by Jim Brierley

Regarding light flywheels, As you probably know the early sprint cars didn’t use a starter, most of them used the ‘28 multiple disc clutch with all the outer portion machined off. This gave them a good clutch that was light and small in diameter which accelerated and decelerated very quickly.

In building a vintage sprinter today (or for road use in any Model A) it is a lot more convenient to have a starter. There are (at least) two ways to do this. 1) REM manufacturing in Paso Robles CA 805-239-9303 makes an aluminum flywheel for the Model A, I believe it uses a 9" Ford clutch, 1940 style. 2) A stock A or B flywheel can be machined down to about 35 or 40 pounds and the 9" V8 clutch installed on it. That’s what most of us do because of the cost. Also a stock V8 flywheel will bolt onto the A crank but because the V8 is not offset forward for the starter, a different starter must be used. The REM (Bob McKinney) flywheel may be this way ??, if so he can tell you about what to do to make the starter work. I think a V8 starter is adapted to the A housing? Don’t use the real early V8 wheel as it uses the same kind of clutch the A does and is heavier because of this.

The A flywheel can be lightened by turning off the ‘lip’ that the clutch bolts to and re-drilling that new surface to accept the V8 clutch. Also the O.D. can be turned down to 11 and 1/16 inches. If you want it lighter, some materiel can be machined off the I.D. also. The V8 clutch is 3 or 4 lbs. lighter than the A so you gain some (lose some weight) here too.

If you machine down an A wheel be careful not to take too much off the face where the clutch rides against it or the clutch disc springs may rub against the flywheel bolts. You might want to use the A truck disc without the springs as this gives more clearance there, and the springs won’t break! Also later V8 flywheel bolts have thinner heads and I believe are stronger. Always check the length of the flywheel bolts because if they are too long they will dig into the rear main bearing cap and oil slinger.

Is there a down-side to lightening the Model A flywheel? No! There is none, with the possible exception of being able to idle your engine down to ridiculously low RPM’s with a very light flywheel, especially if you have installed a high performance cam. (The Model B cam is not such a cam.) The benefits far outweigh any down-side. You will get faster acceleration, quicker shifting and possibly better fuel milage although it would be so slight it wouldn’t be noticed. I also think a light wheel is easier on the engine’s main bearings.

Vibration dampers are a good idea also. Ed Winfield, and possibly others, made them for the Model A many years ago. Winfields’ was designed so that it could be installed without removing the radiator or raising the engine off its mounts. It was a two piece unit so after breaking (literally) the stock one off, you first installed his sleeve section and then the pulley/dampener. The two were tongue & grooved together at the joint. I think Specialty Ford Parts in Rosemead, CA. makes a reproduction of his unit today. A couple of friends of mine have adapted Chevy dampeners to their A’s, one uses an aftermarket (racing) fluid dampener. And one, Paul Cantarano, was having trouble breaking his stock pulley, his flywheel was loosening up and carb screws were loosening. Since adapting a stock Chevy unit to his A he has had none of those problems. His engine is a racer, a Cook OHV conversion on a B block with 3 Stromberg ‘97' carbs, very radical cam, 10:1 compression etc. and he revs it up to about 5500 or 6000 RPM.