Hydraulic Throw Out Bearing from Hell

My RPU is almost done. After three years of carefully putting this thing together I have suffered a frustrating setback. The RPU is channeled and Zed front and back so the floor space is at a premium, so I decided to go with a Mcleod HDTB. I assumed at $400.00 and the name I was buying a quality product.

Low and behold after installation and bleeding I've got a major leak from one of the braided lines. Luckily I was able to change it by going through the fork hole in the bell housing. After bleeding again and thinking I was done I've got a big puddle under the car. After inspection I determined that now the leak was coming from the piston and was going to require removal. This was a big pain because the floor hump is wrapped pretty tight around the trans.

Once removed I could tell that the piston seal had failed so I called Mcleod. They said this happens some times and that's why they include another set of seals with the bearing. (this should of been a clue). After giving this some thought I decided just to order a new bearing for two reasons. First I didn't want to take a chance that this bearing would fail again requiring me to have to take this trans out again and second I didn't want to wait weeks while it went back to Mcleod and had to travel back to me.

Well I received my new bearing ( this one was red and the other was black) so I assumed that some change in the design was done. I installed it observing all of precausions about over extending and pedal travel and bled it. I was so glad to have it done and the car back together.

Well, guess what, the second bearing is leaking worse then the first. Not only leaks when I push the pedal but will continue to gravity leak until the master is empty. This leads me to believe that the piston seal has blown again. That's two bearings, $800.00 and lots of time on my back under this car and it's going to have to come out again.

Not getting alot from Mcleod other then "this can happen" and "pull it out, reseal it, try it again and let us know". I'm going to pull it this weekend and see what I'm dealing with but I have a RAM bearing coming today from JEGGS just in case. I'm using a Wilwood 3/4 master and 6:1 pedal ratio so I don't think I have any problems their. Any Ideas would be helpfull.

 

that sucks man, i do the same shit cause i dont want to pull a trans more then i have to. My only advise is maybe soak the seals in laquer thiner to swell them, or put a little grease on them, Or like wheel cylinders that have oil to keep away rust, rub your hydrolic fluid on the moving parts and seals before install.

 

I ended up making my own pushrod, I did this and the pedal had less travel. This solved my problem. I dont think the piston can move as much as they say it can. Mine leaked also....I was convinced that they were "wrong" and not me...LOL
Mine was the bolt on to the muncie style. The free spinning might be different.

After all this, I ended up going back to a regular fork and bearing. I hated not having the " feel " of the pedal.
On another note, mine sold on ebay in a day.

 

I wish I could go to fork type but I just simply have no room. The ironic thing is I have a 32 roadster with a hydraulic bearing ( I bought it this way and have not had to open it up so I don,t know what brand) and put many miles on it with no problems.

 

I wish I could go to fork type but I just simply have no room. The ironic thing is I have a 32 roadster with a hydraulic bearing ( I bought it this way and have not had to open it up so I don,t know what brand) and put many miles on it with no problems.

 

I've had a McLeod unit in my car for maybe 15 years. In the beginning, I had problems with it leaking as well. I had to change the square ring (not O ring) several times. I was told to use different types of fluid to no avail. Finally I tried DOT 3 or 4 brake fluid and that seems to hold up.

I don't think McLeod has the best customer service - I'm currently dealing with them on another issue. Maybe they think we're just little guys and are not important - without us little guys, they'll be out of business!

 

i have a mcleod tob in my car. not many miles yet, but has been great. love the feel of it. hope i don't have same problems. can't remember what color mine was. hate being on my back. nice they swapped it.

 

Had a similar problem with a mcleod unit . Installed on a FE ford toploader worked fine in Washington get to b-ville and it only works out of first gear after the motor / trans had some rpm it wouldn't disengage. R&R trans 5 times on the salt then finally went to a mustang fork with toyota external hydro cyc plus a long trip to salt lake city!
I wouldn't buy anything mcleod again!!!

 

I had the same problem went through 3 seals finally bought a Tilton and oh so glad I did you can search for my old posts on this I'm betting it not your fault but in my opinion a WAY overpriced inferior engineered part my Tilton has work flawlessly from day one ! Knock on wood ! Now my only problem is my master cylinder will eat itself because of a slight mid alignment and no one makes a sleeved one so I will keep one in my car for when the sandcast bore is chewed up by the steel piston



Lumpy

 

I've said it a million times here, but my Quartermaster unit has about 100,000 miles on it with nary a drop leaked... I would recomend it to anyone!

 

Is it the throwout fork you don't have the clearance for, or the Z-bar and linkage?
You could use a hydraulic slave for a '60-'62 Chevy truck, mounted to a bracket on your bellhousing.

-Brad

 

Not enough room for the throw out fork. I removed the Mcleod bearing last night (it kicked my ass) looks like total seal failure. I'm starting to believe that a HTB is not in my future. Still waiting for the RAM bearing to arrive but I'm gonna look real hard at an external mount pull style slave cylinder even if I have to cut my pretty painted floor.

I think I will always be parinoid about this HTB set up.

