guitarman376

I am in the beginning phases of building a bracket for an external slave cylinder for my toploader. I have borgeson steering hence no z bar. Trans is not in car yet, but I try and plan as much out as possible with big projects like this. I have the following questions:

1) How much travel do people's clutch forks have with toploaders? I am interested in the travel either at the tip of the fork or the recess where the z bar rod is supposed to touch. I have googled and forum searched for this but most info is for t5 clutch forks.

2) What is ideal with toploaders as far as clutch TOB preload? Just barely touching? Slightly not-touching? I would think constant contact is no good, but have read otherwise.

3) What is the deal with clutch/bellhousing/trans alignment? Did cars come from the factory with some kind of alignment aids/dowels? I don't know if this is something I need to worry about. I will be using a 164t fidanza aluminum flywheel with a 11" diaphragm clutch, factory aluminum bellhousing and have ARP flywheel bolts and pressure plate bolts.

4) ARP flywheel bolts came with "assembly lube". I know flywheel bolts should be torqued carefully, but thought flywheel bolts needed loctite not lube? No loctite?

5) Is it bad to reach maximum travel with a MC? I can see why you don't want this with a SC (seals blowing out). Blown seals are the main reason I won't trust internal hydraulic TOB, read too many problems about them. Yes I know they work, but they sure seem problematic from what I have read. Most that have options stick with fork style.

I might have more questions about these things later on, but appreciate all information people can provide. Especially regarding fork travel.

barstowpo

I know some people that have put in the Borgeson boxes and kept their z bars in 65 or 66 cars. This does not seem possible with the 69 or 70 cars I guess. I'm interested to see what you come up with. I would like to put power steering back on my 70 but I don't like the factory setup.

guitarman376

I have a pretty good plan as far as the bracket goes, I just wanted the fork travel information from someone with a toploader so that it gives me a better idea where to mount the slave on the fork. I don't want to have to redo anything.

barstowpo

I could measure the travel in mine but mine is not stock. I'm not sure mine is optimal.

guitarman376

What setup do you have? I might be interested in having you check depending...

barstowpo

It is a big block with a Lakewood scattershield. I am using a small bearing fork with as close to stock linkage pieces as I could find when I put it together. That was 20 years ago or so. Much of the stock stuff was obsolete back then and nothing was being reproduced yet. I'm using a toploader.

guitarman376

Are you using a factory style fork or is it an aftermarket one for the lakewood scattershield? You measuring may not be necessary, was hoping SOMEONE on here is running a factory small block toploader setup. I have no idea on length differences of forks bb vs sb or clutch differences. I am thinking it should be somewhere around 1.5-2" and I am actually considering making an adjustable mount on the fork just so that travel is not an issue and this would allow for some "tuning" of the system beyond just TOB preload.

barstowpo

I am using a stock fork.

guitarman376

In that case would it be too much trouble to check your fork travel when you have a chance? Thanks a bunch, appreciate it

barstowpo

I'll see what I can do. I have it stored in my trailer at the moment.