Starfury

So this afternoon I was driving down the road a few blocks from my house when I hear a 'CLANG!' "What the..." As I come up to the light and go to shift out of third (remember, 3sp m/t)...the clutch pedal falls to the floor. "Uhh...crap." I pulled off into a parking lot right next to Napa (ironic, considering I work there) to check it out. Took me a second to figure out that 3/4 of my clutch fork pushrod was missing, and apparently lying somewhere up the street. Explains the clang and the lack of clutch actuation. Had to call AAA to get my car towed the 1/2mi back to my house.

Upon inspection of the broken pushrod (I walked up the street and found it), it appears that it had been slowly approaching its doom. Only part of the break was clean; the rest looked like it had been worked at and exposed for a little while.

Oh well. Replacing the pushrod isn't a big deal (and it gives me an excuse to replace the z-bar bushings), I just have to find alternative transportation to school Monday and possibly Wednesday.

This should be a lesson to anyone who daily drives their car in college. Something will break at some point

plcdude

Sorry man.

Great story though. The joys of driving a classic.

Scott H.

.....

jonward786

at least nothing major has broken on mine yet...but you know who im calling when something does. and yes scott, cal poly is the best...i go there i would know

Starfury

I actually go to Cuesta (JC), not Poly. I started at Poly though, and I'm hopefully headed back at some point. Can't bike to Cuesta, though...

85lebaront2

Yeah, it's called fatigue failure. I work in a laboratory and we do failure analysis as one of our jobs. I see that quite a bit, what probably happened is the rod was bent and straightened at one time initiating the crack, after 31 years it finally broke the rest of the way. Glad it wasn't anything serious.

Oxnard Montalvo

Ford clutch equalizer bars are notoriously cheezy. The design itself is weak and the bar can't handle the constant use, especially when an old style HD clutch is installed as many were over the years. Get yourself one with extra gussets welded on.

If it's any consolation GMs aren't any better.

4reboy

Scott, I'm going to Cal Poly too! haha cal poly mustangs ftw...

sorry to hear that tad, I hope you can get it all fixed up so it's not too much of an inconvenience. Can you get the part at Napa and get a nice discount?

JamesW

http://whittz.com/v-web/gallery/z-bar?page=1

Some Ideas on strengthening...I'm sure you've already seen this

Starfury

Interesting, James. Wish I had the means to fabricate myself something like that.

In the meantime, that's the only real problem I've had with the mechanical linkage. There's nothing seriously wrong with the design, IMO. 40 years on a piece of heavily stressed steel isn't too shabby. I'm probably going to stick with the factory bellhousing/clutch linkage even when I swap to a TKO. I severely dislike cable and hydraulic clutches.

Oh, and no, reboy, I can't get parts like that from Napa. Mustang vendors only, and I kinda needed it fairly quick, so I had it sent down from M+. As much as I don't really like ordering from them, they're convenient.