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Clutch return spring bracket

12K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  bertfam 
#1 ·
Hi all. Long time member but been pretty inactive. Now retired and ready to get back to playing with my cars. Several years ago I converted my '68 from an automatic to a 4 speed. I jury rigged something to hook the clutch return spring to on the engine end. My question is - does anybody have a picture of what this bracket looks like or can direct me to one in a catelog? I'm havin go luck finding one....

Thanks, Bob
 
#2 ·
Bob, this has been discussed before , what some guys did for the clutch return spring which was a long one, They used a stainless hose clamp to go around a header tube closest to your fork. They used one of those hose clamp holes as a connector , to allow the other end to the fork eye hole.

I am still looking but I have a picture of what I did since I use two spring. One from the fork eye to the Z bar, to keep the short adjuster rod from falling out. The other long spring went from that fork hole to a small L shape brake fastened under the steering gear.

Take a look at my photos, should be self descriptive. Crude but have lasted for the last 30 years.
 

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#3 ·
Thank you for the response Don. At least glad to know I'm not the only one having this issue. Thought I was missing something obvious. I'm not quite following what you did with the L bracket so if you find any more pics that would be great. I might try the hose clamp in the meantime as that's probably better then the jury rigging I did (long bracket coming off power brake booster (looks hideous) lol. I need to find an ordinal 4 speed car and see how the factory did it cuz it's not apparent to me how you avoid the power steering pump and the headers or exhaust manifold.

Thanks again.

Bob
 
#4 ·
The little L bracket was made off a piece of preforated angle material I trimed up.. It already had the holes on both sides so one side was fastened under sector via a self tapping screw. Its not a factory thing, just some place close the the fork.
Once you get under your car , you can see what there is to fasten to.
On some speed shifts, the short adjuster was falling out of the fork dimple, thus I added a spring from the Z bar to the fork eyelet , just to keep those to guys , together all the time.

The larger spring was to keep everyone in tension. This has been together for many years. Most guys use the hose clamp spring at the header tube for tension. Its a better inline pull but I don't like all that heat transfer to the small spring itself.

If you blow up that little bracket picture, you can see what it is as well as bolt.
 
#6 ·
Hi Bob....If you have stock exhaust manifolds the spring setup is shown on the 1968 AIM, UPC 7, Sheet C3. The spring hooks into a small hole on the backside of the engine mounting bracket (frame stand), then the other end of the spring hooks into an extension, and the other end of the extension hooks into the clutch throwout bearing fork. If you have headers then you need to be looking at a custom arrangement.
 
#9 ·
That's interesting Jared you could do that cause that is not the norm I think but good!
Not sure if the op has headers or not but this is what I did using our Kustom (original looking OEM repro's) Headers.
First the picture of what Jerry discussed in the AIM that show a thin rod and spring used to attach to the hole in the engine mount.


I then modified the thin rod so it could be attached elsewhere (top piece or one to right is what was used).


Then attached the one end to a brake hose bracket screw under the steering box. The AIM and modified rod-


Picture of it attached-


I then attached the original large diameter spring this way-
 
#10 ·
Not all frame stands have the hole. Many people that have headers put a muffler clamp etc. around a header tube that they can attach the spring to.
 
#11 ·
Chick and Kevin, those are some amazing photos ! You guys are incredible....thank you very much. I gotta get that thing up on the rack and rip out the hideous jury rig I put in....hahaha.

My '68 is kinda my rat around in car. I'm getting ready to dive into the rebuild of my '69 and I'll be bothering you guys a bunch more. 👀

Thanks to all that responded....

Bob
 
#13 ·
Your welcome Bob! As you can see there are many ways to go to get the job done BUT the route I chose was to use what was on the car and do a couple simple modifications to utilize original parts. The only thing modified was the rod and where it was located while using the original spring. My thought was that is what they have done back in the day. Have fun with the car and enjoy!
 
#15 ·
Rather than start another thread, we've run into an issue with our 4 speed clutch spring on a Big Block 1967 car with headers. Looking for some ideas as well.
Headers won't allow the stock big block return spring to moount, so you'll have to go with the small block setup.

You can see what parts you need from the AIM, UPC 7, Sheet C3, items 10 and 11. All the vendors carry them.

Ed
 
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