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1967 Mustang Hydraulic clutch by Driveline Components
Hi gang Dne’ here;)
This is an extra-ordinary blog for Classic cars and tools! Most everyone here knows (my followers that is) I’ve been working diligently on getting my 67 Mustang back on the road after Harvey (August 27, 2017)! It’s been a long road, but the past few months have been very interesting as I’ve hooked up with Red Roberts of Driveline Components Co, to fabricate a hydraulic clutch system for the 67 Mustang, not just my Mustang!!
Note: This system is designed for the Bendix 8″ factory (small) power brake booster, the larger 9″ diameter booster will not work!
Click on a picture to enlarge!
Red Roberts inc Driveline Components Co.
This blog is focused mainly on the installation ideas of the Driveline Components clutch master cylinder, not the throw-out bearing or slave cylinder as there are options for the release bearing. However, this is not an installation in the sense of steps, if one is pursuing this, you must have some current skills and common sense and willingness to “Go for It!”~ like me;) I offers tips, suggestions and encouragement;) and, if I can answer a question, just write!;)
The black booster I had bought from Amazon and the design is fairly popular, but that design will not work and I had to send it back! Now look at the factory Bendix booster? See the step indicated by my sloppy red circle? 😉 It must be this booster as it fits perfectly with Red’s Design;)
NOTE: I apologize, but this is kind of a long blog;)
I bought my rebuilt “Bendix” power brake booster at NAPA auto parts for a little over a hundred bucks. If one doesn’t have a core, add 45 bucks onto that.
This picture shows it best~ the clutch master cylinder and 25 degree adapter in close proximity to the booster, and is a perfect match!
LET’S TAKE A PEAK SHALL WE?;)
The 67 Mustang firewall poses a problem when fitting brake booster with the Driveline Components strengthening plate to its firewall due to the highs/lows and the nature of the firewall. Eons ago, wasn’t such a problem when the old mechanical clutch was in use, but we would wear the left leg out, but today with hydraulics, a clutch can be more fun than ever!
My 67 was an automatic trans with non-power brakes. To install a brake booster, the firewall has to be modified to accept the booster. To the right of the pic is a round indentation, “knock out” looking plug. Which is not a knock out, it has to be drilled out with a hole saw.
But gee Dne’, where do I drill the hole?? Notice on my crude picture, a very poorly looking hole sawed hole. Actually, the hole is perfectly round, there is some insulation showing making it appear crude. If one has the hole already gone, you’re good to go! But if not, there is the Knock looking plug, I’d think that one could drill a hole about 1/2″ in size a little towards the top of the knock out. Say take center of the knock out and mark up about 1/4″ and drill there. However, drilling the hole out to its original size offers plenty of room. Note that the clutch rod comes in at 25 degrees.
Though this blog is not about modifying the firewall for the new Bendix power booster, this is a template which can be found on the internet. When I installed mine, I didn’t have this template:(
Pictures can be clicked on for enlargement, helps a great deal;)
Here one can just make out the hole where the standard non-power master cylinder went. I wish I had known I was going to be cutting the hole in a different shape, then I could have painted it! lol Oh, it was so pretty!
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A bit about Red Roberts if you please: I was going to cut it down, but would sacrifice the heart of what he said, I feel it extremely important to acknowledge Reds Legacy and not cut him short. Below is his concise short story of the evolution up to today! I’m privileged!!
Denee’,
“The beginning was 1966, just out of the Air Force after 4 years, I began working for Bill Hays of Hays clutch fame. Worked there until he sold Hays in Dec. of 1968. I didn’t see eye to eye with the new owners and went to work for Harry Weber of Weber clutch fame. Harry and I parted ways in 1970 over commissions unpaid. Jan 2, 1971 I opened the doors to Mcleod Industries, now known as McLeod Racing. For 35 years I owned Mcleod and developed it into the name it has today. When I sold it to B & M in April of 2006 it was the leading high performance clutch company in the world.
Competitors tried coping us, Warehouse distributors needed our line and customers demanded it.
