otherwise why else would it be out of balance?
So when I encountered a very suspicious flywheel I would recommend to check the balance but very rarely did the mechanic want to do it.

Maybe some were not balanced to the tightest tolerances but I've never seen any OE flywheel that was never balanced at all. If it's way out of balance that is almost surely a result of some kind of human error.

Of the two times I talked them into checking, one was almost perfect, like, within two grams at the edge.
What that was is, the last guy resurfaced it totally crooked, so when I decided to grind it straight relative to the crank surface, it was back IN balance. But if I had chosen to cut the crank mounting surface to match the face then it would have been way out. So, it's a coin flip.
If it was factory fresh unmolested and warped into a crooked potato chip, then I would have done it the other way.

And checking the runout goes hand in hand with balance. Always check the face runout BEFORE balancing the flywheel. Unless you want a balanced wobbly flywheel that will be out of balance if the wobble is corrected.