Just now setting up a hydraulic clutch for first time, including master cylinder and eternal slave cylinder. It all looks pretty straight forward, but really new to hydraulic clutch setups wanted to see if any of you gents might have some tips to make things go smoother. Typical Chevrolet clutch arm setup, non-adjustable clutch arm ball pivot. Master cylinder and clutch linkage are installed, slave cylinder mounted to bell housing bolts, and hydraulic line attached. Master and slave cylinders bled of air, best I can tell. Looking for tips on: How much gap between throw out bearing and clutch fingers? How much clearance needed between clutch and flywheel for effective disengagement? Any tips on ensuring full travel of slave cylinder piston? Should slave piston be pushed all the way back in its cylinder before adjusting slave rod to clutch arm? Thanks in advance.
I built my own set up,from bits,and pieces.I used a 55 Chevy bellhousing which is open at the bottom.To get as much release as I could I ended up with the bearing about .060-.090 from the fingers.Very little wasted travel since the slave doesnt have much to begin with.
I never measured the gap between the TOB and diaphragm (in my case). I know I have enough to allow me to drive 12,000 miles on it. I had originally set my pedal link too low on the pedal, crappy leverage. Moved it up to the stock hole and it was good. I mounted my brake and clutch master to a common 5/16" thick steel plate to stiffen it up. You really don't need that much travel at the fork, mine is around 1" and the slave is advertised as 1.25" travel. Look for wasted motion in everything. I used heim joints under the dash so there is zero slop there.
You should be sure to make the simple calculations on the clutch pedal arm ratio and on the clutch fork ratio to make sure you have or will be using an optimum overall ratio before you even start the bleeding process (which can also be a bit of a pain). - EM
Push the slave all the way in when adjusting, go for a little over a 1/16" clearance, be sure to put a spring on the throw-out arm, set the push-rod to master cyl clearance pretty close, when bleeding you may find the master cyl piston is slow on returning at first, give it time to fully return.
What are the bore diameters of your master and slave cylinders? How much master cylinder push rod travel do you have when you push the pedal from "rest" to fully depressed? Do you have a clutch pedal
I think you need to insure that you have enough travel for it to operate......but also need to check that you don't have too much travel. It is possible for the master cylinder to move the slave too far. Thats not good either as it can damage the slave cylinder or maybe the clutch. If you have an inspection cover on the bellhousing, I would remove it and watch the action as someone slowly pushes the clutch pedal. Once the disc is free, tell them to stop and let you know how much pedal travel remains. If its not a lot, have them continue depressing the pedal so you can see if you have enough or too much.
More info for you here, really usefull, ignore the 'jeep' bit, its all relevant https://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/clutches-etc/
Thanks, Neil. That was a great help, all around. Don't know if I will ever be back in England, but if so would love to visit your shop. Thanks again.
Thank you. Yes, I have an old school two piece Ansen bell housing, so I have a good, open look at what is going on with the setup.
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