Just put a southbend dd in with new Ford hydraulics, and it's engaging off the floor. Was wondering if any one could get me a measurement from the fork to the outer housing. Wanted to see if the fork was bent since I didn't change it, I thought that was only a 7.3 Era problem. All I know is that when I put the slave in it only pushes the rod into the cylinder about a inch of you know what I mean. I'm thinking if it's not Bent maybe making a longer rod. It's the the same thing on the pedal side I don't feel it making contact till about half travel.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
6.4 zf6 fork bent?
- Thread starter gorace
- Start date
mikeeg02
New member
Do you have your old setup ? You already said it, but the first thing I'd check would be the rod length out of the slave. When I ordered a replacement on my old truck it came with a different length rod, that bottomed out the clutch before it tripped the clutch safety switch for starting. Completely changed where the clutch engaged too. I ended up pulling that rod and putting the original back in.
So I had a really hard time finding info, on modifying the hydraulics but what I did find is you can get a hydraulic fitting for a t56 for the slave to convert to a 3 or 4an line. The master is a fitting for a later model mustang easily found too then just order a line to length needed. You can switch over to aluminum master and slave which might help too. The plastic bracket that holds the master and pedal does wear out, not sure how much of a difference it makes but south Bend does sell a reinforced piece of metal to fix it or you might just get a new on since it probably takes a while for it to actually cause a problem mine has 160000. The older powerstrokes had a aluminum pedal assembly that held the master.
The master is already close to max travel so making a adjustable tie rod is not worth it in my opinion, plus the clutch switch is in the way also. I would just make sure you have a good bushing in the master rod, or upgrade to a steel tie rod 3/8 size female.
A new fork measures right at 2.5 from fork to bell on a 08 with a southbend clutch dd. Granted this might change with different clutches.
I tried decreasing the size of the slave by adding 2 pennies at the bottom of the slave with a hole drilled in them to give it a longer throw, and I extended the pushrod a 1/8 of a inch. This brought the pedal up to engaging about 3 inches off the floor.
The master is already close to max travel so making a adjustable tie rod is not worth it in my opinion, plus the clutch switch is in the way also. I would just make sure you have a good bushing in the master rod, or upgrade to a steel tie rod 3/8 size female.
A new fork measures right at 2.5 from fork to bell on a 08 with a southbend clutch dd. Granted this might change with different clutches.
I tried decreasing the size of the slave by adding 2 pennies at the bottom of the slave with a hole drilled in them to give it a longer throw, and I extended the pushrod a 1/8 of a inch. This brought the pedal up to engaging about 3 inches off the floor.
Last edited:
mikeeg02
New member
So ultimately the push rods length was too short that came with the slave from Ford?
mikeeg02
New member
Another issue I had, was I had replaced the slave and not the master. But I could never get the pair to bleed properly. The pedal would slowly deteriorate, until the clutch was unusable. There wasn't any leaks. But the problem was not cured until I got a new master also, then the system bled properly, and I found the rod length was incorrect.
I also found the adapters to go to a sae fitting so I could use a hydraulic line instead of the plastic bs.
All in all I learned don't touch it until it's broke. And then replace everything when it is. An intermittent clutch is utterly useless. But I know the rod length on the slave is more critical than most may imagine. Though as you've found, two pennies made all the difference for you.
I also found the adapters to go to a sae fitting so I could use a hydraulic line instead of the plastic bs.
All in all I learned don't touch it until it's broke. And then replace everything when it is. An intermittent clutch is utterly useless. But I know the rod length on the slave is more critical than most may imagine. Though as you've found, two pennies made all the difference for you.
I'm going to try a longer pushrod too, it's still hard to shift into low and reverse and gets worse when hot. The clutch defiantly engages lower when hot and in the morning when it's cold it shifts into low and reverse easlily. Right now I'm thinking of just putting in the steel braided 3 an line and if that doesn't do it switch over to the aluminum slave master combo.you said the line made a difference?
mikeeg02
New member
My truck is an 01. The truck I did all that on was a 93. I had gotten the parts from autozone, and they were aluminum instead of plastic and had a bleeder port on the slave.
