Breaking down my 1928 National engine for rebuild. 3 points of interest I would like your opinions on. All have pictures to clarify my questions. Thanks in advance! Todd
1. outer Clutch plate looks like this. See staples? pulling apart. Any thoughts?
2. Flywheel to crank punch marks were found NOT lined up. What is up with that?
3. The timing mark 'pin' is missing from the timing window. Are questions 2 and 3 related? What would be the reason?
Seems like you have several things going on. Looks to me that the friction material has been repurposed from another clutch disc. You can see where it was riveted to an actual plate at one point. During the late '20s there was at least 3 different types of clutch assemblies installed into various rigs. You may have found one that some one was just trying to keep running without having to actually spend money or have to run to town for parts. One style had loose friction discs and a center hub with splines.
I would suggest to acquiring a one piece clutch disc from 1929 to 1931. If you have enough room you could see if you can swing a 1932 to '37 disc with the built in springs. The Filling Station, or Gary Wallace, or Marx Parts should have either style. The later style may require shaving the flywheel studs and nuts for clearance. Maybe someone who has modified theirs in that manner could chime in as to what is needed.
As far as the timing marks go. I would suggest that you line up the # 1 piston with both valves closed before you pull anything apart. The 4 cylinders engines could have the flywheel installed in any one of six positions. Only one of which will be correct. I suspect the marks you are showing are from someone else discovering that they installed it incorrectly and that was a "barn" fix to be able to time the distributor easily. They would have to pull every bit of the transmission, clutch cover, pressure plate, and finally the flywheel to correct it. It is a rather daunting task to pull apart just to reposition the timing marks.
New original style clutch plates are available from the usual suspects mentioned by Art. I have them in my cars and they work great. Turn the engine to top dead center on the compression stroke of cylinder number one. Check if there is a mark on the flywheel like U|C visible in the window. If so, then your flywheel is oriented correctly (assuming you have a 28 flywheel.) I've seen 28s running older flywheels that are not marked at all. The missing pin is not a big problem and you can just mark the window edge where it would have been. In practice, the timing marks aren't very useful anyway except for static timing the distributor for a first start. Once running, it's easier to time these motors by ear and they run better that way than relying on the timing marks alone.
Make sure they are the right size. looks like your flywheel recess is 9" instead of the larger 10". The actual clutch parts you showed in the flywheel look to be the loose friction material style. In my opinion you should use one of the 2 later styles that are assembled into one piece, either with or without internal springs. I think they will be more reliable longer. Spend the money to get a good disc. Many years down the road if you have to you can always get new friction material installed. The splines on your 90 year old disc are probably getting worn anyway, and those spring wave ripples under the friction material collapse after awhile. Today they call it a cushioning plate, but originally it had a different name I think started with an A. Make sure and look at the transmission input shaft splines as well.
