Hydraulic or cable clutch. Pros and cons?

[slpro1207]

As we live in a world of automatic transmissions, and the last standard transmission was on my Sunbeam Tiger (I really should have kept that car) I don't know what the difference would be between cable and hydraulic. Also looking for advice on footbox room and if wilwood pedals would help my size 12 feet.

[edwardb]

The current design of the clutch cable adapted to the Wilwood pedal box (the previous design had some issues, but that's old news now) works fine IMO with two caveats: (1) Use a high quality cable. That means a branded Ford cable. (2) You are able to get a smooth routing to the clutch arm that has adequate distance from any heat source. In this case that means the headers. Heat is a major enemy of the clutch cable. If these two conditions are met, I'm not sure there's a big advantage of hydraulic over cable. But it's often not easy to get that good routing. Especially with a wide engine like a Coyote. Maybe even impossible. My first build still has the original cable with now 7 seasons of driving and thousands of miles. Still going strong and works quite well. The next two I went ahead and installed hydraulic. They also work well once sorted out. But certainly are much more expensive. But routing is not an issue. Perhaps they are a bit smoother and perhaps slightly less effort since in theory there's less drag. But I'm not sure exactly how much difference there is since I've never had the same installation set up both ways in order to directly compare.

[wareaglescott]

In reference to your size 12 feet I have the wilwood pedals and size 13 feet. This was a large area of concern for me prior to ordering. It is tight but not to bad. I found two things that helped. First you can mount the brake and clutch pedals either centered up or left/right of center. I mounted the brake pedal left of center to allow the most room between the accel pedal and the brake. At first I had the clutch pedal mounted far left but found if I centered it up the room between the clutch and brake was fine and that allowed me to extend my left leg straight out to the left of the clutch pedal when not and use and provided more comfort. I am also 6'3" so the legroom was also important to me. The second thing that matters is shoe selection. I got some driving shoes that don't have a large sole on them and that allows more room vs running type shoes that tend to have a wider base.
At first when I was driving the car it took a little getting used to so I could prevent inadvertently being on the brake/gas at the same time. Now after a little driving it is no issue. You get more comfortable as you go.

In my build thread post 151 you can see a pic of my size 13 on the pedals. Footbox sheet metal is not there yet but that has not proved to be an issue:
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...O-POST-1/page4


Also used Fortes hydraulic clutch. No experience with the cable variety but for this first time builder I found the install and setup very simple.

[Bob Cowan]

Cable operation works well, and lasts just about forever. Inexpensive, too. On a heavy duty clutch, it can take some strong muscles to operate it.

Hydraulic is more expensive, a little more difficult to install, add's bulk, weight, and another fluid to leak and maintain. But, it requires less effort and feels smoother.

[GoDadGo]

I'm a big fan of having a hydraulically actuated clutch.
Smooth operation, easy to change articulation ratios and pedal feel by simply changing the master cylinder size.
It was quite easy to plumb and set up; however, my car is from "The Dark Side" so I'm not familiar with Ford drive lines.

[JRL16]

I went with Forte's hydraulic clutch and have no regrets. It works nice and smooth. Installation was pretty straight forward and bleeding was very easy. I've had clutch cables snap on me before. Not fun. Hopefully the hydraulic is more durable.

[boBQuincy]

You would think a cable clutch and a hydraulic clutch would have about the same pedal force considering they are moving the same clutch fork the same distance. There is some added friction from the cable and housing but with good routing that should be small compared to the actual fork pull force. Besides, if we think hydraulics is 100% efficient we only need look at the hydraulic oil coolers on construction equipment to see that is not so.

It seems the pedal arm/quadrant is mismatched to the fork since Fortes offers an effort reducer that is a longer fork with more mechanical advantage. A smaller effective quadrant diameter on the pedal arm would give a similar result as the longer fork (and be much more difficult to make and install). Ford Racing offers metal quadrants, if the ratio is the same or not is a question.

The hydraulic system allows easy changes to the mechanical advantage of the pedal and the fork through changing the diameter of the cylinders. But in the end we still have to move the same clutch fork the same distance against the same force, no free lunch.

[Jeff Kleiner]

...I've had clutch cables snap on me before. Not fun. Hopefully the hydraulic is more durable.

While I have never had a cable clutch let me down but have been left by the side of the road with a hydraulic clutch failure. You just gotta' pick your poison

Jeff

[NAZ]

I've had mechanical linkage break and I've also had a cable break. Both in heavy traffic where I had to shift without the clutch and shut the engine off at red lights only to start it in gear when the light turned green. I've never had a juice clutch failure but as Jeff said, they can also fail. But I believe they are inherently more reliable than a mechanically actuated clutch. A hydraulic clutch is much like hydraulic breaks and how often have you had a break failure due to the hydraulics? I went with a hydraulic clutch on my current build as it's easier to install in a small car and easier to add the engagement controls I need for drag racing. Whichever you choose, I'm sure you'll be happy with the selection if this is intended as a driver.