Aligning Flywheel & Housing

Proper aligning of flywheel and housing is of extreme importance as misalignment can be attributed to many vibrations and problems.

  1. Mount flywheel housing to block with gasket and or thin bead of RTV. Install four 7/16-14 x 1 1/16 cross drilled hex bolts and safety wire. Note: if any flywheel housing bolt holes in block are open into crankcase it is suggested to use a small amount of RTV on threads of bolt. This will reduce oil leakage into flywheel housing.
  2. Place two .010 shims, one under each of the two mounting lugs on top of flywheel housing and install bolts and tighten.
  3. Mount indicator on rear of crankshaft and measure around diameter of flywheel housing. Adjust by adding or subtracting shims. Recheck measurement. Less than .010 is desired, not always attainable, left to right.
  4. Mount flywheel to crankshaft with four 7/16-20 x 13/16 cross drilled hex bolts and dowel pin retainer. Using too long of bolts can cause severe damage to engine. Tighten bolts, do not install safety wire or pilot bearing.
  5. Mount indicator on flywheel housing and measure run out near outer edge of clutch surface. Adjust by loosening flywheel bolts and pry flywheel from crankshaft. Install shim between crankshaft and flywheel where necessary. Tighten bolts and recheck measurement. This should be less than .005
  6. Install safety wire and pilot bearing.
  7. Reference FORD Service bulletins page 218
    • How To Restore Your Model A: Volume 4 - Pages: 10-15
    • Model A Ford Mechanics Handbook: Volume 1 - Pages: 1-146