I am currently trying to swap a 235 into a 39 Chevrolet. I retained the torque tube. I like it, and would rather not go to an open driveline. Here's my problem. It's a 61 motor, so it uses a six-bolt flywheel unlike the 39's 4-bolt. So I can't use the old flywheel. The pressure plate on the 61 motor is too big to fit into the 39 bellhousing and onto the 61 flywheel. The 39 pressure plate doesn't have holes at the right radius to fit onto the 61 pressure plate. The space along the circumference is right, but the radius isn't. Is there some combo of flywheel/pressure plate I can use that will work with a 61 Chevy 6 cyl on a 39 bellhousing?
Yes, any '41-'54 car flywheel and clutch should work. Some of the '54s had a 10 inch clutch setup (as opposed to the 9 1/8 clutch used through '53) that might give some interference problems.
Or you can have a machine shop redrill the '61 flywheel to except the '39 pressure plate. Make sure the center hub of the clutch disc doesn't interfere with the center of the flwheel also.
Checked that already. It's fine. I may use the machine shop option now, looks like it'll be hard to find what should be a junk part.
One other thing, the '61 flywheel requires a 12 volt starter because of the tooth count. If you do redrill the flywheel, it means you would need to upgrade the car to 12 volts in order to use a 12 volt starter. If you are wanting to stay with 6 volts, then you should find a '41-54 car or truck flywheel as it will have the correct tooth count for a 6 volt starter. If you can't find one with the right size clutch, then redrilling may still be required. Flywheels turn up on Ebay all the time...
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