59 A Clutch and flywheel.

[Phil Gillespie]

Have a spare engine which I am making ready for a swap out. 59A.
Have a clutch cover and disc which will be checked out at a clutch rebuild place i have used before.
Once this is done will take with flywheel for surface grind and hopefuly to lighten it up also then balance complete unit, flywheel and clutch.
To remove material from front side or at back side? Appreciate advice.
Just to get it set up good before fitting. original weight is quoted around 35 lbs and possible to remove 8 to 10 lbs off/
thanks,
Phil NZ

[Ronnieroadster]

Originally Posted by Phil Gillespie

Have a spare engine which I am making ready for a swap out. 59A.
Have a clutch cover and disc which will be checked out at a clutch rebuild place i have used before.
Once this is done will take with flywheel for surface grind and hopefuly to lighten it up also then balance complete unit, flywheel and clutch.
To remove material from front side or at back side? Appreciate advice.
Just to get it set up good before fitting. original weight is quoted around 35 lbs and possible to remove 8 to 10 lbs off/
thanks,
Phil NZ

Phil your working with a cast flywheel any material being removed would be a bad idea. The abuse the lightened flywheel will experience might end up causing an explosion from the flywheel coming apart be careful. I have seen a number of original flywheels with stress and heat cracks on the clutch surface side another reason not to remove large amounts of material.
Ronnieroadster

[drolston]

A lightened flywheel helps acceleration, but degrades engine idle smoothness and street manners in general. Unless racing is intended, lightening should be limited to whatever is needed to get a perfect clutch surface.

[GOSFAST]

Originally Posted by Phil Gillespie

Have a spare engine which I am making ready for a swap out. 59A.
Have a clutch cover and disc which will be checked out at a clutch rebuild place i have used before.
Once this is done will take with flywheel for surface grind and hopefuly to lighten it up also then balance complete unit, flywheel and clutch.
To remove material from front side or at back side? Appreciate advice.
Just to get it set up good before fitting. original weight is quoted around 35 lbs and possible to remove 8 to 10 lbs off/
thanks,
Phil NZ

Hi Phil, can't help on a 59A wheel but I recently lightened an 8BA wheel.

Weight was the same as you mentioned, 34# before I started, managed to safely remove 10# with some machining!

Here's a shot of the wheels showing the numbers.

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. Wishing all here a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[JSeery]

Here's Rumbleseats take if anyone is interested:

LIGHT FLYWHEELS: The “lip” type flywheel used a 9" clutch and weighs 38.7 lbs. They came in all of the early V8's. They are my preferred flywheel because they use the lightest clutch (bet you’ve already figured out I’m some kind of nut about light rotating mass). Beginning in ‘35, the pickups and sedan deliveries all used a flywheel without a lip, but still used a 9" clutch. These weigh 34 lbs. They were much sought after for stock cars where rules stipulated flywheels had to be stock. Most other early flywheels, other than the lip type 9", weigh 36 lbs. The 8BA and 8CM flywheels weigh 34 lbs. Lightening a lip-type flywheel: Machining the flywheel’s lip off, chamfering outward from the edge of the pressure plate to the starter ring gear, dishing out the rear of the flywheel to reduce the flywheel thickness, will reduce the 38 lb.

Weight of a lip type flywheel to about 20 lbs. Combined with the lighter 9" clutch, they are my preferred combination for a street flathead. On street machines, flywheel weight is best left at 20 lbs. (A light high boy roadster with a built-up flathead and low gearing would certainly be an exception.) If the flywheel is too light, it’s difficult to launch a heavy car at stop lights without revving the engine considerably. Aluminum flywheels with no steel or brass facing wear quickly and don’t take kindly to clutches being slipped. I don’t use an all-aluminum flywheel (no steel or brass facing) on the street. A steel or brass faced one is less than the 20 lb weight rule I use. In the early days we all heard and believed the following: “During acceleration every pound of flywheel weight is the same as adding 100 pounds of weight to the car.” Seems to me this would apply to all reciprocating masses like the crankshaft, clutch and flywheel.

