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Old 03-16-2019, 11:24 PM   #7
Daves55Sedan
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Granite City, Illinois
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Default Re: 1956 Fairlane Victoria flex plate 292 fordomatic question

As far as the locations of the shim rings (or spacer rings), consider this: the flywheel bolts that attach the converter housing must be far enough out from the back of the engine block such that the nuts will not hit the cast iron flanges in the back of the engine block when the converter is turning. Adding spacer shims between the back of the crankshaft flange and flexplate will push the location of the nuts further away from the back of the engine block.
There should be at least one shim ring between the flexplate and flywheel to help stiffen the flexplate, but if you put too many shims there, it will push the flywheel away from the flexplate enough that it leaves a space between them making it impossible to tighten the flexplate to flywheel bolts. I would go for the thickest shim ring I could find (for use with the '57 and later flexplate) to use between the flexplate and flywheel that would still allow tightening of the flexplate to flywheel bolts AND that would have no interference between the flexplate to crankshaft bolts hitting the front face of the flywheel.
Using the old style flexplate with the riveted dogs would really require no shim rings between the flexplate and flywheel for stiffening since the middle part of the flexplate is about 1/4 inch thick. The newer '57 and later one-piece stamped flexplates are a light gage metal that need more stiffening at the center.
The normal torque used for tightening any flexplate to the crankshaft flange will gouge the face of the flexplate, so the factory used a spacer ring there to prevent that. It's better to damage a shim ring than to tear up a good flexplate.
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