Anyone put a hydraulic clutch in? Looking for T-5 Slave ideas

chepsk8

Founding Member
Jan 15, 2001
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Easton, PA
Working on Cobrask8, still determined to do the hydraulic conversion. I'm probably going to use a Wilwood 3/4" master cyl. for the pedal, but am looking for ideas for the slave cylinder.

I'm looking for ideas for what cylinder used, mounting brackets, and how your car drives. Pics are a plus. Trans and Bellhouseing are straight from my 88 GT donor.

Thanks! :nice:
 
chepsk8 said:
JK,

Neat Install! Same theory I was going to follow, including a "block" on the clutch pedal. who's slave cylinder did you use, and is it a puller or pusher?

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. the slave is a pusher. I got my hydralic parts from http://www.mckenzies.com/parts all the parts were CNC brand. Really ti was pretty easy and straight forward to set up. The hardest part was probable getting the angles right for the clutch pedal to operate properly.
 
jikelly,

Did some more digging, is this the parts list you used for the CNC parts?

Master Cyl: 701-5/8

Slave Cyl: 305 with 1312 Push Rod

Talked with them on the phone at McKenzies, good folks!
 
Sorry it took me a while to reply again. I thought I had the part numbers listed on my webpage. Anyway if you get stuck or have questions fill free to email me. I PMed you the address. Good luck!
 
I went with the McCleod T/O bearing because of space limitations in my Ranger ( V8 W/ Toploader 4 speed) , If not for that , I would have gone with an external slave setup, they're cheaper and easier to adjust. And yes the McCleod needs adjusting too, anyone who says different, hasn't had one long enough to need to adjust it, and it is a pain in the butt to adjust it, :bang: without pulling the transmission out completely. The McCleod leaked after a month, I had to re-engineer the banjo fittings to cure the problem, with no help from McCleod :notnice: , but I see they came up with a similar fix that I did, maybe they got the idea from some of my post's about their T/O bearing.
 
D.Hearne said:
I went with the McCleod T/O bearing because of space limitations in my Ranger ( V8 W/ Toploader 4 speed) , If not for that , I would have gone with an external slave setup, they're cheaper and easier to adjust. And yes the McCleod needs adjusting too, anyone who says different, hasn't had one long enough to need to adjust it, and it is a pain in the butt to adjust it, :bang: without pulling the transmission out completely. The McCleod leaked after a month, I had to re-engineer the banjo fittings to cure the problem, with no help from McCleod :notnice: , but I see they came up with a similar fix that I did, maybe they got the idea from some of my post's about their T/O bearing.

Which beaing did you get? The slip on style has adjustng screws/sleve, but the bolt on style has no provisions for adjustment. The bolt ons use a constant running bearing that rides ont the finges. As the clutch wears the rising fingers push the piston back into the housing. When you set up the bolt on vrsion you need a clearance of .100 to .300" for the self adjustment. Also, did you ever contact McLeod regarding your bearing? Mine was the original banjo style and even though it never leaked I decided to upgrade it to the AN fittings since I had the trans out of the car. I called McLeod to get a rebuild kit and they said to bring it to them. They did the uprade and a rebuild for no charge.
 
Well it's been 3 years since all this happened, but I do recall that I never could get either a live or competent person on the phone to get help. I do recall McCleod's failure to remedy the situation though. Mine's the slip fit version, and has an adjuster screw built in. It does need adjusting after a year or so, when the clutch wears further than the adjustment limitations McCleod built into the bearing. I know this is true, after bending the pushrod to the master cylinder when the bearing got extended out to it's stop when the clutch wore enough to allow this to happen. And it's a bitch to adjust the screw, with the transmission in place. But as I said, it can be done without pulling the trans completely out of the vehicle, with the use of a couple of old small block head bolts, with the heads removed. An external slave, would be a cinch to adjust.
 
chepsk8 said:
Working on Cobrask8, still determined to do the hydraulic conversion. I'm probably going to use a Wilwood 3/4" master cyl. for the pedal, but am looking for ideas for the slave cylinder.

I'm looking for ideas for what cylinder used, mounting brackets, and how your car drives. Pics are a plus. Trans and Bellhouseing are straight from my 88 GT donor.

Thanks! :nice:


Kauffmann makes a bracket and slave cylinder adapter kit for the Ranger 5.0 /T5 swap; you might want to check that out. A slave cylinder that can be replaced through most auto parts stores has its advantages.