A fella called me today looking for a crankshaft bolt and washer for 56 Thunderbird 292 he is working on. I know that the dampener is different between the car and Tbird, but does that hold true for the bolt/washer as well? I would assume that my only concern would be the actual length of the bolt?

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Daniel:

The Ford parts book lists the same bolt and washer for both applications.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

thanks John, that is what I thought just wanted to make sure.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Are you asking because there are two different specs in the manual? I had to remove the damper from my car, and the original bolt had been over torqued and stretched. It appears that the manual is wrong (for 57 anyway). I think the original bolt is a grade 5. I replaced mine with a grade 8 and torqued it to the correct spec for that bolt, which is about what the manual specified for Tbird.

So don't get caught out as the original bolt can't take the torque that is specified for Tbird, but I believe the lower torque is OK to use on the standard bolt in a Tbird.

@ian57tbird...

I was more concerned about the length of the bolt/washer thickness/etc.

I will warn Roy about the torque spec. I do not believe he knows much about Y blocks. He did not know that there were different lengths of intake manifold hold-downs, and he wanted to "re-use" an oil pump drive shaft rod... ouch lol

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Not sure how you would stretch a fine thread bolt that big. Someone had a lot of muscle and a big breaker bar.

It is only a grade 5 bolt as far as I can tell, so if someone tightened it to 130-145 foot pounds as the manual suggests for 312's then it will likely stretch.

A correction on an earlier post of mine. I said that the manual specified a higher torque spec for Tbird but I should have said for 312.

Sorry it has been a couple of years since I did it and I was going from memory.