Flex Plate Installation

[Marc]

Hi,
I have an 83' 500sl euro
While unbolting the torque converter from the ring gear I mistakenly also removed the bolts that hold the flex plates to the ring gear. I've found some posts where people mention the symptoms of cracked or broken flex plates but no one mentions installing/replacing them. The flex plates don't fit right back inside the ring gear. It appears that the flex plates need to be bowed for the bolt holes to align. I'm assuming this is to allow the flex plates to "flex" or provide the springy effect so that the torque converter can float back and forth as needed. Is there a trick to installing these back into the ring gear? I can't tell a front or back of the ring gear, does it matter. Just trying to go based on markings left from when it was installed.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Marc

[Frank Reiner]

M:

There were two styles of flex plates installed during 1983:
A - The sides of the triangle are straight, and the tips of the plates where bolted to the ring gear/TC have a constant radius.
B - The sides of the triangle are scalloped inwards, and the tips are stepped.

That said, there should not be any need for bending of the plates to reinstall the ring gear.
The forward side (towards the engine) of the ring gear teeth are chamfered, the back side of the teeth are not.
The ID of the recess in the front side of the ring gear is larger than that of the back side.
The plates will fit correctly only in the larger, front side recess.

[Marc]

I'm not at the location where the car is at the moment but I believe I have option A: with regard to the flex plates.
Great information, Frank. You make it sound simple. Don't know how I could have messed it up but somehow I did. I'll go back and try it again.

Thank you for your help. Greatly appreciated.