After B&M had it for 2-1/2 years they decided to sell it, so I contacted Paul Lee who owns it today to see if he would be interested. I didn’t want to go back to the rat race. He said he would if I would come back and put it back on its feet again. I did and in 2008 he bought Mcleod. I stayed until 2012.
When B&M didn’t want to continue with the shifter or starter products I had engineered and was very successful with they sold them to me in late 2006, at which time I established Red Roberts Inc, and then dba Driveline Components Co. in 2012 when I left McLeod I started to develop my own hydraulics. That brings us to today where my philosophy is make is small and simple, easy to install with no drilling or modifying the car. Now that holds true on most applications, but we are finding some Corvettes have to have some hole modifications in order to fit.
That’s it in a nutshell.”
Red
************************************ Thank you Red!!!! **************************************************
My Mustang now has a HO 5.0 with a T5 Transmission which came out of a ’90 Mustang police car, but how to go about buying a system was taxing.
Out of dumb luck, I was pointed in Red Roberts direction by Jeff at Performance parts warehouse as he was looking for a mechanic, fabricator, to help with measurements on the 67-8 Mustang firewall and test fitting the prototype parts. I’ve been communicating with Red over the past few months during the making of this new part, he’s down to earth and seems to put up with me pretty well! 😉
Here I had drilled out the hole for the new hydraulic clutch rod to go through, it doesn’t need to be this large, but this is the size of the original clutch rod hole. The other holes above and below that hole I did, disregard those. The small holes circled in green, those hold the clutch assembly to the firewall from INSIDE the car.
Dne’, how do I found out how to buy this, or find out a price?? If you’re interested, you can contact Jeff @ racetuning.com, he’s a really nice guy and I’ve been in communication with him since January;) https://www.racetuning.com/
IMPORTANT!! Installation of the strengthening plate: This plate is made to be installed independently of the brake power booster to be able to run hydraulics, “re-adjust” surrounding wiring, brake lines, if necessary. The top right 3/8 bolt in the plate is key in the plate to stay once all checks have been made. The other 3 bolts are installed temporarily for test purposes only; after setup, they are to be removed. The brake power booster will hold all this tightly into place and give rigidity to the firewall offering a sound firm installation;)
At this point, I’m pondering how to run the fluid line from the reservoir to the hydraulic clutch master cylinder and haven’t tightened the clamps yet.
This hadn’t been discussed too much, if at all, but there would be a gap between where the power booster goes through the plate and where they hydraulic clutch bolts. On a whim, I used some leftover seat foam, and some camper self adhesive to fill in the gaps. You may be more creative that I, but I needed to get this behind me as I have still much to do on my poor little Mustang;)
Red’s Says: “my philosophy is make it small and simple, easy to install with no drilling or modifying the car.”
What Red says is pretty much true for this installation, about the only hole that really need to be made was for the clutch rod and two screws to attach the remote fluid reservoir!
The pretty red Driveline components adapter comes in different angles to accommodate just about any make or model, this one here is a 25 degree adapter which lined up the workings perfectly!
Simple and consistent, should be relatively “easy” to install. Of course as We classic car folk, we will run into minor problems, but we ALWAYS figure out how to improvise, ad lib, whatever it takes to get the job done! oooorah!
At this point, it’s pretty straight forward. The special bracket bolts to the eyelet on the clutch arm(where the old manual clutch rod went). The long sleeve is left/right hand thread allowing for clutch pedal height.
Throw-out bearing decisions:
My T5 transmission came out of a ’90 Ford Mustang Police car. You’ll have to check with Red Roberts or Jeff at Performance parts warehouse for your application for whatever you’ll be using for a throw-out bearing system. Make your best decision with help and advice from the pro’s;)
As for slave cylinders and throw bearings. I chose this system below, the slave cylinder still being a Red Roberts design~ Driveline Components. There are the throw-out bearings which go inside the bell housing. Actually wish I had gone that direction, but I’m fine with what I bought as I am not pulling my transmission back out, exclamation point;) Gosh I’d hate pulling that back out again!:(
Driveline Components Co. You can contact Jeff at www.racetuning.com for purchasing or information.
