1966 Barracuda Clutch Z-Bar Installation

Continuing with the Z-bar refurbishment, I purchased some new bushings, clips and seals for the Z-bar from Brewer's (seals aren't in the photo), a company that specializes in MoPar manual transmissions. The parts were about $40 shipped to my PO box.

One of the first things I noticed was how in the world would I be able to fit that rubber seal over that huge swivel ball??? The rubber is very stiff. And the hole in the rubber seal is maybe 1/4-inch in diameter while the ball is a good 9/16-inch in diameter.

Here's where the internet comes in handy, once again. I read that other folks also had difficulty with this process, and that someone actually called Brewer's, who assured them the seals would fit. One trick was to heat the rubber seal in hot water to make it more pliable, then quickly slip it over the swivel ball. Worth a try, I suppose. I got the water to almost boiling and let the seal sit in the water for a couple minutes.

I was in the kitchen and thought, hmm, maybe a little butter would help things along.

You know what? It actually worked. It was a little tight but once it started going, the seal slipped right over, slick as can be. Cool.

Below shows the Z-bar all put back together with the new bushings and seals in place.

Now on to repairing the cracked sheet metal where the one ball stud mounts. This next set of photos shows that someone had done some repairs to the sheet metal in the past, and they also added a chunk of steel to stabilize things. I welded up the sheet metal cracks and cut the steel plate down to something more manageable that you'll see later.

Now on to installing the Z-bar. One thing that was nagging me in the back of my little pea brain was the fact that the stiffening washer I'd welded to the Z-bar added quite a bit of material to the end of the tube and it just might cause interference when installed, since there was precious little space under the bonnet of this early A-body car. And you know what? My suspicions were confirmed. So after fighting for 20 minutes to get the Z-bar and ball-end swivel assembly in place only to find said interference fit, I had to then fight another 10 minutes to get the contraption back out to grind off some excess washer material. Then fight to get the bar (minus the swivel ends) back in to test fit, back out again to grind some more, back in to test fit, back out to assemble everything, then back in for good. Whew.

I finally got everything bolted back in place. The below photo shows the trimmed backing plate.

The photo below shows the proximity of the lower Z-bar arm in relation to the starter motor case. It's got a good 1/4-inch gap between the two parts. Before I rebuilt the Z-bar, the arm slightly touched the starter.

The clutch chatter is now almost completely gone, and the clutch pedal is now adjusted like it should be. I'm thinking the small amount of occasional chatter is probably because there might be some contamination on the clutch disc or the pilot bushing might be worn. It is so much better than before, so I'll just live with it for now, as the clutch disc has a lot of life left in it.