Hot Rods Mercury Pressure Plate Question.

When I got my 51 Merc in 1963 it was a "late 51" with the 4 bolt later Ford style transmission. The Early 51 had the half bellhousing and big bell transmission like 49 and 50 did.
My transmission had a bad first gear after a mishap with a cheap floor shift and I found a 51 that a guy was selling parts off and paid him for the transmission and when he pulled it it was for an early 51. Two completely different transmissions. That was my intro to the early/late 51 thing. I think that the neighbor who had a little wrecking yard sold me an overdrive trans out of a 52/53 Ford.

 

If this works out, don't forget to come back and let us know. (It would also be nice to know that it didn't turn out.

 

I sent him this pic, here it is for anyone else
Uninstalled height

the throw out bearing measurement

The finger face is 3 1/4 outside
2 1/4 inside

 

If the OP did purchase the PP like he shown in post #8, he has the correct one.

 

Update: Anthony has sent me a lot of the dimensions along with pics which I have been submitting to Mike at Ram Clutches in an effort to locate a clutch PP that could be used as a direct replacement for the early 1310. After a lot of back-and-forth emails with Mike, he found a Mopar unit that might fit the bill but (there is always a but) the fingers are very close to hitting. Here is his latest response:
The 1.75” bearing retainer fits between the 10.5” clutch fingers but JUST barely. When disengaging it may very well make contact. This is the only B&B finger we have; we have had to get these made for us to keep building the 10.5 and 11 inch clutches as all these parts are obsolete. So, another finger would not be an option…
This, of course. begs the question whether one could remove a bit of the finger to allow for clearance. The only way to know is to try the clutch in an actual application. There are older Mopar units out there on the various sites that one could purchase that may or may not fit. I am in communication with several of the sellers regarding the dimensions of their units. Most of those look the part but a picture can be quite deceiving. As I continue to work through this, I will provide more updates.

 

Thanks for the FYI and update.

 

I actually have a late 51 bellhousing loose if someone should need one.

 

This 1310 merc clutch mystery came to the front burner with my friend this week as he has tried a couple clutch PP's only to find that he cannot disengaged the clutch on his recent build. He states he has always just used a PP he had in stock from his racing days and has never had an issue except this time. He has built three A's with the same set up but has never had an issue. I doubt he had three 1310's lying around which begs the question what model PP he had grabbed out of his old inventory. We considered pulling one of the other rods apart just to see but tabled that idea since the shop is covered up with other projects and it is cold now adding more noninterest to the subject.
My 'ol friend is 84 and not one to spend the money with no core for a 1310 from the clutch folks. True to form for this old school builder he had me help him ***emble the clutch and trans together. You could see that the fingers were about 1/4 of an inch lower than they need to be to provide initial contact with the TOB. The solution was to add 1/4 inch spacers to the contact portion of the fingers. That done we put everything back together only to see there was interference between the fingers and the TOB tube. Took it apart and ground that area down with a grinder. Refit everything and now the clutch works as it should. He is reinstalling the engine and then we will fire it up and double check that all is well.

This old PP is a #1649 fwiw. Just a piece that has seen some racing from back in the day and has sat on the shelf for years along with the disk. That's how my old friend rolls. You make do with what you got. Old school mentality, gotta respect that