I'm starting the rebuild of my Muncie M21 and now the transmission is out I was thinking about the possibility of upgrading to a Hydraulic Clutch setup instead of the mechanical Z-Bar setup. My current Z-Bar is very rotten out and have several plates welded as fix so basically I need to replace it anyway. Main reason to thinking about this upgrade is just to make the car more city friendly and personally get rid of the knee pain after one day of driving in bumper to bumper traffic. So what are the options for hydraulic clutch without breaking the bank? I've seen a couple McLeod kits but are $700+ so I'm not sure if is because they are for high performance purpose or just because that's what it costs to be done
I used the American Powertrain Hydramax kit. The components are nice, but be advised there is some modification to make it work. Do a search, there are a few various write ups on here about the installs.
I just did the swap as well. Here is a link with good info. I added a list of the items I bought to make my own kit. American powertrain also sells the bracket by itself and I found it on summit racing. http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?th...sion-chime-in-here.296487/page-4#post-3015278 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/awr-hmun10001sr
I also went the route of the American Powertrain Hydramax kit. Since I was already climbing uphill on the journey of "GS-ing" my '64 Skylark, with a nailhead, manual transmission, rear, all suspension and such, as well as trying to get all the (hard to find and in very good condition) parts for the clutch, I went with hydraulic release. As well as the information I saw on the kit, made it all worth it to me. I did not have to do any fabrication, everything worked out of the box, but later made a change. I changed the "stop nut" on the threaded pushrod to a flanged hexnut, because I found the smaller nut was not contacting enough of the steel plate with the "cross" slots on the inner firewall side of the bracket, over-stroked the bearing and blew out the seal. The rubber seal got caught up inside the bearing housing/piston and prevented the pressure plate from returning and clamping the clutch disc, so I could not even shift into any gear (I planned on catching second and limping home at the speeds that would have been available, since I was only a few miles away.) Since I changed that nut, I have had no more trouble, and I have put it through the wringer, to see if I could break it. I did make a large plate to go on the firewall to stiffen it (but likely did not need it). As I pulled the auto steering column and used it and the manual to re-build a good column, I put the plate on since I did not know if I would have any flex, and figured, either way, the plate would not hurt. I drive the car a pretty good bit, and like the clutch. There is a little difference in the "feel/feedback" of a mechanical, but it really is no more an issue than the "feel/feedback" you get when driving different cars. It is not so much a change that you find it bothersome. (and I can be pretty picky about details or "differences" in things mechanical.) A lot of words, but I hope the details help someone, even if it leads to more questions.
