Making A Clutch Cover Gasket - The Easy Way!

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Perhaps I oversold this procedure with the above title and maybe It

should read "Making a Clutch Cover Gasket -- An Easier Way." In any case, I

learned a thing or three over this past weekend about making gaskets.

I started with the time honored method of tapping the 1/32 gasket

material on the flywheel with a ballpeen hammer. This has NEVER worked for me

in the past and this time was no exception. Any marks left on the gasket were

far too faint to use in cuting out the gasket. I am in the rubber stamp

business and it occurred to me that if I inked the mating surface of the

flywheel it would be possible to "stamp" the gasket material. A piece of

cardboard was used as a cushion and the wheel was inked with a stamp pad.

The next part was tricky. The flywheel on a '29 Hudson is heavy, maybe 50

lbs or so and it is equipped a jagged sharp ring gear to catch out the

unwary. After carefully lifting and rotating the wheel it was laid out on the

gasket paper and the rim was pushed directly down so as not to slide the

wheel and smear the image.

The results were not good enough to use but did indicate some potential.

The image was spotty, but dark enough in places to see clearly. In places it

was terrific, in other spots, the image was just too light to be useful.

The next attempt was the reverse of the first. The inked flywheel was

laid out on the workbench and the paper rolled over it and pressed down. This

worked better, but the paper moved as I worked with it and it was impossible

to say which image to follow with the scissors.

Next, I used a trick Jack Smith had mentioned one time. I started with a

blank sheet of gasket paper and punched a 5/16 hole an inch or so from one

edge of the sheet. Next, the wheel was inked in four positions 90 degrees

apart from each other centering on one of the bolt holes.

The paper was rolled over the wheel and a bolt run through the punched

hole to hold the paper in place. Then the paper was stretched out tight and

pressed on to the wheel and lightly tapped with a rubber mallet around the

inked areas so as to pick up the ink around the bolt holes.

At this point the gasket material was removed and punched in the three

other positions, laid again on the freshly inked wheel and bolted in the four

positions. Then it was a simple matter to tap and slide the mallet along the

mating surface of the wheel removing and replacing each bolt in turn.

This method produced a sharp workable image to use as a guide in cutting

and punching the rest of the gasket. Incidentally, the best surface I have

found to punch against is a block of soft lead.







Paul O'Neil, Hudson29@aol.com

Fullerton, California USA



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