A couple of days ago I was in the middle of parting out 6 motors. When I got to the transmission on one,and was removing the transmission disks I got a surprise. The disks were paired up. That is two large disks were together and two small disks were together. This was repeated through the entire stack. Later I got to thinking that this would give a much better nuetral as you would have 12 Disks contacting each other rather than 25. I would bet the motor was put together by someone in very cold country that wanted the better nuetral. I would guess if you had a strong clutch spring the disks would not slip any worse than the orginal arramgememt. You would have the same amount of contact surface as a Turbo 400 or Watts.
That is an interesting find Dave, it ought to give a more free neutral?
Royce, do not read these postings.
I have the two dvd set from MTFCA on restoring the T transmission. Mr. Frank Banta, who does the rebuild for the video advocates pairing up the disks as Dave describes. His stated purpose is for a free neutral and he doesn't address the possibility of slippage. As Dave says, you'd have about the same contact surface as a Turbo 400 or Watts, but maybe less traction since it's all steel to steel. I'd need to know more before I would try it. Anybody have first hand experience to share with us? Bob
What a bunch of hooey. Assemble it as Ford intended with parts that are not ruined, use a reasonable grade of oil for ambient temperatures, and you will not be able to improve upon the so - called neutral.
I agree with Royce, stick to the way Ford did it. My father tried doubling up the clutch discs in pairs, like the DVD said, in his 23 touring. It was a constant hassle adjusting it back and forth either being too tight and having almost no neutral, to being too loose and slipping. Once we finally got it adjusted to where it seemed to worked fine we found that it would slip if you hauled more than two people or shifted into high going up a long grade. Needless to say, it is back to stock now and works like it should.
Now Royce, please don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel. Bob
Thanks, Nathan, I believe that answers my question. Bob
I'd have to agree, it's a silly idea. You cut your friction surface in half by pairing disks. It may give a better free neutral but you'd have to double the spring pressure to get the same drive friction. (Or what ever the formula might be.) That's got slipping clutch and smoke written all over it.
I was not advocating the doubling up of the Steel Disks only explaining what I found in one of the motors I was parting out. You can arrange your transmission any way you want. It seems like some think that the Ford Company engineers were perfect and nothing on a T can be improved. I wonder if any of these people drive modern cars cross town to their ice cream parlers.
Nathan Fahrni: Did you ever test the lbs on your clutch spring. I will bet not, most used springs test around 90 lbs and that would not be enough to stop slipping.
Ken Kopski:
If you test enough of your clutch springs you will find some that will go up to 110 lbs. 110 lbs is enough to keep any T clutch spring from slipping that I know of. 110 lb springs would even hold the doubling up of the steel disks.
I don't think I would ever try the double disk idea not becasue of slipping but because of the damage it would do to the lugs on the brake drums. It would be almost as bad as single disks slamming into the brake drum. I must admit though it would be fun to try it. I kind of like to experiment around even if something does not always work.
Again its your T, do the way you want.
Nice looking center door there Dave