Past Time

I'm in the same boat only my spins up to 3K then stops. Makes me wonder if it's at all accurate getting there as well. This will be a winter project for me. I heard Bob's Speedometer is supposed to be good and the best part is that he's within driving distance. Just waiting for the season to end before pulling everything apart. https://www.bobsspeedometer.com/

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.

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.

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.....

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.

Yep was just out there and went through most of this. I removed the spring on the fork, when I push the for back I have about 1/8" - 1/4" of play from the tip of the rod to the cup on the fork. Note that the adjustment in the rod is all the way to the end now so I doubt I could pull anymore adjustment into the rod. I just went out and grabbed the Z bar from the top and tried to move it. If I pulled hard I can feel play in the assembly but I may just be taking up the slack at the rod. It doesn't sound smooth at all when I do this and I can mover the bar side to side about 1/2". I got the car about 2 months ago with no documentation on the clutch. The clutch seems to lock up fine and will easily stall the car. When the rod was adjusted properly it released fine and drove very well.

Just went back out and took another look. The car is super clean underneath, no rust at all and all the nuts/bots look new. Looked at the trans mount on the tail shaft and the bolts there look new as well as the mount. No signs of ripping, tearing or damage. Did the same as with the motor mounts they look perfect as well. The adjustment on the clutch rod is the same as when the car drove perfectly 60 miles ago.. Unless the equalizer rod somehow bent or there's something going on in the bell housing or a bent/damaged fork or throw out bearing that's sticking on the output shaft I'm at a total lose.

I have not. Are you talking about on the cross brace?

Yeah I'm going to get under there again and take a look. No chance this is a bad pressure plate?

So everything seemed fine for a while but now I'm back to square one. As I drove the car the pedal started sinking lower and lower towards the floor. I'm at the point now where the linkage is adjusted all the way out to get that 1/8" of play but depressing the clutch pedal won't disengage the clutch. The car doesn't want to go into gear and grinds going into reverse. When I adjusted it this morning everything worked perfectly but deteriorated to this in the course of about 60 miles. Any ideas? I'm thinking pressure plate?

Stangs..... Just how bad is this to do? I looked at the kit and it says it needs to be welded in and since welding in not in my skill set well that would have to be out sourced. I do plan on doing some updates that include both dash bezels so I'll have the dash apart but not sure how nuts I need to be about this. Update to where I'm at now..... I finally got the spring back on and replaced the rod with the one I had the picture of but unfortunately it came in sharp as a pencil on the end. Yeah that lasted about 50 miles before the end was worn down about 1/4" which threw the clutch rod adjustment out of whack. I just got another from NPD and the end is much more blunt and rounded off. It's also about 1/4" longer. Both have the same part number and are both made by ACP. Got a third one from Amazon this afternoon and it's the same as the first one I got. The quality control on these is terrible. It's hard to see in the picture but if you look at the top one it's much pointier than the lower one. The lower rod is also 1/4" shorter than the top one. So what happens is the top one's point will wear down about another 1/4" so now you've lost a 1/2" in total length of the rod and will be all the way out to the end to get it into adjustment. Can't believe the metal they're using on these rods is that soft. So yeas the Amazon rod it going back too. As petty as it may seem that first rod is going back the next time I'm at NPD which seems to be getting pretty often lately. That rod was $23 and basically lasted 50 miles before it's near junk now. I'm going to try the new rod but there's a good chance I'm going to end up using the swivel on the new rod with the old rod. That one was in there probably 50 years and looks better than that POS first rod I got.

Oh wow thats simple and brilliant. Thanks you so much for the tip. Attaching to the firewall is still a carnival game but I had it once so I'll get it again. Thanks for including that picture too. It confirms that I had the wrong spring (which wasn't working) all along and I'll willing to bet this will fix the top travel problem.

Thank you for all the responses. I got a chance to pick up some parts at NPD (nice having a warehouse somewhat local to be able to go to) and installed most of what I picked up. I started with the new lower rod and bushing. This fixed part of the problem. If you look at the picture below you can see how the feral the adjustment rod passes through has become oblong. There's about a quarter inch of slop in it and the threads were binding in the hole. The bushing was also worn through and letting the feral sit on an angle which made the binding worse. The end of the rod that connects to the clutch fork lever is also very worn down in comparison to the replacement. After replacing these parts the pedal no longer sticks at the lower travel of the pedal throw. That said I don't believe I have the rod adjusted correctly as the pedal sits high in the car. So I do believe I've made progress here. Just need to figure out what I should be looking for on the adjustment for the lower rod. Last thing I want to do is adjust it incorrectly and screw up the throw out bearing. When I put the new rod in I basically measured the length of the existing rod from tip to the top of the locked nuts and did the same for the the new one but I don't think it's adjusted correctly as it sits. So looking at the 69 Diagram. What is is that they're showing for the adjustment? They show free play but I don't see a value. I'm assuming the 15 - 20 lb ft is the torque to lock the nuts together. Next was the upper return spring. I found the longer spring in the picture laying on top of the equalizer rod. As part of the parts run I picked up the lower one in the picture which I was able to identify and cross reference at several Mustang sites as the correct spring. Unfortunately I was not able to get this spring in. The master cylinder and clutch rod make getting it hooked to the firewall something akin to a carnival game. After about 45 minutes I finally was able to get it attached to the firewall but then could get it attached to the equalizer bar. Unless someone has the secret on how to do this I think the master cylinder is going to have to come out to give me room to attach the new spring.

Hmmmm. If that's good then does anyone have any idea why the clutch pedal would be sticking coming up the last 2"?