Just picked up my flywheel from having it match balanced to the original flex plate from my '83 motor today. it turns out that the flexplate was several grams away from being neutrally balanced. I other words, my motor is externally balanced.

Folks, it is vitally important that you get flywheels and flexplates match balanced to whatever came off the motor. I've heard it repeated a few times that later model motors were internally balanced, but that certainly didn't prove accurate for my motor.

It's just not worth the risk to blindly swap these things. For the $50 - $75 it costs to get something match balanced, you get real peace of mind. Vibrations are annoying, but destroying a motor will really screw up your day. I hope this helps someone else on the fence about having stuff balanced.

/public service announcement

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- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread