Tilton Throwout Bearing mated to McCleod Clutch

[wrench87]

mike forte from forte's parts connection in framingham mass sells a nice complete set up for the quicktime bellhousing.

[Pete Munroe]

Rosco,

WHICH t/o do you have...the early or late one? And WHERE is the leak? At the HOSE FITTINGS or the RAM?

The McLeod t/o early units leak at the hose fittings. The "banjos" were poorly made with excessive clearance. That was completely redone, new fittings and housing.

The NEW series, made in last ~5 years has been fine for me. No banjo fittings. They have replaced the banjo's with machined 90 degree hose fittings.

Go back about 5 threads or so to one on 11/16/08 titled "Trouble shifting a TKO 600" or something like that.

Trouble shifting a TKO 600 while engine This thread covers the topic pretty well, the late model McLeod unit

picture of the late version:This is a picture of the latest series unit with the new housing and hose fittings.
http://www.mcleodind.com/downloads/p...Fs/Page_10.pdf

Originally Posted by Rosco

Well, finally determined my McCleod Throw-Out Bearing is junk (leaks).

I am trying to replace with a Tilton Bearing however the measurement is not quite right in terms of mating to the Clutch Fingers. I currently have a McCleod Clutch set-up...

Anyone ever try doing this? Using Shims? Any help or direction is greatly appreciated.... Pictures if possible..

Trying to avoid going the slave cylinder route...

Thanks,

[mikeforte]

Hi Pete,
I see you have a ERA 289 car. I believe the external slave kit I make will work in your car. What bellhousing are you using? I have a new bearing retainer and all of the remaining parts needed to install it onto an aftermarket steel bellhousing.
BTW, A Quick Time bellhousing will have the smallest diameter setup that I've been told will fit.
The benifits of an external slave kit is the setup I make has never failed. It doesn't require removal of the transmission to access the hyd t/o bearing and then try to repair it.
http://clubhotrod.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1230323556
The one thing customers have told me over the years is they always seem to fail on a road trip....
Call me with any questions,
Mike Forte
508 875 0016

[Pete Munroe]

Mike, et al.

I installed one of MIKE FORTES' "mid-shifter" kits in my Tremec TKO. It essentially rotates the rear compartment shifter forward 180 degrees and you gain about 2.75" of "elbow room" in the Cobra car...the shifter stub is now just about where a original AC Cobra top-loader trans shifter would have been...HUGE improvement over a stock Tremec. After 5 years it works great. GREAT PIECE.

To the point of the original post...what I have been trying to convey is that if you ALREADY HAVE A EARLY series McLeod hydraulic t/o bearing with the god-awful banjo fittings from hell...they can be up upgraded by McLeod with a new housing to the "series 3".

(If your RAM leaks rather than the hose fittings, you probably do not have a proper pedal stop). ..that would be your problem...but the HOSES connected to the garbage "banjo's" are hopeless.

The "newer" McLeod hydraulic t/out is just fine (mine is now 5 years old at least and has about 10,000+ miles) The old series t/o had really poorly machined banjo's and leaked like a sieve at the banjo's...I replaced it TWICE...the last time I was at the McLeod shop I told McLeod I wasn't leaving the shop until I had the new one...which is actually the GM Corvette design...GM abandoned the patent and they jumped on it. Mine is the first unit, pre-production at that, they released, or I extorted, from McLeod...it is fine.

NOW...STARTING FROM SCRATCH....NEVER use a hydraulic t/o if something else works...Forte's NEW unit sounds the way to go for a minimum clearance situation where you have to cut down the clutch arc. 5 years ago it wasn't available.

Upgrade to the new housing and lose the banjo's...the new housing has machined 90 degree hose fittings...it works in thousands of C-4? C-5? Corvettes.

Starting from scratch? GO EXTERNAL!!! Mike Forte's EXTERNAL t/o setup sounds to have everything needed to work around a "lack of clearance problem" due to bell housing/chassis/clutch-fork issues.

Pete