Fox body clutch and cable setup questions

I am not 100% familiar with the Mustang clutch cable setup, so I thought I would run this by a few of you.

I am working on my buddies hatchback Mustang. He is not mechanically/car inclined and obtained this hatchback somehow (I have no idea). Anyway, he gets all excited when he talks about his 'racecar' Mustang. I finally got it running yesterday (bad gas, dead battery, fuel leak, etc) and did an inspection and test drove it. It seems to be your standard 302 with a T5, BBK shorty headers, aftermarket MAF, sub-frame connectors, 3" flowmaster H-pipe exhaust and it sounds to have an aftermarket cam in it (not sure which, he has no paperwork). It has an aftermarket oil pressure gauge and an inner fender mounted fuel pressure gauge. Right away this car says "bolt-on weekend project" car.

Anyway, the car was a nightmare to shift, the clutch pedal was SUPER stiff. At first, I noticed that the clutch was not totally disengaging, so I found it has a firewall adjuster (threaded billet piece, I suspect BBK because it has a BBK quadrant in it) and spun it out a turn or two. OK, so now the clutch disengaged completely, but it is still crazy stiff. After further inspection I also noticed that the clutch cable was breaking! It is literally being held together by only a few of the steel cable strands right at the quadrant, about 3 inches from the end of the cable.

I lifted it up and removed the cable from the fork end, and checked to make sure that the fork was moving freely, which it was. I also wanted to inspect the clutch to see how much life it has, but I cannot see anything. Apparently T-5s do not have inspection covers?

So I told him that it at least needs a new clutch cable. I also suspect that the previous owner installed some hardcore, super duty racing pressure plate which is what stretched and broke the current clutch cable in the first place.

Can you guys and gals recommend a quality clutch cable / quadrant setup (if I could just by a new BBK cable, that works too, as there is already an aluminum BBK quadrant installed). Or should I ditch the BBK quadrant all together?

And, if I am able to convince him to replace the clutch and pressure plate, can I get some recommendations on a decent (not crazy stiff) performance street kit? I have heard that the King Cobra kit is a nice street clutch.

If your feedback can be based on some other info about the car, ask away and I will do my best to answer it.

Thanks for you help!

 

If you have to have an adjustable cable, Steeda makes the one that I have had the best luck with. If you have a firewall adjuster and you can get away with the stock cable, I would use a stock Ford replacement. The pivot(on the cable) at the fork wears no matter which cable it is on the adjustable units. The King Cobra is a decent clutch with a mild engagement and good pedal feel in my opinion. Crazy torque numbers or repetative drag racing might require something more aggressive but they are hard to drive on the street. You're probably correct in your assumption of the overly stiff clutch if the cable otherwise looks ok but some pressure plates get very stiff as the clutch wears since you lose some of the leverage. Unfortunately checking wear is rather difficult but you can look through the fork hole and see how far the diaphragm fingers potrude away from the clutch cover. More than about 1/2" indicates thinner material on a stock clutch, the aftermarket are not as consistent. I would also do the cable 1st, JMHO

 

Thanks for the info.

So the Ford (or any cable?) will work with the firewall adjuster? I do not know if the adjusters are cable brand specific. Will the Ford cable also work with the BBK quadrant? Again, have never dealt with these before, thanks!

 

They "should" be cross compatible. The firewall adjuster just replaces the rubber bushing cable mount. I actually prefer the firewall adjuster since I've had issues with the pivot nut wearing on the clutch cable at the fork connection. Some quadrants have 2 hooks for the different cables so if its a little off, you can move it to the other hook. Right now I use the stock quadrant and a firewall adjuster in the Mav(which I just measured everything to fit Mustang specs for parts availability) but it will work with the BBK, Steeda, and UPR quadrants that I know of. I usually run the firewall adjuster all the way in, install the cable, then run the adjuster out until it puts very light tension on the cable. The light tension will prevent the release bearing noise Mustangs were famous for.