 

sigfordjoe, to go through that many HTB's I would believe you are over extending the piston and blowing out the seal. I used a Tilton unit in my race car with a SBC and had to make a spacer to make it work correctly. I did not want to use one on my 46 Ford P/U, it is channeled 6". I made up the clutch linkage using the stock parts and some from a chevelle. Smooth as silk.

 

I've read so many threads on these things failing. Factory units last a lifetime while aftermarket ones last a day.

 

Got a cheap ass Howe in mine. Two years, no problems. When I designed the pedal linkage, I was very careful to not to exceed the maximum extension specified by Howe. I think that's the key to making any hydraulic throw out unit work reliably.

Bob

 

I'm also voting for a Howe HTB. I had 10k on mine before I sold the car with no problems. Perhaps I actually read the instructions which came with it which would be very unusual.

 

HOWE, TILTON, Quartermaster in no particular order.

 

I ran one of the speedway units and had a custom hose made, never had any problems. That sucks though, the kind of problems that leave builds sitting in the garage for far too long

 

I was very carefull to incorporate a pedal stop with the first bearing and when I installed the second, I adjusted it so as that if I ever got around to driving the car I know I would have to give it more travel. In fact I handled the installation of the second bearing like it was a bomb detinator, I was very careful and it still let go.

I think I'm going to re-engineer this system to an external slave. That way I won't be constantly worrying about it. I sent my HTB back to Mcleod today and they said they would either fix it or replace it. If anybody is looking for a good deal on a HTB I'm gonna sell it when it comes back.

And on a different note: May Bin Laden Rot in Hell !!!

 

That would be my experience as well, measuring correctly and getting the correct one is very important. The last one I did was for a customer. He had gotten one that was to short and would overextend and leak. I measured and got the correct one from McLeod and it was fine. I've seen them ordered to short and to long.

 

i bought my hydraulic release bearing from jeggs also it is the ram brand.
it will come with an assortment of shims to adjust the throwout brg to the right clearance.the only problem that i had was all the shims were the same size lol,and there was like 8 of em.i was lucky enough to be able to set up my clearances fine.the only problem i can think of that you will eventualy have is that that clutch disc will wear and the pressure plate fingers will change extend towards the release brg,so hence ur clearance just went away and now ur release brg is making contact with the clutch pressure plate release fingers,which is not good to have the release brg spinning contiunualy.

i myself would recomend an external slave cylinder so u can adjust the clutch when normal wear happens without have to remove that dam transfer case if 4x4 and trans just the change some little frickin shim.

what a lot of work "u think?"

 

You seem to have taken care with your installation, but I'm interested in some details. Are you using a 1300 or 1400 bearing? What was your "A" measurement? Did you have to swap pistons to get the required .100 - .300 finger clearance? How much push rod travel on the master cylinder before the pedal hits the stop?

 

bingo. and they are as cheap as $50 at any parts store in the USA if it does fail.

 

The bearing is a 1400 I can't tell you what the A measurement is without getting under and measuring again. I used an additional spacer sleeve to achive the required .100 clearance. I'm working with a 5.0 Ford engine, a T5 trans ans a late model Ford bell housing.

 

They are all from hell! - after replaceing two leaking ones I went back to the external slave cylinder set up I had made back in 68 when I first built my car. The problem is as I see it they over extend and the square cut seal rolls over and then leaks for ever more. What does not help is when your buddies get in the car to try your new clutch set up and pump the clutch pedal, even with a stop correctly set instant over extension!

 

Cable.......

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=210569&highlight=cable+clutch+conversion

 

I'm reactivating this thread because I just went through this with a MCCleod hydraulic bearing (I used the kit 14005-20). It is mounted on a T5 S10 5-speed adapted (Wilkap) to a Hudson 308 six in a '54 Hudson Hornet. I had two issues with mine. First after checking everything (and utilizing a Borescope, which is a must with this set up), I had fluid leaking from the bearing almost immediately (seeping out the ball housing). However, the unit continued to work and although I could not shift, I could see that the piston was still compressing the diaphragm of the pressure plate. I lengthened the pushrod to the master and with the engine running was able to shift into all gears even though reverse crunched. After several trials the leaking stopped and the unit continued to work. I called McCleod and they told me that fluid will pass onto the piston and it does this to a varying degree. I could see no leaking at the cable junctions. Now, though, when I depress the pedal to the point where the clutch disengages I hear a brief whistling sound like air escaping that goes away when I rengage the clutch. They have no answer for this. I will use the thing until it ultimately fails (seems to be inevitable) and switch to a bell mounted slave and fork. $500 down the tubes.

 

Just quoted myself after more than seven years. I don’t even remember writing that. I just ran into my own reply while looking for some suggestions on how to deal with a leaking McLeod bearing lol. At least my son is 18 now so he’s the one on his back. Just over 13k miles, been awhile but still irritating.

 

I recall the stock car guys favoring Howe's back in the day, the parts truck at the track had them. I considered one on my car, but opted for an external slave from Speedway... which has a minor leak.

 

Order a unit from Power Train Technology, 355 Point Court
Algonquin, IL 60102 (847) 458 2323. Finest quality, very knowledgeable, helpful people, friendly prices. I just used one of their hydraulic throwout bearing assemblies in my 34. They make beautiful stuff......that works.