Learn me cheap hydraulic clutch stuff

I determined last night that the naskart project is going to need to get interesting for clutch actuation. The bellhousing and clutch and Saginaw four speed are all 70s units. 

Theres not enough room for a pull slave to the clutch release arm. And im not sure if theres a push slave i could mount to the block and actuate the clutch via a severely shortened clutch arm. 

My miata uses a late 90s camaro t5 with a hydraulic throw out bearing buried deep within the bellhousing and a pair of hoses exiting the side. 

I think this will be the solution for the naskart. Id run a remote bleeder on an an line up to the firewall for packaging reasons vs the extra long bleed screw gm gave me. 

Google has kits available for a few hundred bucks for the old four speeds,  however sonce im using this setup for an ls amd im cheap i think I want to roll my own. 

I have the pedal and master already setup with my wilwood pedal box. 

So, how do i know which slave to get? Free play? Retention inside the bellhousing? What am i not thinking of?

In short, learn me hydraulic clutch conversion 

Nobody? Im suprised! Did I finally get the unanswerable learn me?

The aftermarket concentric slave retrofit kits (RAM, etc.) that you mentioned are all I'm really aware of. I don't know of a DIY way to get a slave mounted inside the bell housing.

Otherwise, if you have room for a push-style slave, you may want to roll your own bracket like this one to use a cheap generic external slave.

Pictures Micheal! Pictures! What's the inside of the 4 speed bellhousing look like? Did I give you one of the LS1 F body internal slave cylinders?  Will the old school clutch mesh up with an LS style internal slave?

I would think that any of the internal bell slaves can work but you most likely will need to modify the front bearing/seal retainer for the input shaft so you have something to mount the slave to.  Very much like the slave mount for the T5 on your Camaro.  I just finished doing a hydro clutch on an old school 1974 Capri. Of course it wasn't that hard to mount the slave as the V6 engine had a Mustang V8 T5 trans already installed. I also had a Camaro style T5 trans I bought for $60 bucks some years ago and so I just swapped the input shaft bearing retainer and source a slave for a 2005 Mustang. The V6 models still used T5 trans. Then I just had to figure out where to mount the master. That ended up under the dash bolted to the side of the steering column support. Then I just modified the clutch pedal and no more cables!

I had a nice long post last night, but my phone ate it. 

The standard t5 slave is what made me think its possible to retrofit a cheap parts store replacement vs the $150+ commercially available slave. Id also have to believe with the number of vendors and brands of identical slave cylinders that it has to be an oe application that has been reboxed 

The commercial slave:

What i am working with is a standard gm bbc/truck bell

There is not enough room in the trans tunnel for the stock style clutch rod at full length or a pull style slave. I could probably used a push style with a significantly shorter clutch fork though. But then i worry about travel, and have no idea how to engineer that. 

I know for most t5 swaps into v8 rangers we use the 280z slave and a stock 3/4" master and a braided line connecting the two.

The slave bolted to the trans bellhousing bolts with a piece of angle iron. You then make a pushrod to fit.

I would say look at DSM and Hyundai slave cylinders. They are pull type(when pedal is released), very compact and readily available(cheap at $20).


Would that work?

Any chance of using a Camaro T5 bellhousing?  Might be more swappable.

If you are using a steel non SFI bellhousing, I wonder if you could relocate the clutch fork to the right side, where you could put a pull slave cylinder and not have to worry about the shift linkage being in the way.

I would be tempted to purchase one of these and just see if you can modify it to work.   If you could find measurements from the gap to the clutch fingers from the T56/LS1 combo it's designed for you could possibly replicate it.  

2002-Camaro Slave $42 rock auto

This appears to have plenty of meat in it's super cheap casting base to drill holes where you need them for retention.  

Concentric slaves are pretty easy.   They just expand and push against the fingers and the bell housing.   As long as they will clear your input shaft and are short enough some spacers should get you in business.  

I might still have a spare slave cylinder from a LS1 CTS-V that I converted to single mass flywheel (needed an LS7 slave cylinder to work).  I will hunt for it and take measurements if I find it.

Found it!

Looks like roughly 3.5" of depth at maximum stroke, for the LS1 CTS-V unit.

That is as measured from the inside of the rear flange, not the lip around the edge.

The problem with it, as I recall, is that the LS T56 does not have a snout that a throwout bearing rides on, it is flat faced where the input shaft sticks out.  Consequently, the slave will not fit over a snout.  This is an RX-3 bellhousing but the snout is almost the same OD as a Ford T5.

Remembering further, the snout/no snout is the main difference between an F body LT1 and LS1 T56.

Wonder how hard it would be to desnoot a Saginaw bearing retainer and machine it flat enough to work.

Hmm....

I didn't realize that the t56 had no snoot. Was the t5 the same? I ordered a t5 slave like the one you picture from Amazon for $15, figuring it would work for the miata if nothing else

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

From what was described above, the Mustangs with annular slaves were snootless.

Snoot snoot snoot