I have a 56 Ford, 292, air-cooled Fordomatic that still has the early style flexplate with the riveted ears. Is the later flexplate a direct replacement? I'm having a hard time seeing it bolt up properly. Do I need to also replace the torque converter? here are some pictures from the internet of both. Early (what I have) Late (what is available new)
you may want to post that question over on the ford barn.there was a discussion recently about it.something to do with those rings.it will work but check on the use of the rings as it is critical. good luck
I think that flex plate is what came out in 57 and you would have to lay the earlier on on it to see if it will work,I was looking at one if I put the FOM back in my 55 since the rivets are loose on the 55 flex plate.
I don’t know the answer to your actual question, but may have a spare 56 flex plate from an air cooled Fordomatic if you are needing one.
So I went over to the ford Barn as suggested and found this: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260429&highlight=flexplate This is a big help and answers all my questions. I don't know why I don't spend more time over there.
I just ordered one, when it comes in and I install I will update this thread with what I learn. Thanks but as stated above I ordered the new style, I really want to get away from the type I have.
I edited the title of this thread to reflect this update . The Ford Barn link above answered my questions well enough to order a new flex plate ( https://www.macsautoparts.com/ford_...nd-312-v8-with-ford-o-matic-transmission.html ). Three questions that people seem to have about this are 1. What's causing a knock/rattle at idle under no load? 2. Can I replace the early style flex plate with the later style? And 3. Whats up with the shims that come with the new flex plate? So lets start with this information is absolutely correct for my car which is a 56' ford with a 292 Y-block and an air cooled Ford-O-Matic transmission. In my research every thing I have seen also matches what I found with my car so it should work for you. Next, lets ensure we are talking the same language; I will be mostly referring to parts as named in the 1956-1957 Ford-o-Matic Shop Manual and the 1956 Ford Car Shop Manual with one exception. The car shop manual refers once to the flex plate as a flywheel (page 39) and then as a flex drive plate (page 40), for simplicity I will call it a flex plate. I mention this because I have seen people refer to both the flex plate and the torque converter cover as a flywheel. I won't go through the entire transmission R&R here, I'm just going to adress the 3 questions I mentioned. On my car the spring steel had cracks where it mounted to the torque convertor cover. You can see in the picture a chunk missing under the bolt at the top and several other ears had cracks in them. In addition, the rivits on one side were loose. I didn't take a picture because you could only tell they were loose once I had it out of the car but I could move it back and forth. Once I had the trans out I reinstalled all the cover bolts on the torque converter @ 28 ft lbs and set the new flex plate on the converter. I apologize for not taking pictures of this step but I forgot. I lined up the notches in the new flexplate with the drain plugs in the cover and marked the cover bolts that lined up with the flexplate and removed them. Then I lined up the new flex plate and the three shims with the bolts in the crank. The flex plate came packaged with one thin shim in a bag packed on the crank side and 2 thinner shims packed on the converter side. I found several references to people installing it with one shim between the crank and flex plate and 2 between the flex plate and converter and that is exactly what lined up for me. The shims only line up one way so if the bolt holes don't line up with the holes in the crank rotate thm until they do. If they still don't line up, flip them around. Tighten the crank bolts to 85 ft lbs, install transmission, rotate torque converter untill the cover drain plugs line up with the notches in the flex plate, bolt flex plate to converter cover, and tighten to 28 ft lbs. Paint all the covers, the starter, and the crossmember black and put them back. Wonder what the leftover bolts go to, remember you used new bolts on the crossmember, refill trans fluid (I use type F), check for leaks, enjoy the sound of a Y-block with out that distracting knocking and rattling, and do burn outs. Also make sure you get all the gears. In summery, if you have a knock or rattle at idle deep down that goes away under load and you have the old style flex plate, installing a new style flex plate could fix it. The new style flex plate absolutly works on my air cooled Ford-o-Matic, and the thin shim goes between the crank and flex plate, the 2 thicker shims go between the flex plate and the torque converter cover on my car. I hope this helps someone and I'm sure somebody with way more experiance than me with these cars will correct any mistakes or fill in any missing information.
The Jalopy Journal
