Hey everyone, and I've been lurking for a month or so. My twin sons bought a 1978 Plymouth Volare to restore and while the mileage is only 85,000, it's been a painful 85,000. The interior is shot (easy to fix in a day at the junkyard and some fresh carpet and DIY headliner) but the engine turns over and runs easily. It is a Super Six, but the previous owner (It sounds better if I use the term "PO") decided to cobble together a hydraulic clutch instead of simply tracking down the right bits.
The result? A clutch that doesn't work due to the pedal linkages not properly actuating the MC and I'm really not interested in carving new holes and guessing - nor am I interested in throwing hundreds of dollars in guesses and lost days of fab work.
I'm in the process of tracking down all the pieces to rebuild it as a mechanical linkage - Brewers has most everything and I have already got a new Z-bar on the way. Fortunately, the PO did not monkey with the pedals and their brackets.
My question(s) are these ...Where (and how) does the ballstud mount on the bellhousing? I see there are what appears to be three holes for it, and I know that V8s use a bracket for the ballstud. Does the Slant and A230 use a bracket or does the ballstud simply screw into the bellhousing?
Next, how does the other side attach? Does it use the flat, three-holed piece like the late A-bodies or does it use a bracket that sits on top of the fram, similar to the late E-bodies?
I know if I can get the Z-bar aligned properly on the bellhousing, I can sort out the frame side, but if you guys who are a lot smarter than me can help with descriptions and even pictures, I'd really appreciate it. At the same time, I can teach the boys how it all goes together, rather than having to describe how we can "fabricate this" and "modify that".
Even though I'm a "new guy", I have read through nearly 200 pages of the site and the body of knowledge here is awesome. "Search" has produced some good stuff, and I'm sure when my manuals finally get here in the mail, it will help, but "real world" stuff is much easier for me to show the boys, teach, and share.

Thanks for all the knowledge here and your help in this next phase.

Chris

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Cree

Same for 1973-1976 A-bodies and the F-bodies bracket for the ballstud on the bell.




I'm kind of at a loss on this one, my late A-bodies all have one hole for the ball stud and a plate welded to the driver's side "uni"frame near the firewall with one hole that lines up with the hole in the fenderwell, the other "holes" might be the factory spotwelds below the hole?... the 1978 Aspen I have has a similar hole in the fenderwell just like it 9but no plate... it's an automatic car...).. If you don't have the plate, I did this conversion on a '67 Valiant with a late K frame... you can weld a piece of 1/4"-5/16" plate of the appropriate size to the frame and drill it to match the hole in the fender to keep the Z-bar straight and level....


I would also be on the hunt to upgrade that A-230 3 speed to an A-833OD "4 speed"... and then you can upgrade the rear gearing for fun and still keep the mileage.... FYI.

I'd love to convert it to a 4 speed, or an OD, and drop in a stronger rear end, but right now, it's my sons' car, and they are doing this on their budget, not mine. I'm happy to help them with my knowledge, but at $7.60/hour, most of their money is going in to gettign it running properly, tuning it up, and making iot look better- in that order. Now, if something falls in our lap? Absolutely, out with the old and in with the new.

My main focus is in getting the clutch linkages sorted out so we can get on to the "fun" stuff.

I appreciate the info I've gotten so far, and if anyone has (or can find) a picture of the linkages as they came originally, that would be great. So far, my Google-fu is turnign up nothing.

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Cree