Flex plate issue

I had a JW wheel lose half of the ring gear going through the finish line on the weekend. 7000 RPM @ 155 mph, it made quite a bang. Killed the starter nose. I was lucky the piece of ring gear didn't go through the rear tire.
Anyway I'm not confident about putting another JW back in there. Does anybody have any other options on what to use.
Has anybody else heard of this happening? A guy pitted near me said "it happened to him with a JW wheel as well" and I didn't think much of it untill I found out his ride was BBF powered as well.
Cheers Colin

Colin,
I just experienced a failure of a JW Wheel on my 605. It is one that I had a new ring gear installed and recertified about 1 year ago. A crack started at 2 of the welds and took off for the center, fracturing near the converter mounting areas. In my case, the ring gear did not separate, I just noticed a bad vibration.
I have sent 2 or 3 Wheels back due to welds that have cracked within one year of ring gear replacement. I have just been keeping an eye on the welds.
I have a CSR flexplate that looks great, but has a slightly different offset than the JW Wheel.
It is flat, instead of the slight stamped offset in the JW unit. I am still using up my stash of re-ringed JW wheels, but may give that CSR unit another shot. The ring gear location, with that offset (JW) is just right for my deal.
There are several good choices out there.
You probably should call JW and tell them about the failure. Call 321-632-6205 and ask for Eric. The SFI certification is targeted toward reducing the exact type of failure that you just had.
They (JW) should want to know about it.
Good thing that more parts did not get damaged.
Take care....
Keith

I had one break about 8 yrs ago. I have used CSR since. My next purchase will be a Mezier for sure.

looking at the wheel there is no cracks in the centre section, it just looks like a crack started at the start/finish of a weld an traveled out towards the ring gear teeth.
So I have been looking at the Meziere flexplate, no ring gear that can crack and fly off. Thats got to be better.
Thanks for the replys, Cheers Colin

hienergy557 wrote:So I have been looking at the Meziere flexplate,

A famous quote would be "good stuff".

Have you looked into the PRW stuff? We run them with great luck. http://www.prw-usa.com/

Have you looked into the PRW stuff? We run them with great luck. http://www.prw-usa.com/[/quote]

I'm looking at the Meziere flexplate because it doesn't have the ring gear welded on, it has the gear teeth machined on to the centre.



http://www.meziere.com/images/product/large/FPT308.jpg

hienergy557 wrote:Have you looked into the PRW stuff? We run them with great luck. http://www.prw-usa.com/

I'm looking at the Meziere flexplate because it doesn't have the ring gear welded on, it has the gear teeth machined on to the centre.



http://www.meziere.com/images/product/large/FPT308.jpg[/quote]

We run in the 7's with the $100 PRW.

I have never had a flexplate break on me so I don't know what that's like but for $360 they should be good. The info looks really good about them. Good luck!!