Balancing Clutches

Old Henry

Old Henry

Well-known member
Even Ft. Wayne clutches need balancing.
The left clutch is the one I just took out of my car that was put in a couple of years ago when I had my entire engine balanced by the local racing machinist. He balanced the clutch with those dollops of weld on the two flanges, the left one ground off a bit after applying to get it perfectly balanced.



The right one is the one I just got new from Ft. Wayne and also needed that washer welded on and some ground off on the opposite side to balance it.

 
Graig, you want to be carefull, that engine will spin so smooth you will be getting speeding tickets,
Lawre
 
Also had a racing machine shop balance the supposedly balanced rotating assembly from SCAT. The rotating assembly was pretty close but did take some adjustment. They also balanced the flywheel and pressure plate as an assembly; it took maybe half inch of 1/4" rod welded to clutch flange. They indexed the pressure plate to the flywheel so when the clutch disk was added, it went back together with the same alignment between flywheel and pressure plate. The engine is installed and running very well. There is a very slight vibration at idle, which is probably due to the Schneider 248f cam.
 
Old Henry said:
Even Ft. Wayne clutches need balancing.
The left clutch is the one I just took out of my car that was put in a couple of years ago when I had my entire engine balanced by the local racing machinist. He balanced the clutch with those dollops of weld on the two flanges, the left one ground off a bit after applying to get it perfectly balanced.



The right one is the one I just got new from Ft. Wayne and also needed that washer welded on and some ground off on the opposite side to balance it.

Click to expand...

Hi Henry, those 3-fingered pressure plates aren't all that bad to balance.

You can press some weights (photo below) into the holes above the spring area AND generally you also have the option of drilling directly into those holes down into the spring pads. They usually have fairly large cast-in bosses.

(Add) There are balance plugs in both plates you show above already!

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. You also have the option of balancing the flywheel AND the plate as an ***'y. This is "single-plane" balancing and no issues with this method, all the "correction" can be done on the wheel. In the event of changing to another clutch simply rebalance it also as an ***'y. Been doing it this way for over 45 years now. Before balancing as a single unit both components MUST be indexed however!
 

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Is your new pressure plate actually for a tractor (9N, 2N, 8N)? It does not have the counterweights like your old one. It may have stiffer springs to make up for the lack of centrifugal force from the counterweights. How's the left leg?
 
GOSFAST said:
You also have the option of balancing the flywheel AND the plate as an ***'y. This is "single-plane" balancing and no issues with this method, all the "correction" can be done on the wheel. In the event of changing to another clutch simply rebalance it also as an ***'y. Been doing it this way for over 45 years now. Before balancing as a single unit both components MUST be indexed however!
Click to expand...

The last time I had the clutch balanced that's how it was done. The engine was apart so he first balanced the flywheel alone, then attached the clutch and weighted it to balance the whole assembly, then indexed the clutch to the flywheel thus:



But, this time, I was just working the transmission and didn't want to go through all of the machinations required to remove the flywheel to balance the new clutch. I actually got quite lucky. My machinist had some old flathead flywheels kicking around that my clutch would attach to. So, he first balanced one of those, then attached my new clutch and balanced that.
 
40 Deluxe said:
Is your new pressure plate actually for a tractor (9N, 2N, 8N)? It does not have the counterweights like your old one. It may have stiffer springs to make up for the lack of centrifugal force from the counterweights. How's the left leg?
Click to expand...

I wondered about the same thing. Hopefully it will work as well without the counterweights. Time will tell.

My opinion of Ft. Wayne Clutch is diminishing by the mistake. Last time it was the wrong clutch disc with too big of springs that rubbed on the flywheel bolts,





this time it's the wrong pressure plate assembly arms.
 
Did you remove the rear-end completely, along with the driveshaft and transmission to get at the clutch this time around? The reason for asking is that I very well could have the same clutch problem, and my car is also a '47 fordor super deluxe.
 
dwick01 said:
Did you remove the rear-end completely, along with the driveshaft and transmission to get at the clutch this time around? The reason for asking is that I very well could have the same clutch problem, and my car is also a '47 fordor super deluxe.
Click to expand...

Yes, all of that miserable mess.
 
dwick01 said:
Did you remove the rear-end completely, along with the driveshaft and transmission to get at the clutch this time around? The reason for asking is that I very well could have the same clutch problem, and my car is also a '47 fordor super deluxe.
Click to expand...

Yes, however, it may not be completely accurate to say I removed the rear-end completely. It's a little less than that. I just disconnected the springs from the hangers, disconnected the shock absorbers, disconnected the brake line and emergency brake cable and disconnected the speedometer cable. Then, after dismantling the clamshell around the front end of the torque tube, just slid the torque tube and rear axle back about 8 inches to disconnect them from the U-joint and transmission. Then, the U-joint has to be removed from the transmission to lift the transmission out.

Here are the instructions from the manual:



Of course, you won't be removing the wheel brake stuff from the axle.





This thread shows how I disconnect the springs from the axle without a spring spreader: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98748

While the hangers are disconnected from the axle I usually replace the rubber bushings that are usually pretty warn and need replacement. Likewise for the track bar rubber bushings. Just did all of the above last two nights.
 
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im sure ft wayne clutch makes mistakes like we all do.ive used em for years.i always get back the clutch i send them.as far as springs rubbing on bolts,no offense but its the installers job to make sure everything fits berfore assembly.
 
Did you recheck the Finger release adjustments ,can't remember the measurement ,better check this
 
jake197000 said:
im sure ft wayne clutch makes mistakes like we all do.ive used em for years.i always get back the clutch i send them.as far as springs rubbing on bolts,no offense but its the installers job to make sure everything fits berfore assembly.
Click to expand...

Don said:
Did you recheck the Finger release adjustments ,can't remember the measurement ,better check this
Click to expand...

I don't know about any of that stuff. That's why I count on Ft. Wayne clutch to sell me the right part. Is that too much to ask? Out of 5,794 views of my thread on the clutch disc problems* not one single person said, "That's the wrong disc" which it turned out to be.

*https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217907
 
No cent weights on the release fingers is something I sure don't feel comfy about.
If your beautiful FORDOR was mine it would have a 10" clutch with centrifugal weights
on the release arms. I sincerely hope all works well for you.
Charlie ny
 
old henry,i wasnt trying to offend you.ive made all the mistakes myself.i couldnt have told you the disc was wrong either.ive learned to double check everything before assembly.if a guy only does it for a hobby it makes it tougher.ive had good luck with ft wayne clutch.
 
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