[cas3]

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thanks! fun to read rumbleseat again

[Phil Gillespie]

Originally Posted by Ronnieroadster

Phil your working with a cast flywheel any material being removed would be a bad idea. The abuse the lightened flywheel will experience might end up causing an explosion from the flywheel coming apart be careful. I have seen a number of original flywheels with stress and heat cracks on the clutch surface side another reason not to remove large amounts of material.
Ronnieroadster

Ronnie,
Appreciate your advice. The surface at clutch plate contact has a few rough spots so maybe with just go with a surface clean up grind and a balance.
Clutch plate and cover just been checked and all is ok there by clutch rebuilder.
Phil NZ

[Ol' Ron]

Interesting project, Having "Lightened" a few dozen wheels in my life time, you learn allot. If you want the lightest 59 wheel/clutch assy. My memory is alittle rusty but the early wheels has a large lip on them. It's sticks up about an inch and is about an inch thick. Matching this off will bring the weight down into the mid 20lb area, then using a beefed up 0" pressure plate which is the lightest stock pne you have about a 35 LB combination. Machine material from the clutch surface will relieve some surface checkinf\g, i wouldn't remove more than .100: as this will affect the clutch linkage

Gary's method is a common practice for the 8BA wheels.
Nowa word of caution. Cast iron flywheels do come apart. One did at Danbury and a piece of the wheel embedded it self several inches into the track, the trans bell housing turned into shrapnel.

After that most guys bought the Shafer aluminum flywheel and clutch assy. which had a total weight od 22 lbs 12 for the wheel and 10 for the clutch

[Ronnieroadster]

Originally Posted by Phil Gillespie

Ronnie,
Appreciate your advice. The surface at clutch plate contact has a few rough spots so maybe with just go with a surface clean up grind and a balance.
Clutch plate and cover just been checked and all is ok there by clutch rebuilder.
Phil NZ

Phil thats a good idea much safer than the possibility of the flywheel coming apart. Not much to be gained by by the gamble.
Merry Xmas Ronnieroadster

[Ol' Ron]

I liketo cut .50" Plus of the face of the flywheel to remove the harden surface and all the small surface checkand visable cracks. Them have the flywheel resurfaced on the grinder.. Considering how many factory wheels were cut back in the day and how few came apart was a miracle. The only person I knee of that got hurt from a flywheel was an aluminum one that came apart.

[Tinker]

I've resurfaced flywheels before (81a - 99a). Had no idea they where inherently bad, maybe if the heat checking was really really bad? I prefer a slight milled flywheel for a street flathead. yes you can have a too light flywheel on the street.

Having a lightened flywheel on a model a is a nice thing to say, but less you racing it's counter productive. Certainly more so on a tour car. Better to get it from compression or bore.


Think of it this way. when you want to rev fast it will. but then you are on the road and cruising... the flywheel maintains through cyclical force were a lite flywheel does not. Realistically if you want higher speeds on a car and less burnouts, a heavy flywheel will help. Easier to keep a ball in motion.



.

[Phil Gillespie]

Originally Posted by Ol' Ron

I liketo cut .50" Plus of the face of the flywheel to remove the harden surface and all the small surface checkand visable cracks. Them have the flywheel resurfaced on the grinder.. Considering how many factory wheels were cut back in the day and how few came apart was a miracle. The only person I knee of that got hurt from a flywheel was an aluminum one that came apart.

Thanks also Ron. Thats the aim now to get all small dents etc off the running contact surface. So will be guided from the good people on here.
Finished off with a balanced flywheel, clutch, and clutch cover assembly.
Phil NZ

[Ol' Ron]

What Tinker said is true. A street engine doesn't need a light wheel. THe heaver wheel makes it easier to drive aroun dtow. Especially if you've installed a longer cam.