Hi M&PCCW. Thanks. Sorry to be a bit cynical, but your details were just not adding up. I misunderstood, I thought you were saying 2" input shaft stickout. 1.166" is a lot different. There still seems like something is missing. How thick is your ford flywheel? your flywheel distance is less flywheel distance than my jeep ax15.
I have not worked all the math, I have a early wakeup. I would not worry so much about the pilot bearing just yet, that not super fixed. The Kubota crank is almost flush with the block if I remember, maybe .250" proud, and you get a bit of space from the cut down flywheel cover as well
you can add some to your flywheel adapter, I don't see how that could hurt you. any reason you are making it from flat bar as opposed to round stock?

I got to get some sleep, maybe one of the other guys can chime in as well

 

dieselxj, thanks for your input. I appreciate constructive criticism. The Ford flywheel is .850" thick. I need to remeasure the Kubota crank to block. My first (hurried) measurement came to 1.093". A 1.5" thick crank adapter would make that 2.593 from clutch side of flywheel to block, subtract 1.166 which equals 1.427. I can mill down the flywheel housing to .427 then use two .5 steel plates for the tranny adapter. Now that's not too bad at all! I guess I just needed to talk it out in front of everybody on this forum. Do my numbers sound right?
Oh yeah, I forgot a word in my last post. I meant round bar stock, not just bar stock. I machined out a water well drill bit from 4130 steel 4" round bar. We never heat treated it and now it's just sitting there since we found a better solution. I think there's 1.5" left of solid steel on it. I was thinking of case hardening it after making the adapter and test fitting it.

 

Real quick on your flywheel housing. BE CAREFUL on that. I would not want it too thin, it is a hard brittle cast piece. My first one got too thin at the machine shop and cracked. The sort of natural thickness of it is about .500" or there abouts, and that is what most folks are using, just cut it enough to get it flat.
Someone else may chime in, but I think 4130 won't need any treatment that stuff is pretty tough already
For math, I can't do it without drawing a picture of the setup and putting ALL the measurements in. if we do it for you what fun is that for you. You can do it just be extremely thorough, and don't forget any of the pieces, setbacks, countersinks and ALL the details. it sounds like yours will be a bit more complicated than some of the others
I don't know if you saw what usedkubotaman said about adapters but it was something like lots and lots of measurement. you know what else is a common saying. measure twice cut once. I caught a mistake in my measurements just before I started cutting. It is very hard to put the metal back on once you have taken it off.

Have fun with it, when you get ALL of your measurments together post them up all together, and compare the old Ford OE setup to what you have now

 

It's been a very busy month, unfortunately none of it involved the Kubota. Now that school is completely done for the next four months, I actually have a chance to do some work.

I had an idea that I wanted to run by you guys before I really get into the details. Instead of milling down the flywheel housing to .5" then adding two more .5" plates to get the correct thickness that I need with the crank adapter, I just leave the flywheel housing as it is and add .25" plate as the transmission adapter. It would save on steel plate costs, but the crank adapter would then have to be over 3" long. What if I use both flywheels? In that case the crank adapter would be much shorter (while still allowing enough space for the input shaft) plus I can keep the Kubota starter as well as the Ford clutch.

Can you think of any potential problems with the added weight of an extra flywheel?

 

I don't think a 3" crank adapter sounds good. That alot of leverage on the flywheel. Just doesn't need okay. Stacking flywheels has been done. I would just worry about alighnment

good luck

 

I'm finally back in town. I was able to work a little on the Kubota before leaving to work on my parents' farm at the beginning of July. Before I left I machined the transmission adapter out of 1" thick aluminum, milled down the Kubota flywheel housing to 1/2", made a 1.5" thick (approximate) crank adapter out of 4140 steel, used the original Ford flywheel and clutch, bolted everything together and it fits great. Unfortunately I finished getting it all bolted together 1 hour before leaving town so I haven't done anything else with it.

Question: what size bolts do I use for the motor mounts?

 

It's coming along slowly but I'm making some progress. I recently quit my part time jobs and am now just doing custom wood-working and going to school with the swap in between. Today I finished installing a new gas tank and running the flexible fuel line. The old one was rusted and had bad gas sitting in it for 3 years. This coming week I'll be cutting out and welding together the motor mounts. Hopefully I'll be able to start it next weekend

 

In case anyone is still interested in this thread, I sold the whole project. The Kubota was all bolted in but business went south, my landlord told me to get the project out of the parking lot, my wife told me to sell it, etc. Good news is I learned a lot and I was able to sell most of the parts for close to what I paid so I'm not out too much money.
Now, I'm already planning out my next project for when I get a real job. I'm hoping to put a 4bd1t in my '98 F-150 that has the 5.4 v8.
Thanks for all of your help and suggestions over the past year. I've learned a lot thanks to you guys. Good luck with your projects!