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Cable actuated clutches.

Posted By: Commando1

Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 01:53 PM

I'll cut to the chase.
I have an app where the conventional mechanical clutch and a hydraulic clutch just won't work.
Going cable was recommended by a few. I know nothing about them. Googling told me it's a very popular conversion with the Mustang guys. Otherwise, as far as sources and other info, details were minimal.
Anybody gone this route on an old Mopar? I need a starting point to research this more to come up with a configuration to fo fit my needs.
Posted By: OzHemi

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 02:11 PM

Personally I would shy away from them, as cables stretch and what not (I had a car with a cable and went to hydraulic) but like you said, it is commmon..all of the fox body Mustangs use a cable (and then try to fix the setup with adjustable do-dads and what not ...at least my buddy needed that on his)

Just check out a fox body car to see if you could swap it all over if you were curious..
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 03:08 PM

Quote:

Personally I would shy away from them, as cables stretch and what not (


I agree. I was dead against the cable option. But, unfortunately, it is now my last and only option. Just hoping someone has done it to a Mopar, for good or bad...
So this isn't really a thread to discuss the merits of mechanical vs. hydraulic vs. cable. I know those already.
Posted By: radar

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 04:01 PM

I would go to an industrial or truck service place where they can make you a bad a$$ cable like on a b&m shifter but thicker. You should be able to fab up a pull type setup as long as the clutch cable terminates behind the bell. I would maybe look into fabbing up a longer throwout fork to get more leverage and save on pedal effort and cable wear.

I think the mustang ones have plastic parts in them- its a weak spot if you put in a stiff clutch.

Good luck!
Posted By: DAYCLONA

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 04:11 PM

I worked on enough Chevy Vegas and VW's in the day to know how UNreliable cable clutches were/are, the Vega cables were pretty stout too,...but just don't last due to stretch, or the sheath being burned thru due to heat or just plain friction,...either way no clutch activation,....you have ABSOLUTELY NO OPTION???? for hyd or mechanical?....
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 06:24 PM

Quote:

..you have ABSOLUTELY NO OPTION???? for hyd or mechanical?....


If you saw it, you'd agree.
It's, ummmm.... Unique.
But it will get done.
Posted By: stumpy

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 07:37 PM

Have you looked into the wilwood pedal assys. They have the hrdraulic cylinder attached to the pedal. They have either floor mounted or drop down style.
Posted By: DAYCLONA

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 08:10 PM

Quote:

Quote:

..you have ABSOLUTELY NO OPTION???? for hyd or mechanical?....


If you saw it, you'd agree.
It's, ummmm.... Unique.
But it will get done.






you have the option with a hydualic set up to have the throwout bearing itself operate, or use a hydualic slave cylinder to activate an arm, activating the TO bearing,...I assume your using a TO bearing?
Posted By: 6bblFLASH

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 10:08 PM

I have a cable in my Cuda`. Made everthing from scratch except the cable. Its a 1/4 MORSE cable and plenty strong.
There is NO reason you could not make it work also.
I would`nt expect it to last 100,000mi. with an 18spd gearbox tho.
Street or strip?

Attached picture 5941265-Thompson09`#2.jpg
Posted By: tahoechallenge

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 11:27 PM

The cable clutches seemed to work good in the k based mopars. Maybe you could adapt one of those.
Posted By: DaytonaTurbo

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 11:31 PM

All the 80's fwd mopars had them. No problems. You replace the clutch cable once in the lifetime of the car.
Posted By: DAYCLONA

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/22/10 11:44 PM

Quote:

All the 80's fwd mopars had them. No problems. You replace the clutch cable once in the lifetime of the car.







But the "lifetime" of an 80's FWD mopar was usually no more 5 years, (hence the 5/50 ) or when the transaxle blew, or the head cracked at 60K, or the head gasket went around at 40K+
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/23/10 08:03 PM

Quote:

I have a cable in my Cuda`. Made everthing from scratch except the cable. Its a 1/4 MORSE cable and plenty strong.
Street or strip?



Yah, I've been burning the midnight oil studying this and it will have to be fabbed/modded/whatever almost from scratch using aftermarket components. You wouldn't have any pics of your setup, would you? I'm assuming the cable attachment to the clutch pedal has to be above the pivot point so as to "pull" the cable when stepping on the clutch? Yes?


Re: TO bearing. Yes.
Re: Street or strip. Street.
Posted By: Magnum

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/24/10 09:07 PM

The cable would be 3rd on my list of favourable clutch control. Hydraulic, linkage (especially on a Mopar since parts are available) then cable.

