Hey fellas, a small question. My clutch throw out bearing developed a noise in my roadster, so finally decided to tackle the job and at the same time ditch the aluminum flywheel and stick a lightened steel wheel in. It's a 59a with a 39 box. The steel flywheel is drilled for an 11"clutch, I have a good pressure plate, and to the crux of the question, I have a usable clutch disc and also a new disc from a 8cm merc engine. I can't see any noticeable differences between the early pre '49 disc and late disc. Can I use the late disc behind an early pressure plate. Thanks in advance, Thommo. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
throw all that 11in stuff in a pile for the truck restorers drill the flywheel for a much lighter 9inch pressure plate your left leg will thank you
^^^^^^ X2 ^^^^^^ That's what I did and I love the set up. It's very cheap to have a machine shop drill your flywheel. Sent by homing pigeon
Don't forget your flywheel should be balanced with the internals of your engine. It's all part of your bobbed weight. Even pressure plate should be balanced with crank, pistons, rods,flywheel. Smooth running is the only way for a long lasting flatty.
On the actual question...'49-50-some early '51 Mercs use same disc as 10" '42-8 Ford. Pickups also use early disc in 10 or 11. Other late discs won't go onto your '39 input at all. Sort stuff out better here...I agree on 11", hard pedal and heavy as hell. Put it in your dumptruck. Get wheel and clutch from 10" Ford or find an earlier 9"* and cut off the heavy rim part. Sell me the aluminum wheel. *'35-42 used a 9" Long setup, with a flywheel that had a heavy rim around the pressure plate area. Cut that rim away and you have a hotrod standard lightened steel wheel. Do NOT get the '32-4 wheel that uses a Model A type pressure plate that bolts TO the funny rim.
Ok, thanks for the advice, the 11" stuff is going back under the bench. Re drilling the wheel to suit a 9" assembly and ordered new pressure plate and disc to suit. Will also lighten flywheel. Really interested to see how this compares to the aluminum wheel that was on it. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Ok, I always like to finish a thread with an outcome. I ended up removing the aluminium fly wheel, replacing it with a lightened steel, mated up to a 9" clutch assembly. I'm just back from the first drive with this set up. Really happy, minimal clutch effort. The biggest difference between the aluminium and steel wheel is engine momentum between shifts. It was a pain with the light wheel, now the heavier wheel maintains momentum. Obviously the engine isn't as crisp sounding revving up, in fact it's got a distinctly different sound but really of no concern. In conclusion I think the aluminium wheel is best left to the track. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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