Good point on the thickness, that hadn't crossed my mind at all.

As far as where the clutch material goes, the farther away from the centerline of the crankshaft, the more holding power it will have. I'm not sure the right way to explain it, but its a leverage thing. Think about driveshafts, for the amount of torque they transmit, its actually a fairly thin walled tube. Heavier duty ones have a larger diameter to transmit more torque which works a lot better than a smaller shaft thats thick and heavy.

Anyways, thats my engineering degree talking, not that I use it much, but I learned a lot of really cool things about how things work and are designed. I think it was in the statics class I took that I learned about that, and why I beams are strong. The teacher had a really cool setup to demonstrate. he had a long piece of styrofoam that was about an inch square by a few feet long. It was plenty floppy as you would imagine. He had a second one that was notched lengthwise in each corner with a matchstick sized piece of wood glued in. Those 4 thin bits of wood really stiffened up the foam like you wouldn't believe.

 

Did you bend the inspection plate so it doesn't rub the flywheel? I just had a shop put in a new one too, and they also left it off because it was rubbing. I'd like to cover it, but not sure what to put on there. Maybe have my friend weld a new one? Or take the old one and put a hole in it then weld some metal on it to make it bigger so the flywheel fits? I'm interested to see what you did.

 

This thread is like 3 years old... But I also installed a SMF. The LuK variety, and the flywheel just barely touched the inspection plate.
(First off I didn't attach the two bolts facing the rear of the pickup as they were missing when I acquired the pickup)
All I did was bend it a bit and left one bolt a little loose. For me it doesn't wiggle loose and stays as it should.
I'd recommend pounding it out a bit so you can torque both bolts, if not all 4.

FWIW, tjc is right on about clutch grab, and I'll add to it that expanding the clutch 1" from 10" to 11" has an exponential area increase, not linear.
10" clutch=78.5 sq in.
11" clutch=95 sq in.
So adding 10% more clutch diameter makes just over 17% more area, and to tjc's point, at a much greater leverage to boot.

 

Nice. I like that answer. Just pound it out. That's what I'm looking for. I will definitely do that. And thanks for the other info.

 

Hi, just wondering if you still had an extra inspection plate for the ford Zf transmission ? All I need is the little piece at the bottom, 2 bolts hold it on. A shop put a new engine and clutch in for me and they lost the little plate, really sloppy work!! They'll never touch my trucks again but anyhow I'm left trying to find the plate. Mine is a 94 with a 7.3 and a 5 speed

 

Mine was missing from the truck when I bought it and I found one in a junk yard. There is supposed to be 4 bolts holding it on.

 

Thank you for the response, I've searched all the junkyards that are close to my house. Can't even find one that has a truck with a 5speed stick. The plate I'm looking for only has 2 bolts, there's a large cover then at the bottom there's another little plate , maybe a few inches long , couple inches wide, that's the plate or cover I'm looking for. Haven't been able to find one anywhere

 

The ones I've seen have a small plate on the bottom with 2 bolts, and then it makes an L and goes up behind the flywheel to bolt on back there.
Problem is, getting that L in place with the exhaust underneath isn't going to happen. So I whacked mine at the L; I've just got the bottom section of it with the 2 bolts holding it. No big gaps, and it's a lot easier to remove.

 

Yep, the one with the 2 bolts is the one I'm trying to find, the big L shaped one is there but the little one is gone. They put the 2 bolts back in but not the plate itself. Very sloppy work, everything I've had done at this shop I've had to take back for them to fix leaks or something. They'll never work on another one of my vehicles. If someone has this plate or knows where I can find one I'd appreciate it

 

Um, no, there's only one plate. Big and L-shaped.
I cut my L-shaped plate in two and kept the bottom half of it.

 

Um no, on my truck there's 2 plates, the large plate and a small plate. The large plates is as you said, then there's a small plate as I described held on by 2 bolts.

 

The one I got at the junk yard is all one piece. 2 bolts go in vertically and 2 horizontally.

 

Picture?

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