Clutch Slave Cylinder for Ford V8 (British V8 Newsletter, V12/I1 January 2004)

Clutch Slave Cylinder for Ford V8

This article appeared in The British V8 Newsletter - Volume XII, Issue 1 - January 2004

by: Dale Spooner

Unlike the BOP/Rover engines so popular with the British V8 conversion crowd, the clutch actuation lever in a Ford engine is pulled forward for clutch operation. In the Ford donor cars, this forward movement is accomplished by means of a cable arrangement. Although possible, implementing a cable arrangement in an MGB can be difficult. One workable solution to the reverse operation of the Ford clutch is to use a hydraulic throw-out bearing (HTOB), exactly as used in many BOP/Rover applications. The major drawback to using the HTOB is the inaccessibility of the HTOB for repairs should it become necessary (and it will, sooner or later).

Feeling that ownership of a Ford powered MGB created difficulties enough on its own, I didn't want to have to deal with pulling the engine and/or transmission just to fix a leaky slave cylinder. After a little bit of research, I came up with the external "pusher" slave cylinder arrangement shown in the accompanying photos.

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Construction of the mounting bracket is pretty straightforward, and should be obvious from the photos. This setup uses a 0.700" (down from the stock 0.750") Girling master cylinder. This combined with the 5/8" CNC slave cylinder (part # 305B) gives adequate travel and sensible pedal pressure. It's been a long time since I've driven anyone else's car so I can't give a direct comparison on the pedal effort, but it feels just fine to me. I used the Ford Motorsport 10.5" clutch. Running the line is also easy; it comes out of the pedal box and into a fitting that I bolted on the firewall shelf, then a flexible line down to the slave. It makes a very tidy looking installation as well. The fabrication is minimal, just a bracket for the slave, which bolts right to a T5 in existing holes. You'll notice that the bleeder is on the bottom. All I did was let it drain by gravity, pumped it a couple times, cracked the bleeder and no problem, bled perfectly.

I haven't yet figured out a clutch fork cover, but I'm still working on that.

Disclaimer: This page was researched and written by Dale Spooner. Views expressed are those of the author, and are provided without warrantee or guarantee. Apply at your own risk.