Drivetrain Clutch quadrant washers/spacers

sav22rem22

Active Member
Feb 6, 2020
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North Carolina
So I pulled the whole interior out of the car including everything under the dash for resto and I noticed there was already an aluminum quadrant installed on the car. However it had plenty of washers on both the shafts.
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I replaced the pedal rack and am now almost onto the reassembly stage and am not sure how many spacers need to be on each shaft. Anyone got any info on this? Another reason I’m asking is because when removing the pedal rack from the car the washers fell off and I just threw them back on and in no specific order
 
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Don’t have any washers on either of my cars. May have put them on there to keep it from rattling. I keep my clutch cable adjusted tight enough that they don’t rattle.

Wanted to point out that mine are BBK units and they do not come with spacers/washers. Just went out to the shop and rolled up under the dash to check alignment and the one in the TBird is centered so no issues.
 
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The washers are to better align the quadrant with the cable hole in the firewall.

Per Maximum Motorsports's clutch cable FAQ....

Why do you include spacers to adjust the quadrant position?
The spacers (washers) allow adjusting the position of the quadrant to be more precisely aligned with the hole in the firewall the cable passes through. Ford's tolerances are looser than ours; the stock quadrant may not be in the best alignment with the hole in the firewall. Misalignment will cause the inner cable to drag along the side of the outer housing as it exits the housing. That dragging causes friction, increasing pedal effort, and wears the cable housing prematurely. The washers allow placing the quadrant in good alignment with the cable as it passes through the firewall, which helps the cable operate more smoothly.


Edit: OldManRiver beat me to it. Oh well.... more information never hurts. My post is kinda the theory behind it. His post links to the actual how-to of installing the washers.
 
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Have the BBK quadrants on both of my car with no washers / spacers and have had zero issues for 20+ years. Granted I haven't daily driven the T-Bird since it was installed and quit daily driving the Coupe about 7 years after it was installed. Checked both cars over the weekend and the quadrants appear to be centered as needed. I adjust the cable sheath so there is zero slack in it so the throw out bearing is contacting the diaphragm fingers on the pressure plate and readjust this as the clutch wears. I do this at random intervals as I do not daily drive the cars. Was typing up how I do it but found MM tech write up on how to do it and it's describes the process way better than I can::


By no means am I saying that the washers / spacers are not necessary just saying that when I installed the BBK's on my cars they did not come with them and to my knowledge they still do not today.