...Or rather, pressure plate bolt question...
I was out in the garage working on the AOD-T5 swap. Got the pedals in, got the exhaust unbolted (that was a treat - thank God for torches), got the old tranny out, got the pilot bearing in the crank, bolted on the flywheel, and even made up a clutch alignment tool (by modifying one I'd made for my old Nissan truck). I was hoping to have the T5 tranny bolted in today, but hit a snag that is preventing this: The guy I bought the engine and tranny from did not include the pressure-plate-to-flywheel bolts.
D'oh!
Ok, so I grab the bolt bin, drag it under the car, and start trying to screw random sizes in. None of my SAE stuff would go in more than a turn or two (by hand). Knowing it's a mid 80's Ford I figure the holes might be Metric, so I start rooting through my Chicken Parts drawer for bolts. I find a few that look close, so under the car I go with 'em. The first one I tried threaded right in. Out comes the thread pitch gauge, and by all appearances it's a M8X1.25. This leads me to my question: Are the pressure plate bolts metric? Flywheel is an E6 part if that matters...
Nevermind, I googled it. The bolts are indeed metric, 8X1.25. Looks like I'll have to hit the bolt store tomorrow...
Also they may not be just ANY 8X1.25 metric.
The ones in my 70 Stick had a real low profile head on them, I believe it was for clearance for the fingers on the PP. I would suggest sourcing these direct from ford, they couldn’t be much more $. Consider the cost in labor if you have to pull it all back out and change them.
i would source them from ford. i remember having the same trouble. i thought they were a tapered thread or something stupid like that. regardless, id get them new from ford. the good news all the hard stuff is done ;o) its weird driving it the first time after the 5 speed conversion!
The bolts go on the outside of the pressure plate housing, so clearing the fingers on the PP will not be an issue. I think you're thinking about the flywheel-to-crank bolts. I did use the factory bolts for that (I even used the proper ones for the 5-speed - they're slightly longer than the automatic ones).
Still gonna have to wait to drive it, at least until April or so. After all the bodywork I will never let salt anywhere near this car again. I did get sort of a preview with the parts TC the one time I drove it, though :hick:
I'll look into factory Ford parts, but when I googled it I read nightmares about Ford dealerships charging $8
per bolt. Given we get gouged for everything from dealerships in Nova Scotia (little competition, so they charge what they want - in fact they'd probably try to sell me a whole pressure plate to get the bolts) I'll probably end up getting some grade 8.8 or stronger metric bolts from the bolt store (it's a huge store in an industrial park that sells nothing but bolts).
You are correct, my bad! I missed it in your first message where you very clearly stated....
I got mine from Lowe's. Just make sure you get grade 8+, and use lockwashers.
I paid 13 plus shipping for mine. Ford racing part.
Just got back from the city. I picked up eight grade 10.9 8X1.25-20 bolts and 8 lock washers for $3. I know I only needed 6 bolts & washers, but since there was a $3 minium charge I picked up a few extra. The tranny will be in the car tomorrow.
:D :D :D :D :D