I picked up a resurfaced flywheel from a shop in San Jose, it always made bad sounds when starting. I pulled it off recently and found that the outer ring gear was loose. I tried to take it off and sure enough, it came right off.
What was holding it on in the first place? Just pressure?
My guess is that the flywheel was overheated at some point and the flywheel expanded, then contracted.

 

Im not sure what would cause the outer ring of the flywheel to seperate from the middle portion. I personaly am not a fan of resurfacing a flywheel, but i would imagin it would have been like you said the flywheel expanded due to heat then as it cooled again it contracted and managed to split apart.

 

Is this some type of aftermarket aluminum lightweight flywheel?

 

OEM

 

Do you trust the shop? Maybe they had already taken lots of material off and it was way under spec?

 

Do I trust anyone? No, not really. But the surface of the flywheel has nothing to do with the ring gear. My question was: what was holding it on in the first place? My guess is that it was just pressed on from the factory.

 

I suppose not. I don't really know what I was thinking...