How crucial are pressure plate locating dowels/pins?

[coheed]

Finally tucking into the AX15 swap for my 3.4 and noticed that the pressure plate I have doesn't have holes for the locating dowel/pins. Looking at other clutch kits that would fit on rockauto some other pressure plates seem like they have holes that would be in the right location, but I don't want to buy a full clutch kit when I'm only going to be using the pressure plate. The pressure plate I have is the only one listed on RA for both the Comanche and the 91 2.8 S10 I'm cobbling parts together for this swap, and looking other places pressure plates by themselves aren't common for this application.

 

All that to say, would the clutch be fine with just the 6 bolts holding the pressure plate in place? I wouldn't think the torque of the 3.4 would be enough to make the pressure plate twist in place, but I don't know.

[pizzaman09]

From an engineering standpoint, those pins should only be utilized for alignment of the pressure plate to the flywheel.  The torque should be transmitted through the friction between the pressure plate flange and flywheel when the bolts are tight.

 

Assuming the bolts locate the pressure well, then there shouldn't be any issue.  I'd be a bit worried about it being perfectly centered from a balance standpoint.

[ratrapp]

i wouldnt run it without them.the bolts don't actually center the pressure plate,they just hold it in place.

[coheed]

6 hours ago, pizzaman09 said:

From an engineering standpoint, those pins should only be utilized for alignment of the pressure plate to the flywheel.  The torque should be transmitted through the friction between the pressure plate flange and flywheel when the bolts are tight.

 

Assuming the bolts locate the pressure well, then there shouldn't be any issue.  I'd be a bit worried about it being perfectly centered from a balance standpoint.

 

1 hour ago, ratrapp said:

i wouldnt run it without them.the bolts don't actually center the pressure plate,they just hold it in place.

Maybe I need to just bite the bullet and buy a clutch kit with a pressure plate that has the locating holes and just chuck the clutch it comes with. A little confused on why they would have pressure plates that don't have the holes and some that do if it's important for alignment and balance.

[Eagle_SX4]

3 hours ago, coheed said:

 

Maybe I need to just bite the bullet and buy a clutch kit with a pressure plate that has the locating holes and just chuck the clutch it comes with. A little confused on why they would have pressure plates that don't have the holes and some that do if it's important for alignment and balance.

You could try a local machine shop and see if putting dowel pins in the fly wheel is something they are willing to do. 

[coheed]

1 minute ago, Eagle_SX4 said:

You could try a local machine shop and see if putting dowel pins in the fly wheel is something they are willing to do. 

The flywheel wouldn't be the problem. There's not a good spot on the pressure plate for the pins to go into. They'd either be coming up where the springs around the outside of the plate are, or in the raised spots between the "feet" on it. I don't know if it would be cheaper to get a shop to make this pressure plate work with pins, or buy a $100-150 clutch pack.

[ratrapp]

maybe I'm misunderstanding,so your saying the flywheel doesnt have pins in it or places to install the pins?

[coheed]

32 minutes ago, ratrapp said:

maybe I'm misunderstanding,so your saying the flywheel doesnt have pins in it or places to install the pins?

No, there's spots on the flywheel to install the pins but if the holes on the pressure plate are lined up with the threaded holes on the flywheel there's no hole in the pressure plate for the pins to go into. And if I line up any one of the holes on the pressure plate with a locating pin location on the flywheel none of the pressure plate holes line up with the threaded holes in the flywheel. 

[Eagle_SX4]

On 9/5/2026 at 1:45 PM, coheed said:

Looking at this pic, you could get dowel pins added to the fly wheel at the locations the pressure plate needs them. Regardless of if there are other pin locations on the flywheel.

[coheed]

Even more confused. Ordered a brand new Luk clutch kit for a 91 2.8 S10, and the dowel holes don't line up with the brand new Luk flywheel. Looking at pics of other pressure plates and flywheels available it seems like they'd all have these problems.

 

The new one however, the bolt holes are offset from each other enough that when the bolts are in the pressure plate can't shift around. I'm gonna run this first and if I have issues I'll get holes added to the flywheel and use the other pressure plate.