I hope you’re enjoying my little blog(I really don’t like the word Blog, I prefer story;) Be sure to say something at the end (like Hello!) and subscribe to my Classic Cars and tools!;)
Mounting the reservoir was easy enough, proved to be convenient at this location. Just needs to be higher than the clutch master cylinder. I had cut a Philips driver short and inserted into an angled 90 degree die grinder and ran the screws in! ha ha
Here at the red circle, keep in mind the lower end master cylinder will be very close to the shock tower. That’s just the way it is/was. I can just squeeze my little pinky finger/ nail in between the spot I’m speaking of. If your particular Bendix booster has the long threads, might want to shorten them like in the picture. That will allow you to install the master cylinder with the booster already bolted up. The original way was to install the booster and master cylinder was in a tandem way; was a pain!
I chose to run a hard line, but there are flexible lines available. Again, Red Roberts design, I chose to run hard line, but flexible lines are available. If you order this, make sure it has the thicker plate!
Note: the plate holding the slave cylinder is made of 1/4″ plate. I noticed some flexing of it during my test of it. I did modify my plate to strengthen it, but in the future, the new plate will be made of either 5/16 or 3/8 plate! 😉
With the driver’s side exhaust header removed, one can get a good shot on the simplicity of this setup, but it’s easily to reach from below, well, a lift really helps!
If you are interested, you may contact Jeff @ https://www.racetuning.com/
I’m a ways from getting the Mustang on the road, but wanted to post this blog. I will be adding on updates as I progress of course about the Driveline Components system. So my dears, stay tuned! If there are questions, please write;)
Stay tuned!
dne’;) your friend and Classic Car enthusiast!
Other thoughts: Do you plan to upgrade to roller bearing for the clutch pedal? It wasn’t too difficult to install, but of course you need to remove the clutch/brake assembly to work it on the bench. If just putting new bushings, that would probably be OK as I don’t think it takes near as much pedal power to push the new clutch pedal down. The original manual clutch was pretty stiff and wear out the bushings pretty quickly.
Mustang Steve includes how to installation instructions, there may be a video out there somewhere.
I see MustangSteve also has a Power brake upgrade using the correct brake booster for the Driveline Components system! But you know it pays to shop;)
https://www.mustangsteve.com/product/pb-6770-mt/
The large flat bar looking appendage on the left of the clutch rod was originally for a really large return spring. I cut that off as it’s just in the way and just not necessary.
I’m cutting the clutch rod holder to remove them? lol I’m using a perfect size hole saw, gets down quickly then the part just fell off. I tried a die grinder, but that didn’t work.
New bearings in place, when together, it’s so easy to swing the clutch pedal! 😉
Another “other”
Red’s fabricator made most of the plate from dimensions that I sent, but I wound up using most of his plate, then painstakingly used a piece of 1/4″ plywood, cut it out on a band saw, worked in the area to just miss the speedometer hole. The top right Allen screw location in the plate posed a problem as it was right by a raised place in the firewall. I meticulously made it fit, then sent this “template” to Red. He sent back the exact piece made of 5/16″ plate.
That’s all for now! 😉 I apologize for the length of this blog, but I wanted to give ample information to help you make a decision or at least give information of a new product from Driveline components co, soon to be on the market if not already.
I suppose the big question is, Does it work? 😉 I’ve only backed my Mustang up, and gone forward a few times. The clutch is absolutely smooth, relatively easy to push the pedal to the floor. I’ll give a complete write-up soon as I get the Stang going in a few weeks, if not sooner. So, Stay tuned!
dne’ 😉
Hi! dne’ here! I hope you enjoyed this particular write-up as it’s special! It takes a lot of time putting these together to help you guys/gals! Please sign on and follow along, and write if you can, even just to say hello;)
ps: and if you wind up doing this particular upgrade~ let me know and how it went!! 😉
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admin - Posted in "My Projects" Blog Posts, 67 Mustang Coupe Blog Posts
Jul, 17, 2019
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those are nice parts.
Hey Cliff! Red Roberts of Driveline components really makes cool parts! He’s been doing it for a long time. He’s really nice too as I’ve spoken to him often during the process of making this thing! Thanks Cliff!!