Smooth Clutch

I received the clutch pedal bearing kit and the clutch cable conversion kit from Mustang Steve on Friday. I wasn't able to begin the install process until Sunday afternoon since Saturday I spent the afternoon in wine country for Bethany's birthday with about 10 other people. Lauren worked on Sunday so she took her sister and Petey along. I went to church first so that I could teach the 5th and 6th grade boys and then stopped at my parents house on my way back home. I was at the house from about noon-4:45 working on the 'Stang today.

Clutch Pedal Support      -     Clutch Pedal     -    Brake Pedal   

I started off by pulling the parking brake and the cowl vent. Next I was able to loosen the nuts and bolts that held in the clutch pedal, brake pedal and the pedal support (mounted to the firewall and the dash. Both pedals came out easily and the entire pedal support was able to be removed through the opening for the gauge cluster. The parts looked a little rusty and in need of some TLC.

The first part I started working on was the clutch pedal since that was one of the primary parts that I was going to be working on today. I needed to bevel the top of the pedal at a 45 degree angle on both sides in order to weld on the quadrant in such a way that would allow me to grind the weld flush with the pedal but still allow the weld to hold.

Clutch Pedal

We used a clamp to hold the quadrant on to the clutch pedal after both the quadrant and the pedal had two 45 degree angles that met up to form a 90 degree angle. The two angles formed a valley that the weld would fill. Below you can see the quadrant welded onto the clutch pedal after I ground down the extra weld the sat higher than the clutch pedal.

Clutch Pedal with Mustang Steve Quadrant

The early style clutches installed in Mustangs used a heavy spring that mounted under the dash and onto a bracket on the clutch pedal which allowed the pedal to return to its original resting position once depressed. Installing the cable setup allows this heavy spring to be removed. I made the unfortunate mistake of also removing the bracket that is mounted to the clutch pedal. The bracket served a dual purpose: 1) To hold the clutch return spring and 2) To stop the clutch from coming up too far. I'll have to re-weld the bracket back on to the pedal after I sand off the POR-15 that I painted it with yesterday.

The next thing on the list was to install the roller bearing kit for the clutch pedal. This required us to knock out the pot metal bushings that were initially installed in the Mustang. Some cars have very worn bushings, but the ones in my Mustang were in great shape. I had my dad grind them down and knock them out so that we could get started. The first step was to clean up the support brace and clean the area around the opening so that I had a clean metal surface to weld. Next I welded in two large washers on the inside of the brace. Once they were welded in, I ground down the weld so that it was flush with the brace. The next step was to set and weld the bearing retainers on the outside of the brace.

Clutch pedal support with roller bearing sleeve welded

We put the entire setup together to ensure that everything fit together. I put a coat of POR-15 on all support brace, clutch pedal and brake pedal.

The next step is to re-weld on the spring bracket, coat it in POR-15 and then reassemble the pedal assembly. I'll still need to install the firewall brace where the clutch cable can be adjusted. I have to wait to install the firewall brace until the clutch pedal is in the car because it has to directly line up with the quadrant. I suppose I'll get to that another day.