Derek’s 67 is close to done, but I haven’t been home to work in the shop for quite a while. I would like to get it back on the road so I can free up some shop space to ultimately get back to focusing on the 65. Currently, he needs the clutch connected to the pedal, a new driveline, and an exhaust. At that point, it should be ready to start and figure out what needs attention to make it road worthy. Starting from the front, I decided to get the clutch working first.
With clutch linkage, we have 3 options. The original was the mechanical linkage. He had issues with it int he past causing too much binding on the pedals. Something must have been out of alignment as it started eating itself and causing damage around the pedal assembly. He is less excited for those potential problems in the future, so he decided against any type of mechanical linkage. Additionally, that’s off the table since the 68 block he put in it has no bos for the mechanical linkage to connect to.
Second option was hydraulic. I put the Modern Driveline hydraulic kit in my coupe with a T-5 transmission, so I have some experience with it. With that setup, you also have a choice of a hydraulic thrust bearing, inside the transmission, or an external slave piston/rod to move the arm. I used the thrust bearing approach, and it is nice, but I worry about any type of issues requiring the transmission to be dropped. Additionally, a hydraulic setup adds more complexity with a master cylinder and a fluid reservoir.
The third style is a cable, which is what I went with for this project. The kit just connects the clutch pedal to the stock T-5 clutch arm via a cable inside a housing. The one potential problem with this solution is routing the cable to avoid headers. Well, he has some pretty big headers and its a bit crowded under there, but I plan on making this work, but that might just add some challenge.
The kit requires a plat be mounted between the firewall on the engine side and the brake master cylinder. Seems straight forward, but it requires more than a few things be removed due to clearance, or just making things fit.
I was hoping to leave the master cylinder connected to the lines to avoid a brake bleeding later, but that didn’t work out. The coiled connections to the distribution block were too tight to get enough clearance to work.
As part of making room, I also removed the steering wheel and the column. This 67 has a solid shaft steering gear box, which makes things more difficult when dealing with the pedal assembly. I was able to get it out by removing the bolts to the gear box where it attaches to the frame rail, though as I was trying to get it back in, I’m not sure how I made it work. Going back in, I decided to just take off the link to the pitman arm and move the gear box shaft out of the way.
Once I got the pedal assembly out, I figured I should rebuild it to hopefully correct and avoid some of the problems it was having in the past. At first sight, it didn’t look too bad, just showing it’s age. Being an original 3 speed car means there is no required modifications on the petal assembly; It has a clutch pedal. That wont stop me from doing the optional modifications though.
Once I broke it down for inspection and blasting, I found the shaft that the brake pedal hangs from has an interesting wear pattern. I’m guessing someone rebuilt it in the past without putting the plastic guides back in. I thought of replacing the shaft, but adding a roller bearing kit and new plastic guides looks like it remove the friction points and should keep it serviceable. I don’t like reusing parts like this, but it’s not terrible and I don’t have a press to replace the shaft. I also don’t want to buy a new pedal if I can avoid the week of waiting for parts.
After some time in the blasting cabinet, then a little attention with a rattle can, its good to go. I like the look of my favorite paint, cast iron, so I did the lower parts in gloss black, but the upper parts in cast iron. You can see from the original that they were not originally painted past the black lower part, but I want some rust protection going forward. My lines were randomly chosen, so they are not well aligned with each other, but they are also not visible once installed. Not worth the work to try to find original measurements for me.
While assembling, I put the Scott Drake roller rebuild kit in, making sure to place the plastic guides on the brake pedal, then a touch of gear grease on the roller pins. Everything moves smooth with no trace of binding, or what might have caused the previous damage. The pedals were still good also, and they had original part numbers, so I reused them. I am assuming they were replaced by a prior owner who left off the plastic guides since they were not dry rotted like a 60 year old piece of rubber.
The last step for the pedal assembly is to attach the MDL cable clutch bracket. I didn’t like the steel look on it and the engine bay panel, so I painted both of them black with my engine bay rattle can I have on the shelf. The bracket on the pedal assembly wont be visible unless someone has their head on the floor in the footwell, but whatever. Now the cable has a place to connect to the clutch pedal.
As I started putting things together, a whole chain of issues showed up. The headers Derek put on were monstrous. They hung way low under the car, and he probably would have serious speed bump clearance issues when driving it. On top of that, they blocked the front access to the cable for the clutch on the bell housing. They were so close, I couldn’t even get the cable mounted in the housing, not to mention keep it from touching the headers and melting. So, I stepped back and did a bit of research on VMF and ordered some new headers.
I went with the JBA 1650SJS shown here. In comparison, Here they are sitting next to the headers that were on the car.
Once I got them installed, I confirmed the clearance on the cable down to the bellhousing and everything looked good in that department. I also ordered a cover for the transmission access hole which I will install once everything is done.
Getting the headers installed made it clear I was going to have an issue with the plug wires now hitting the headers on cylinder 7,8, and 4. I was using straight plug boots, but that left the boot sitting directly on the header. I ended up ordering some ceramic 90 degree boots and a crimper so I can put new ends on the plug wires before its ready for first firing. I think next time I have to do wires, I am just going to get some bulk ignition wire and make them all myself. Cleaner and right the first time at about the same cost.
On the upper side, the pedal assembly went back in once the cable was through the firewall in the new hole. It took a bit to figure out how to turn it and hold it to get it in position, but once I did, I am not sure why I was making it so hard. I connected the cable and secured the pedals back in. With big hands, its a bit of a challenge to get the cable connected, but patience will overcome.
I did run into a clearance issue with the new cable bracket on the firewall. The cap of my master cylinder just barely clears the bracket, but the retainer clip on top does not clear it. I can put the cap on after I bled the brakes, but I can’t secure it in place. I am going to have to do some grinding to get clearance on the bracket so I don’t have to do something silly like use a bungee cord around the master cylinder. I couldn’t move the bracket in any way that would give me clearance with this master, unmodified.
While it was out, I blasted and painted the steering column as part of the progression to a black interior from the original aqua. I also put a new wiring harness in the column since his was hacked up and the horn connector was broken, leaving the wire nothing to connect to and a non functioning horn.
When installing, I also replaced the rubber parts around the firewall, plus blasting and painting the metal retention bracket.
The last piece was a new black wheel, also replacing the original aqua. It has some tuning to get just right for the center ring, but for now I just need it steerable and ready to have the exhaust installed. For that, it’s going to a local shop who can cut and bend the tubes to get it set correctly so we can fire it up for the first time.