Have a EAB engine that supposedly came out of a Mercury. I removed the clutch PP and disc and found the PP to be questionable. It has an evenly spaced 6 bolt mounting pattern at 11.625 bolt circle. All of the available pressure plates for 10" flatheads have the 3 x 2 bolt pattern configuration. Ironically, I have a brand new Chev. '57 283 pressure plate with the same bolt pattern. Both are Borg & Beck. I can use this one for the EAB as the flywheel is only drilled for this same even 6 bolt mounting. Is this OK ??? The only difference is that the ( red ) chev pp has 12 springs as compared to the Mercury with 9 springs.
Yes, the '51 Merc (?, I'm not sure exactly what year Mercury flathead used them) had a Borg & Beck PP and not the Long style that was in Fords. The only down side I can see to using the Chevy 12 spring PP might be increased pedal pressure depending on the springs used. I would imagine the clamping load to be higher in the Chevy plate.
Depends on the trans used, if using early Ford trans (up to '48) then the B&B pressure plate must be a '49- early '51 Merc. Late '51 Merc & Chev PP won't allow the use of the larger throw-out bearing used on the earlier Ford trans. The "fingers" are too long on the later pressure plates.
Good point on the fingers. I am using a '39 Ford top loader trans. This 'new' Chevy pp was actually mounted on a 283/adapter/'39 trans setup. Not sure if the car ever ran with this setup. The arms are a little longer than the Long style, but so little. I will look into this closely. Very good point. Also to correct, this 12 spring location pp actually uses only 9 springs like the Mercury pp. 3 spring spaces are not used.
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