Lower Clutch Rod.... Does this look right to you???

[Past Time 3]

Here's a picture looking down from the engine bay by the brake booster. Does the E Bar look bent to you? I'm getting the feeling this may be where my bind is.

[stangs-R-me 120]

4 hours ago, dream car said:

Sound like your new sharp clutch rod poked a hole on the clutch fork.  As you drove it made the hole larger and larger and cause the clutch paddle go lower and lower, that just my thought.

Been there done that !!

[Brian Conway 264]

OK The purpose of the clutch fork question is to ascertain the amount of travel it, the fork and throw out bearing, has going forward, toward the clutch levers/pressure plate, or back toward the trans.  With the lower spring off and the adjustment rod removed how much fork and throw out bearing travel is there along the trans snout ?  Does the fork and bearing slide easily ?  In the picture you can see the fork and bearing assembly.  Forward of the fork and bearing is the levers that activate the pressure plate.  Not in the picture is the trans snout that the assembly rides on.  Brian

[Boss429Dreamer 18]

7 hours ago, Past Time said:

Here's a picture looking down from the engine bay by the brake booster. Does the E Bar look bent to you? I'm getting the feeling this may be where my bind is.

Yes, it does seem bent. It should be perpendicular to the frame rail.

[Past Time 3]

I can't get to the car today as I'm doing the family thing and promised not crawl under the car. I'll get back under the car tomorrow, pull the rod and spring and see how much movement and how easily the fork moves. If I remember correctly I only had maybe inch of free travel before I couldn't move the lever by hand. It wasn't much.

 

The way that Z-bar looks to me that's where my bind/loss of movement is. To me it looks like its bent a good 1/2" out which would account for the difference in adjustment from what I'm seeing on my car to others I'm seeing on line. Why would the bar bend like this? I've read that bending a Z-bar isn't that uncommon but don't understand how this happens. The only thing I can think of is possibly a bind in the throw out bearing. Can't say what any of the PO's have done but I've never raced or beat on the car. this is a 351 2V so I can't see someone installing some kind of race clutch/pressure plate for this application.

 

If I have to replace this is there any advantage going with a setup like this?

https://opentrackerracing.com/product/roller-z-bar-clutch-rods-351c-351w-1967-1970-mustang/

The bar itself looks much stronger and I like the idea of the heim joints on the rod ends. I like doing these jobs just once if at all possible.

 

The other big challenge I'm seeing here Z-bar wise is I have a Cleveland and everything I'm seeing is for a Windsor. I think NPD has one that says usable as a replacement"  which would seem to be the best I'll get. The good news is NPD is like 45 minutes away.

 

Thanks again for everyone's responses. I feel like we're zeroing in on this.....

 

[stangs-R-me 120]

I did not know Open Tracker offered a kit like this ... looks nice ...  and it does say 351W & 351C '67-70 so that should work. 

[Past Time 3]

Right? Looks a lot stronger and I'd be willing to pay whatever to do over night shipping so I don't lose another week of our 3 month summer up here. MY biggest concern is that this is the symptom of a bad throw out bearing or pressure plate and changing this part will still lead me to more repairs and more importantly down time fixing issues in the trans. I'm OK with that too but at this point I just want it all done at the same time so I can get back to enjoying the car this summer. The rest of the car is running great (sound of me knocking on wood) but this is really bringing me down.  

 

I have to admit I'm close to looking at a T5 and a hydraulic clutch set up just to put this behind me but I fear having something like this installed would be $6K to $8K. Anyone have a realistic cost to have the conversion done? While I'm good doing light work I don't have a lift, trans jack or any of the higher end tools to attempt something this large on my own.

[Past Time 3]

So..... quite a bit of time has gone by and I've finally put this to bed. As with many of these types of issues there were several factors that ended contributing to the issue. And then there's the "while you're" in there stuff that happen as well as the "this isn't right" stuff that needed to be addressed. Here's some of the stuff that was repaired to get the pedal/clutch working like new again.....

• Pedal box - Yep the PITA pedal bushings were toast and took the clutch pedal with them. Ended up doing the Scott Drake bearing kit which made the pedal action light and wonderful.
• Clutch / Throw out bearing and Flywheel -  I think some of this was because the pedal and other items were bad but the throw out bearing and clutch were toast.
• Well that doesn't look right stuff
  • Turns out the master cylinder was leaking which was found while the trans was out so that came out and was replaced.
  • When we pulled the pedal box with found someone had pinched the starter switch circuit wires which were nearly shorted. That could have burned the car down so that was fixed.

So this was the first go around which work pretty good for nearly a month but slowly the pedal started not returning and the shifter started jamming again. So it was back to the shop. On the second go around we did the following...

• The clutch and throw out bearing were fine but the adjustment on the clutch link had changed. We decided to bite the bullet and pull the Z-Bar out of the car. Sure enough the Z-Bar had a crack that had started opening up that we didn't see the first time around. This time we replace all the bushings along with the Z-Bar.
• The bushings for the Z-Bar looked like they were never greased and could not be adjusted to work smoothly. These were changed as well.

So with all this done the  car now shifts very well and the pedal returns with authority. The roller setup on the peddles is the stuff and a worthy upgrade if your ever looking for a PITA job to do or are in there anyway.

So lesions learned.....

• Bring it all - For the amount of money I spent and frustration let alone the time I missed driving the car this summer, in hind site I would have replaced everything right off the bat. I think the Z-Bar, bushings and other misc parts were about $100. While I did manage to pick off some other issues along the way replacing everything from the pedal to the linkage would have been the smarter move. For the life of me I can't believe I didn't do it all to start with.

Anyway my thanks to everyone that helped with suggestions along this journey. So many times I see these threads that stop without the ending that I decided to go ahead and close this one out properly. Hope some of this can help someone else out along the way.

 

[Brian Conway 264]

Thanks for the follow up.  Always great to hear of a problem solved  Even better when the solution is described.  Brian