Distance plate! What distance plate?

[22centerdoor]

When the transmission in my 22 was rebuilt, we used the best of several transmissions lying around the garage. We had enough good parts to complete the rebuild. We also installed a new Watts clutch. We put it all back together and the car was back on the road. However, several months later when sorting/storing the left over tranny parts we realized that we used a pre-1916 trans but had NOT installed the distance plate. Now I'm at the point where I'm just about out of adjustment in the clutch finger. Is there some type of work-around instead of pulling engine/trans? We think the clutch still has 1/8 of life left in it but the missing distance plate has robbed us of 1/8 worth of adjustment.

Thanks.

[jsaylor]

Langs sells a spacer for weak clutch springs. It might give you more adjustment range. It can be installed thru the inspection cover. Might be worth a try.

[RGould1910]

I think you need the distance plate to keep a clutch disc from getting wedged between the disc drum and the inner surface of the brake drum. I'm surprised you haven't had an issue yet.
Maybe you lucked out and the brake drum is later.

[speedytinc]

Several months & you have lost a substantial amount of finger adjustment? There should be NO loss. If you are getting any slippage, you are wearing out or have already wore out the disk material. Watts are known for needing a lot more spring pressure for lock up. Not enough disk surface.
Carnack foresees the inevitable.
You must get enough spring pressure to eliminate all slipping. If the 3 finger drive disk fingers are still protruding from the drive plate, you could make some longer finger screws. 3/8" fine thread rod.
This could postpone the inevitable.
You might want to review publications on transmission rebuilding.
Milt Webb produced an excellent exhaustive book on the subject.

[Original Smith]

There was also a distance plate used for the early style driveshaft spool.

[John kuehn]

Could it be that since your transmission is a 16 or earlier unit that IF the bushing in the earlier clutch drum was replaced with the later style bushing did you add the washer spacers in it?

The earlier bushing was one with spacer built on to it. If your replacement bushing is the later style you have to add the spacer washers to get the correct drum spacing if it’s necessary.

This is a guess and may not pertain to your issue. But this happened before with transmission issues arising after it’s been used for a while and using different year drums if it was rebuilt using good used parts.

[Altair]

You are right in the time frame where there some changes in the transmission assemblies, about mid 1916 one small disc was discontinued and the distance plate so it is important that all the parts are compatible. I went through a similar exercise where I had some boxes of transmission parts and decided to assemble the parts in to working transmissions. I was missing the distance plate and was lucky to find one at a swap meet. The vendor had a five gallon pail full of large and small discs and I asked by chance if he had a distance plate and I got a complete blank look. I dove in to the bucket of discs and right on top was a distance plate and it was the only one at the swap meet. They can go in both ways inside or outside and I am not sure which is correct all I know is I had mine in incorrect and had to disassemble it and put it in the correct side. Somebody of the forum will know.

[RajoRacer]

Ford literature places the distance plate first one in.

[Altair]

That is good to know for sure. When you assemble it there is no way to tell.

[John kuehn]

Here’s a post and discussion about the “distance plate”. Also what to do if you don’t have one. Good information for your issue and others who work on T transmissions.

https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/4 ... 1392217331

Probably more than a few T owners who work on their cars don’t know about this.

[Steve Jelf]

When ordering the distance plate you will need the part number: 3330.