The problem with a fox Mustang cable is they hold the sheath and pull the cable from in the car. The system is called a quadrant and would require a pile of work to retrofit into something else.

As for cables stretching. No, Mustang cables last thousands of miles and many years pulling on 3200lbs pressure plates all day long. Some minor stretch would not steer me away from this idea. Even if it did, a few turns of the thread would easily fix.
Posted By: DaytonaTurbo

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/24/10 10:50 PM

Quote:

I'm assuming the cable attachment to the clutch pedal has to be above the pivot point so as to "pull" the cable when stepping on the clutch? Yes?




Yes, this is what chrysler did in the 80's on the fwds. They had a bracket on the strut tower to hole the cable sleeve, then the pedal pulled on the cable. On the trans end, the trans had a boss for the cable sleeve to sit in, then the cable itself pulled on the clutch fork. Seems to me the idea would be pretty easy to make work on another vehicle, the only hard part would be setting up the clutch pedal for pull operation. You should grab a junkyard clutch pedal from one of these cars and make it work. You could even cut the pedal part off and weld on your pedal/arm so it still looked like a stock clutch.
Posted By: 474218

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/24/10 11:49 PM

Quote:



Yes, this is what chrysler did in the 80's on the fwds. They had a bracket on the strut tower to hole the cable sleeve, then the pedal pulled on the cable. On the trans end, the trans had a boss for the cable sleeve to sit in, then the cable itself pulled on the clutch fork. Seems to me the idea would be pretty easy to make work on another vehicle, the only hard part would be setting up the clutch pedal for pull operation. You should grab a junkyard clutch pedal from one of these cars and make it work. You could even cut the pedal part off and weld on your pedal/arm so it still looked like a stock clutch.




I have had four FWD Mopars with cable operated clutches. I put on close to 750,000 miles on them and only had one clutch cable failure. As for strech they have a built-in adjuster on the pedel assembly.
Posted By: NV69B7RR

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/25/10 04:28 AM

Since this a custom application make sure you route it away from exhaust if you use a Fox body one. Cause once the insides melt you are going nowhere ! This a common problem on the older Mustang T-5 conversions. The problem comes from the cable being pointed straight out for several inches before it can bent out of the way of the headers.
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/25/10 05:58 PM

OK. This is good. I'm getting somewhere on this.

Like I said, although not my preference, I'm going the cable route.

I now have an extra brake pedal assy. that fits my car. I have a Jeep clutch pedal assembly that looks like it will be very easy to graft the clutch pedal onto my brake assy.

I'm getting the cable from Summit as suggested earlier. It looks like a good strong cable.

QUESTION:
While engineering this fabrication, how much "pull" should I allow in terms of length?
In other words, how long a pull on the cable will allow for the full travel of the clutch fork?

Posted By: Fury Fan

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/25/10 07:47 PM

We can't really answer what the distance of pull is, depends on the geometry of the fork. If you have the parts somewhat assembled, push on the fork and see what distance you need.

Keep in mind also, the more curves in the cable the more travel you need on your pedal. the cable will want to go to insides/outsides of the sheath, so it causes length inefficiency.

Mcmaster.com has lots of cables you can search thru, lots of sizes and cable ends.
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/25/10 08:29 PM

Quote:

We can't really answer what the distance of pull is, depends on the geometry of the fork...


I should have said 'roughly'...
...very, roughly, in general, aproximately, ballpark range, close enough for government work...
Posted By: Fury Fan

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/26/10 02:10 AM

Upon reading the start of this thread I presumed you were working on an oddball non-Mopar project. If it's Mopar, give us some details and we can help further.

For rough guesses, I'd say 2-4" ought to cover most car and pickup applications.

You're not working on a 65 Fury 4-speed are you?
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 04/26/10 01:44 PM

Quote:


You're not working on a 65 Fury 4-speed are you?


No. Been there, done that already. I could do that one in my sleep now.

It's a 76 New Yorker.
440 w/Tremec 5 speed top loader.
And before the suggestions come fast and furious, NOTHING is adabtable from 73 and earlier C's.
Posted By: kim smith

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 05/21/10 01:58 PM

I used http://cmacable.com through the entire process of modifying my ATV. They have A+ customer service and an excellent line of cable and restraints. If you are looking for Mechanical Cables cma is the way to go!
Posted By: Commando1

Re: Cable actuated clutches. - 05/21/10 06:28 PM

Quote:

I used http://cmacable.com through the entire process


WOW. Killer link. Thanks

They'll actually do onesies and twosies?
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