I been doing a complete resto of my 69 camaro, and ive been trying to put back as much new tech on it as i can, but keeping all the original backbone, motor, 4spd muncie-trans, etc. Anyway, the car is still in the building stages and I have been asking around about swapping the mechanical linkage for a hydraulic setup. I'm going to have about 30 in this car and i ain't parking it in the garage. I'm going to drive it. Anyway, i'd like to upgrade the feel of the clutch to an easy to push hydraulic style. Doing some searches on here gave me the impression that this was not an easy thing to do, but talking to a good friend of mine who is a mechanic and circle track driver.... he said that its not a big deal at all, that race car drivers do it all the time. He said basically, all I need to do is mount a slave cylinder on the engine or bellhousing to push on the clutch fork, then mount a Master on the firewall where the clutch pedal can depress it. He had a wilwood slave cylinder that he gave me to start with and said that just about any Master would work, but recommended one out of like an s-10 which are in the dozens at the local yards. I wanted to get some opinions from you guys, and maybe see if any of you have converted.
thanks,
bl

Why bother? The stock arrangement works fine, is mechanically simple, and doesn't require cobbling up mounts, brackets, plumbing, etc.

Just for the fact of how stiff the mechanical one is versus hydraulic.

well if you want it both
classic chevy 5 speed and kiesler have a hydrolic setup, other probably have one, but those are the only ones i know of
if you are going to do this i recomend calling classic chevy 5-speed, the customer service it amazing
http://www.classicchevy5speed.com/

I also have a 69 that I'm going to put a hydralic clutch in and have looked into this a little. I discovered there are 2 type of hydralic clutches, one that uses a slave cylinder to push the clutch fork and one that uses an hyrdralic throw out bearing. I was thinking that the one that uses the throwout bearing would reduce the amount of linkage still in the car. I was thinking this would be nice, since I am planning on putting in a big block in the car. Not sure if this type would work on a muncie or not. I know it will work on an TKO.

i've got a 65 Rambler wagon, and i had a mechanical clutch from a 83 z-28 in it.which was modifided, but I kept breaking the ball that goes to the frame rail.so now I'm wanting to convert it to a hydralic setup from an 88 camaro.have it all in but its not disingauging the clutch. I'm at a loss. the rod goes in the master till it bottoms out. if anyone has any ideas or suggestions i would be grateful. thxs

i've got a 65 Rambler wagon, and i had a mechanical clutch from a 83 z-28 in it.which was modifided, but I kept breaking the ball that goes to the frame rail.so now I'm wanting to convert it to a hydralic setup from an 88 camaro.have it all in but its not disingauging the clutch. I'm at a loss. the rod goes in the master till it bottoms out. if anyone has any ideas or suggestions i would be grateful. thxs

use a mityvac to bleed it

im assuming this setup is like the 4th gen with the slave/to bearing over the input shaft on the trans?

bl, look at "Speedway Motors.com".
they sent a catalog today, and it has a hydraulic throw out bearing listed for stock GM transmissions.
the hyd bearing would be a more-simple install as compared to having to mfg a mount and etc for a slave cylinder.
(fwiw: Ford has used hydraulic slave cyls on the throw-out since at-least the 80s; Corvette and others~GM have had hydraulic throw-out bearings since the 90s,, and I'm knowing cars, trucks, and machinery mfg'd way before that had hydraulic clutch assemblies of some fashion, so it's not a "new" idea, and not all that hard to accomplish).
we installed one in a Pro Street Camaro, but the install and application is beyond stock configuration, so nothing I could harvest for you from that would be beneficial,, other than to say,, "go for it". :yes::thumbsup:

Don't forget that some of our bell housings have a hole right in line w/ the other hole(s), threaded or unthreaded, that we can use to mount a stock, big truck slave cylinder in position for this.

My car's b/h hole is unthreaded.

pdq67