Flywheel to put a 56 engine in an early hydro car

ivanz62

I am looking for the rare Hudson made flywheel used to adapt a short crank 55-56 replacement engine to my stepdown with an early Dual Range Hydro. Not looking for the 1/2" spacer that is another way. Any leads appreciated. Will pay a "finder's fee" you think fair.
Thanks for any help.
Ivan

Clutchguy

Ivan, give me a call,thanks Doug

ivanz62

Attached is a flywheel photo showing the 55-56 crank bolt pattern with a locating dowel. This is for a wet clutch. What I need would have more holes at about the same large bolt circle to attach the Hydramatic torque converter.

Anyone have something?

hudsontech

Food for thought:

Quoting from a Dec. 18, 1956, Parts & Service Bulletin I recently scanned:


"In 1954, due to a fire at the Detroit Transmission Division,
we used Borg-Warner Automatic Transmissions on Hornet and Wasp
Models 4D, 5D, 6D, and 7D for a temporary period. The rear end of
the crankshaft on Hornet and Wasp engines was redesigned to
accommodate the installation of Borg-Warner Automatic Transmissions.
Flywheel Adapter Kits #3200406 will not fit in this instance.
As a consequence, the 1956 Hornet engines which are now being sold
for replacement on all 1948 through 1956 models can not be
installed on those cars."

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

bob ward

ivanz62 wrote:

Attached is a flywheel photo showing the 55-56 crank bolt pattern with a locating dowel. This is for a wet clutch. What I need would have more holes at about the same large bolt circle to attach the Hydramatic torque converter.

Ivan, that's interesting. I knew there was a special flywheel available back in the day for short crank to stepdown gearbox adaptions, but I've not known how the hydramatic situation was handled.

So the same adaptor flywheel was used for both situations, one drilled to take the Hudson pressure plate, the other drilled to take the hydramatic, have I got that right? Using the proper adaptor flywheel would definitely be preferable to using a 1/2" spacer.

Sent a PM

bob ward

And on the hydramatic version of the adaptor flywheel the ring gear retaining ridge will need to be on the front edge of the flywheel rather than the back.

ivanz62

I understand what you mean about the ring gear. With the starter drive engaging from the opposite direction, it would tend to knock the ring gear off. So clearly the stick shift and Hydro flywheels are different in more ways the the drilling for the pressure plate or torque converter.
the spacer does not use two sets of bolts--a longer dowel and longer bolts hold the package together. There is an advantage in using the spacer. You get to use the light steel early flywheel.
The conversion ones and the dry clutch "Hash" flywheels are cast iron.
Ivan

Clutchguy

Hello Ivan, I'm sorry I missed your call. I didn't here it ring-probably something else running. Well, what I was going to tell you is the 55-6 hydramatic flywheel is different. The only way it can be used with the earlier block is with the adapter The 55-6 transmission input shaft is longer to compensate for the difference in depth. The wet stick flywheel has the adapter built into it by being extra thick. The 55-6 hydramatic flywheel also has 3/8th's-24 torus cover bolts/with 1/2" heads[special bolts] and the torus bowl is deeper by about 5/8th's. As you probably know,the starter is located differently,up higher,and when used in the stepdown body,has some interference issues...,so it requires the use of the adapter in between the hydro flywheel and the 55-6 crankshaft when installed into the stepdown body. Unless I overlooked something when I was trying to do this,this is what I found. Hope this helps further your info, thanks CG