[Racer_X]

The plates really need to be made in a way that the cross sectional area between the 2 bearing circles is maximized with as minimal of a HAZ as possible.Tht eplate also needs to be made so that it naturally pinches against the two bearing circles, and doesn't naturally pinch against the outer edges of the bell housing. That way you get a bit of "preload" on the plate without automatically adding extra stress to the outside of the bell housing. Also, it needs to be stress relieved (so it doesn't crack in the future and so it fits right). a LOT of the plates I have seen are not that great, but they are better than stock (the weld filler is stronger than the stock material :-P ). Ray's bracket is very to the point and should be fine to fix 99% of any problems people could have. it is also very difficult to F that up as no engineering design principles need to be applied to make it happen. You just put it in and tack weld it down. I still like how my bell housing plate came out the best, but a LOT of thought went into that. It's not exactly "mass production" or "commercial friendly" at all.