Reply to "Mangusta Clutch Help please!..."

Here's a picture that illustrates the clearance issue! You can sorta see the lack of space at the front of the splined center up against the adapter....and why this section was shortened! (Actually a different clutch disc center piece was used.... than stock Ford...to account for this lack of clearance, and the "Chevy" spline pattern on the ZF input shaft.)

At this venture, I was using a bronze insert as the pilot bushing. I forget what happened exactly, but I needed to pull the trans and engine out for "round two" and discovered that the bronze has loosened in the bore. Likely I didn't have enough interference fit this round. I had "touched" it with a lathe.....

At assembly time....I went back to the original needle bearing design. The actual needle bearing is common, and very inexpensive as opposed to what you pay for a generic Ford replacement for the 351C! Somewhere around $5...adjust for inflation and bad memory....

In the original design, I believe there was a leather seal that went in the adapter after then needle bearing was pushed in place. Check your parts books for this, or was it in the early Pantera books....?! I found a tiny lipped rubber seal and used it...along with some synthetic grease. (I hope I posted this info elsewhere....at the time!) The idea was to keep the grease in the bearing and not on the front of your clutch disc!