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Cable or hydraulic: which way to go on clutch linkage...


gwheeler

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Hello fellow Ford shoehorners! This is my first post, but I've been lurking for quite some time. For the last year and a half I've been working on getting a 1991 Mustang 5.0 HO motor (with EFI) and T5 in my 1972 240Z.

 

I finally fired it up this week, and boy was that a good feeling. I still have to do exhaust and cooling system, but first the clutch.

 

Should I use a cable linkage or slave cylinder? I bought a cable and adjustable quadrant when I put the clutch in (Ford Motorsport), and I sold the stock slave cylinder along with my Z's engine/tranny. But now I'm not sure which route would be easiest and yield the best results.

 

Comments, suggestions?

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I like that route. I already assembled the engine/clutch/tranny and installed it in the car, so I'd rather not do the hydraulic throwout bearing now.

 

I can make the angle bracket, and if I knew what car that slave cylinder was from, I'd look at the junk yards...

 

I do have some photos (and a movie) of my 500Z. I'm working on getting them up somewhere...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I installed a slave cylinder. I made an angle bracket and bolted it to the back of the bell housing. I bought the slave (Datsun pickup truck) from Napa, because it was compact and the ports are on the rear. I wanted to save as much room as possible for exhaust.

 

But... I don't have enough throw to completely disengage the clutch. :cry: The slave is 13/16ths and the stock master is 5/8ths, so I must not be pushing enough fluid. I'm thinking about going with a 13/16ths Tilton master cylinder for $70.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Photos are up. Check my profile for the URL.

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To make an educated guess here, you can compare the OEM Ford MC bore/SC bore, then I'd apply this ratio to your SC to derive the size of the new MC. The 13/16" SC's stroke will only be a little more than half of what the stroke of the 5/8" MC is. You will need to determine how much available stroke the current SC has. If it's about 1", then I'd say this matches the stroke at the MC (which is usually about 1" as well).

 

But aside from this extra work, yeah, I'd say try the same size up on top.

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To make an educated guess here, you can compare the OEM Ford MC bore/SC bore, then I'd apply this ratio to your SC to derive the size of the new MC.

 

Uhm, which Ford? Of course the Mustang used a cable...

 

I'm going to see if I can move the slave cylinder rod end closer inboard to the tranny, to get a little more leverage out of it. If that doesn't work, I'll go with a bigger master cylinder. If that still doesn't work, I'll go with a smaller slave. Sheesh.

 

Anyone know how much travel the clutch fork (T5) needs to completely disengage?

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  • 3 weeks later...

It works! Woohoo! I finally drove my 500Z down the street and back into the garage under its own power. Phew.

 

Here's what I did:

 

I used a Datsun pickup (mid 70's) slave cylinder, which was 3/4" bore, not 13/16" as I posted earlier. That combined with the 5/8" master cylinder did not give me enough travel to completely disengage the clutch. Besides, the clutch pedal was WAY too light. So I bought a Wilwood 1" m/c from Summit for $50. The reason I went with 1": I measured the m/c pushrod travel as 3/4". My slave has an available travel of about 1". So using a 1" m/c that is traveling 3/4" should give me at least 1" of travel at the 3/4" slave (1.3 inches if there were no free-play or air in the line). When I first tried the clutch after installing the m/c, it still wouldn't go into gear. That was a bad feeling. I measured the slave travel again, and I was only getting 7/8". So I bled the slave some more, and it finally worked! Now the clutch is nice and heavy (not too heavy), with a snap-over feeling and everything!

 

Sold the clutch cable kit on Ebay...

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