The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks 63 3speed going to hydraulic from manual clutch

Have a 63 chevy 3speed on the coloumn. I am putting a 427bbc in in the spring and want to convert to the hydraulic style clutch that was in the 62' and earlier because of exhaust clearance problems with the mechanical linkage. Has anybody done this conversion before? Besides master cylinder change and assembly on the trans, what else needs swapped? Can I use the same pedal or do I need an assembly from an earlier year 60-62? Any help would be appreciated.

Here’s how I modified the hydraulic clutch on my 1960 when I added a power brake booster:

When I originally built the truck I switched from the granny 4 speed to a 350/350 automatic. After I swapped in the 1975 front suspension/disc brakes I also installed the Master Power Brakes booster and firewall plate. Many years later I switched back to a manual 4 speed and purchased the Master Power Brakes clutch cylinder bracket, which is set up to use a Tilton master cylinder on the driver side of the brake booster. A picture is shown at:

http://www.mpbrakes.com/products/product-detail.cfm?product_id=190.

This arrangement put the clutch master cylinder directly in front of the clutch pedal arm. My experience was this design didn't function well. The master cylinder was mounted too low, requiring some type of z-bar link to the pedal arm in order to keep the pedal ratio correct. It also flexed during operation with the clutch cylinder bumping into the booster.

As a result, I pulled the new parts and engineered my own design. I fabricated a larger firewall plate for support and mounted a Wilwood 3/4" master cylinder directly in front of the original clutch operating arm, which is to the right of the brake pedal on the far end of the pivot shaft. The arm is connected to the master cylinder with a heim joint, steel spacers and a grade 8 bolt. I attached the bolt with double nuts to allow tension adjustment and lock in place. By retaining operation of the stock actuating lever, the pedal leverage ratio remains unchanged.

I've included a couple of photos to clarify the installation and shape of the firewall plate and how the linkage connects under the dash.

[IMG]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7356/clutchcylinder01.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/6290/clutchrod01.jpg[/IMG]

The Wilwood master cylinder can be seen here:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WIL-260-1304/

Hydraulic clutch systems are normally designed with a 1 to 1 ratio between the master and slave cylinders (both are the same size). Quite by accident I used a ¾” master cylinder connected to a 7/8” slave cylinder. This decreases pedal pressure at the expense of travel, in effect providing a “power” clutch. This arrangement releases completely, so I’ve never bothered to correct it. If I were to change the slave cylinder to ¾”, I could lower the pedal closer to the floor for convenience, but this would also increase pedal pressure. Since it works perfectly I’m leaving it as is as I prefer the easier clutch operation.

For the slave cylinder I purchased a Novak kit designed to install a Chevy V8 in a Jeep. I believe they have changed the kit somewhat, but here’s what mine looks like. It's proven very rugged and dependable:

[IMG]http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/2950/hcr3installed2.jpg[/IMG]

And here’s a link to their site:

http://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/kit_hcrc.htm

It's a little spendy but it works perfectly. If a person were to retain the stock 1960 slave cylinder it would save some money, but the diameter of the original slave cylinder would have to be researched to make sure it’s compatible.

I can still order a slave assembly. Was used from 60-62, but also shows up in my 63 factory assembly manual. Just wasn't sure how big of a job it was going to be. If the clutch assembly wasn't mounted to the frame on the driver side the clearance wouldn't be an issue. Just thought the hydraulic clutch would give me more room to work with. I still have drum brakes all the way around. Maybe I should go to the clutch/brake style booster and do a seperate cylinder for the clutch down the road. Do you know if the pedals are the same for hydraulic/manual clutch

I'm almost certain the pedals are identical, although the lever on the passenger side end of the pivot may be different between 60-62 & 63-66. I bought an entire 63-66 mechanical linkage setup to put in my 1960 before I figured out how to do the separate master cylinder. When I disovered the original 1960 pedal arm had become loose on the pivot pin, I replaced it with the later pedal and its been working fine ever since.