[Spridgets] Flywheel Ring gear replacement.

[Dean Hedin]

I am about mid way on my Rivergate installation and I just replaced my flywheel ring gear.
It went pretty smooth.  Here was my method:

1) Remove old ring gear with die grinder and cutting disc. Cut as far as you can go.  Use a small drill to drill into the area
you can't reach with the cutting disc.  Now hit your slot with a chisel and it should break free.
2) Mark new ring gear for orientation.  Hint: the gear tooth bevel of the starter pinion should match the bevels on the ring gear 
teeth.
3) Place ring gear in oven on an old cookie sheet, close to broiler.  Broil for 20 minutes.
4) Take ring gear out of oven.  Take to where work area is.
5) Hang ring gear on previously arranged wire hook comming down from ceiling beam.
6) Fire up propane torch. Heat ring gear further with torch.  Go round and round with torch for about 5 minutes.
7) Flywheel should be on flat surface (like a tablesaw) and oriented such that you can drop the ring gear right on to it.
8) Using welding mits, grab the ring gear and drop it onto the flywheel. Use a couple hammer hits around the perimeter to drive it 
home.  Move quickly and do not cock it. It should tap down easily.

The reason I use the broiler is that it's a conveinent way to get the gear up to 500 degrees or so, this saves a little effort with 
the propane torch later on.   You are not heating to cherry red here.  Just heat till the steel discolors a bit to blue.

There was some website that talked about using a charcoal grill to heat up the gear.  That seemed a little crazy to me.
I think you could easily overheat the gear with that method.

Also, there is little to be gained in freezing the flywheel.  It's not worth the effort.