 

OK, great! Thanks for the help.

 

Last question, I promise.

How does this look to be a cable replacement? http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-M-7553-C302

 

That should be a good one to use. the Ford Motorsport cable used to be the one to go with, maybe its called Ford Racing now? I put one in and old mustang I was running and it was way smoother than the previous cables i used and stayed smooth longer. Right now I have a steeda cable in my 93 5.0, it came in the steeda kit with quadrant and adjuster. Im not to impressed. I have a pretty heavy pressure plate in my car. When I first put the cable in to replace the old worn out on i noticed a much smoother pedal.. Now 6 months later it is just as bad as the cable I replaced.

I think most of my cable issues are from the overkill pressure plate the previous owner put in this car. I would love to replace the clutch kit with a stock clutch and stop eating cable, and give my left leg a break.

On the clutch side, I used a King Cobra before and it wasnt too stiff. I have a Sachs clutch in my Maverick right now. I got the standard pressure plate and dual friction clutch disc. Seems to work good on the 300rwhp maverick with 3.89 gears. havent noticed any slippage. And it comes with the cable, quadrant, and adjuster, which were in Steeda bags in the box.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...ch_clutch+set_1134032_3571&keyword=clutch+set

 

Thanks for the info, Ryan.

 

That's the one I'd use. Just remove the rubber bushing on the firewall side and trim the retaining tabs(you'll see what I mean when you get the cable) and push it through the bushing.



On a side note: a heavy pressure plate wreaks havoc on pretty much any cable system since you basically are pulling a twisted cable bundle through a teflon lined sleeve.

 

Good points InjectedMav, forgot to mention the tabs.

Also It seems every cable I get from any brand has the metal bracket that bolts to the frame rail at a less than ideal location to get a good curve on the cable. I always route my cable through the opening between the Kmember and steeering rack. then if I use the bracket where it is pressed on the cable and bolt to the frame ir pushes the cable up too much and its not a smootch curve. I take the bracket off the cable and move it up about 4 inches and wedge it back onto the cable. It makes for a nice smooth even curve with no binds.

(I was referring to the cables being installed on a Fox Body, not a Maverick)

 

Thanks for the info! I am hoping that once the new cable is in, I can convince him to downgrade the pressure plate and go with a King Cobra kit.

Ok, thanks for the heads up.

 

Yea, I tried the FMS heavy duty, then the King Cobra, then realized that daily driving in traffic was tearing my knee to pieces, I went back to a stock Valeo replacement, but I'm relatively stock on the engine side so all is well in the universe

You're so right on the bracket location. I don't think they really know where it's supposed to go. All the Mustangs I've done cables in, I just leave the old bracket where it is and unwrap it from the old cable and reroute it where it fits well, with a gentle curve, as you mentioned.

 

One major area that a lot of people overlook is the fact that an aftermarket quadrant comes with washers and no instructions what to do with them. They are used to "align the quadrant as to make sure the cable pulls straight and NOT to one side or the other!" This helps to allow the least amount of pull required to disengage the clutch.
I use a KC clutch, FMS quadrant, BBK firewall adjuster and a stock OEM cable on my 84 Cougar/T-5.
Another thing that helps somewhat is to place a small dab of high temp caliper greese on the end of the cable where it attaches to the clutch fork. This is based on personal experience with trial and error and so far, this seems to be the combo that works the best with the least amount of pedal pressure.

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

i know im a little late to this post but i do concur with all that has been said.
a few other things i did for my and customers cars with great results is:
replace the input bearing retainer on the t5 with a steel one. the stock one is aluminum and will get all grooved from the throw out bearing.
my local clutch shop (southland clutch) will sell the king cobra pressure plate with a dual friction clutch disk. ive used this clutch in a 630hp to the tires car and it never slipped and always had easy clutch pedal effort. so see if you can find a clutch shop that will sell you this combo.
lastly get a timken throw out bearing. it the only one that i have ever goten decent life out of. others will get noisy and even fail quickly.