bigger clutch on 186

I have a 186, and bought an aussie 4 speed to fit to it. The 4 speed came with a flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate

I installed my old flywheel that has always been on my 186, and then found that the pressure plate was larger than my original. The clutch disc was also of larger diameter.

I decided that the significantly larger clutch surface area might be a good thing, so I then installed the flywheel that came with the 4 speed, along with the matching clutch gear.

When I installed the HG bell housing I found that the pressure plate snagged very slightly at the top of the bell hoiusing when the engine was rotated by hand.

I estimated that the snagging only involves less than 2mm, and contemplate a gentle grinding of the area inside the top of the alloy bell housing.

Has anyone else had this problem , and how did you resolve it?

hi there,
it's been a while since i had red motors but back in the day we would fit 1 tonner clutch & pressure plates as they were a "heavy duty" or you could have a V8 pressure plate.
you might have to introduce yourself to your local Repco or spare parts store and check what they have in store, take up what you have see if there is something smaller.
good luck with it, i,m sure it can be resolved fairly easy.

cheers Richo

I had a similar issue a few years ago when replacing the trimatic with a m20

Ended up chassing up everything stock no issues after a few years even with 15 inch rims 2.78 diff gears and occasionally towing

It sounds like you have a mix of early and late model clutch/bell housing.
Have you tried bolting up the later bell housing to see if there is more clearance
And then run the larger clutch.
I don't know if 202 bell housings are the same as 186 ones or not .
Even so running the smaller diameter clutch would not Be a problem as you could change the clutch plate and pressure plate to a different material and clamping pressure - pressure plate to up grade it