Forte hydraulic clutch.

[3yearplan]

Just wondering what the price of the hydraulic kit is, didn't see it on the website. Also if anyone knows is it a universal kit? I have a Tremec 3650 and was curious if it would work.

Thanks, Mike

[Scott Zackowski]

Give Mike Forte a call on Monday. He will set you straight.

Their website, although better, is a little confusing. Just bet to call a talk to him.

[3yearplan]

Thanks Scott, just hoping to get a ball park figure before I call.

[Scott Zackowski]

Thanks Scott, just hoping to get a ball park figure before I call.

I do have Forte's external slave hydraulic clutch set up and highly recommend it. I do not recall the price but it is worth it. Forte will tell you it is plug and play but many, me included, had to make some modifications to get the proper length of pull without having the external slave piston pop out. I had to modify the offset and switch out the master cylinder size. A search on hydraulic clutch will give you the gist of the modifications needed.

[jrcuz]

I also have Mike's hyd clutch kit and the price on my invoice shows $468.00. I'm not on the road yet but a few go kart rides have had no problems. The only thing we had to do was grind the actuator rod down a bit.
My trans is a TKO 600.
JR

[VAHokie]

JR's number is still accurate, Mike quoted me that same figure 2 weeks ago.

[3yearplan]

Thanks guys, that is a very reasonable price. I am just not happy with the cable feel at all.

Mike

[OnlyAndy]

I too ordered the Forte external slave kit for my 33' SBC and TKO 600. Just got it last week and it looks like a well made unit. For $380 I got ... bracket, slave cylinder, clutch fork, SS braided line and a new master cylinder. Mike tells me the F5 supplied unit at .75 won't give enough travel and he supplied a new .875 cylinder. I am a ways off from actual install and operation but gets great reviews and like I said, very nice looking unit.

[edwardb]

I too ordered the Forte external slave kit for my 33' SBC and TKO 600. Just got it last week and it looks like a well made unit. For $380 I got ... bracket, slave cylinder, clutch fork, SS braided line and a new master cylinder. Mike tells me the F5 supplied unit at .75 won't give enough travel and he supplied a new .875 cylinder. I am a ways off from actual install and operation but gets great reviews and like I said, very nice looking unit.

Some of these responses are a little confusing. This is a Roadster thread, so not sure if a 33 Hot Rod setup would be the same. I suspect it might be, but I don't know for sure since I haven't done one. My responses are for a Roadster build: Factory Five doesn't provide anything for a hydraulic clutch in the kit. They provide parts for the Wilwood hydraulic setup to be converted to a manual cable. It's a decent setup.

But to go hydraulic, I've purchased several of the Roadster TKO setups from Mike. In each case he provided a Wilwood 1-1/8 inch master and a CNC 7/8 inch slave. On my #8674 build I actually changed to a 1 inch master, which provides less throw, lower effort, and prevents the CNC slave from exceeding its rated throw. The pedal could be stopped short with a pedal stop, but with a trade-off to effort.

[Scott Zackowski]

Some of these responses are a little confusing. This is a Roadster thread, so not sure if a 33 Hot Rod setup would be the same. I suspect it might be, but I don't know for sure since I haven't done one. My responses are for a Roadster build: Factory Five doesn't provide anything for a hydraulic clutch in the kit. They provide parts for the Wilwood hydraulic setup to be converted to a manual cable. It's a decent setup.

But to go hydraulic, I've purchased several of the Roadster TKO setups from Mike. In each case he provided a Wilwood 1-1/8 inch master and a CNC 7/8 inch slave. On my #8674 build I actually changed to a 1 inch master, which provides less throw, lower effort, and prevents the CNC slave from exceeding its rated throw. The pedal could be stopped short with a pedal stop, but with a trade-off to effort.

Your comments now jog my aging memory.

I made the following modifications:

1) Changed out to 1 inch master
2) Fabricated a metal bracket to move the external slave more to the rear. In part this was necessary because this was a retrofit and the transmission was already married to the bell housing and in the car, and I did not want to detach the tranny. Meaning that the spacers provided by Forte made it impossible to thread the bolts. I still was able to use Fortes Al bracket.
3) Customized the external slave plunger length.
4) Fabricated clutch pedal stop as well. I just didn't like the feel of it bottoming out on forward foot box wall.
5) Clutch safety switch.

It took a lot of fiddling but ended up with a great clutch feel and complete disengagement before the clutch bottomed out. And no fear of popping out the external slave piston.

I will add some pics later. I have to go for now.

[Scott Zackowski]

Back!

My Forte clutch setup is for Mk4, Levy 408W with beefed up T5 tranny, Wilwood pedal box.

The bracket plate required the 2 metal supporting strips to prevent the external slave from flexing when the clutch was depressed.

Regarding the CLUTCH STOP, the forward button head screw is tapped and sufficient to prevent rotation. There wasn't enough space to bolt it all the way thru and still have the clutch disengage enough when fully depressed. The rear screw is bolted all the way thru. A piece of left over silicone tubing was used as a cushion and gives a nice feel.


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[3yearplan]

All good information. Thanks guys.

Mike

[CraigS]

Are you using a Ford cable? This si one part that the OE piece is better than any aftermarket piece. Forte has them also and in a version that has adjustment threads at the clutch end which the Mustang did not have. I really like it because my firewall adjuster has always been way out of the firewall (felt like two more turns and it would come apart), but being able to take up some slack at the other end allowed a better adjustment at the firewall. Thinking a $60(?) cable experiment might be worth doing prior to going hydraulic.

[3yearplan]

Craig, that might be a viable option to try. I do have the oe cable and like you said the adjuster is just not enough. I don't like where the clutch engages/disengages, which is nearly at the bottom of the pedal travel, I prefer it to be about mid way of the pedal travel. If the other cable with adjustments at the clutch end, that just might be what I'm looking for.