Clutch Question

If you still have the original 3 finger pressure plate, that is why your car is difficult to shift. I would think a ten finger, modern clutch and pressure plate would help your situation, without having to swap to a hyd set up.

Like this, or similar...

Ford Racing M-7560-A302N - Ford Racing Clutch Kits - Overview - SummitRacing.com

It's entirely possible that the pedal support is badly worn, and not only does this cause additional friction, the alteration in geometry can make the pedal effort excessive. Last summer I repaired a bad pedal support in a 69 428. Prior to the repair, just moving the car around very nearly required using both feet on the clutch. I pulled the pedal support, and threw it away. I put a Drake bearing kit on (which is a pain, I had to grind down the washers to get the clips on) a used pedal bracket, and a new shaft, which was trashed.

Carefully adjusted to spec, didn't even replace the equalizer bushings.

Anyway, after that repair, any 12-year-old girl could have pushed the clutch in. Not bad for a 428 Cobra Jet.

It looked bad, and worked bad. Amazing how much pressure resulted from the slight change in geometry due to the damage:

rsweld said:

Thanks guys, I am going to be pulling the Tranny to have the flywheel surfaced (believe it may be warped) at this time I will install a new 10 finger pressure plate. Also after reading in the Shop Manual they show a clutch assist spring attached to the upper portion of the clutch pedal and goes to the clutch pedal support under the dash. This spring is missing.

Ron

Click to expand...

Holy cow, no wonder your leg is giving out. You'll need this:

Mustang Clutch Assist Spring and Pedal Removal and Installation

Oh, and just a trivia note- the 3-speed and 4-speed clutch setups were identical. Only the transmission itself was different.