Hydraulic Throwout Bearing Installation Mystery Explained! Ep.72 

I really like how in his free time he carefully measures everything to a thousandth of an inch but ratchet straps a gas tank to the roof on Roadkill.

Made it so easy a dummy like me understands how and why we need an air gap. Thanks.

Lmao. I just watched Dave and Steve do this on RK garage. But you have a better teaching approach. Audio is getting better with every video. Awesome job

I am currently working a contract job in Afghanistan and I miss home- which, coincidently, is where you now reside. Every time you show a clip of "The 4-Lane" I get excited. Love the channel. When I get home, I'll keep an eye out for Blasphemi and the rest of your stable.

This is the stuff worth knowing, and seeing it done right and explained in 5 minutes makes it time well invested.

Get us some info on that race with Cleetus!!!???? Love ya bro and I love the McFarland family and it’s a amazing mix!!!

Simple steps a lot of people pass up the opportunity while its apart. Just knowing its set right helps a lot if any issues show up. Not saying Ive never slapped a clutch in but after having issues I do this every time. Ive made quite a few shims from various sheet metal to get it perfect.

Excellent my brother. You were straight to the point and you actually taught me what I was trying to learn.

im stoked, I did the exact same procedure when I installed a quartermaster bearing in my race car 10 years ago. I didnt have this great vid to go off, had to wing it.. the bit about air gap and why it was important made more sense coming from you.

Oh man, thanks for the tip Mike! I just took ownership of a custom 1940 Mercury 2 door sedan that has a hydraulic bearing on a T-10 hooked to a 350. The clutch has a few thousand miles on it and appears to slip a little. This will help with the diagnosis as maybe the fingers are touching the bearing now and not allowing the clutch to seat fully. FSM saves the day again!

Goes to the saying "Measure twice, cut once" comes to play in cars. Hope you had a great father's day.

I remember seeing this three years ago which is how I knew to look for it now that I am actually doing it. Super helpful! Thanks sir!

Hopefully I can use this information someday, simple and straight forward teaching process, thank you!

Thank you for the info. If I were a young buck starting out again I would value this type of info tremendously. It would also prompt thought and insight on other things besides just throw-out bearings. Principles and applications, how-to-do's and how-to-don't's are the lessons successful mechanics all learn somewhere. Being willing to share and pass along your insights and knowledge is a valuable thing. Such men as you are the Legends among us...

So your going up against Cletus can't wait love both your guy's videos.

Love the opening scene love your car just all around love of Mike finnigan and just jealous of mr Mike

I have the APT Hydramax on two of my cars. (set them to the highest end of the gap limit, for longer service as clutch wears) After initial set up, I scribed lines for the min/max of the air gap on the anti-rotation stud where the bearing housing travels, so I can see how much "within" limits is remaining. (as viewed through the clutch fork opening) I can check it each oil change with a flashlight. Once it gets "close enough" to "out of tolerance" from clutch wear, I can roll the transmission back on a floor jack, just enough to pull the bearing off the input shaft, remove a shim and roll the transmission back in place and drive on. So, I am not completely dropping the transmission, and I can do it all in under an hour.

good information. I grew up with cars going back to the 30s. setting the "free travel" on the clutch linkage was like adjusting brakes and greasing considered routine maintenance. I hope I never own a vehicle with a hydraulic throw out bearing that leaks fluid because of seals failing and everything needs to come apart. normal correct driving the clutch will last forever.

Great video, glade you took the time to explain why and what for. It took me a lot of trial and error before I knew all this ,I like the mechanical what I grew up with. And with hydraulic ones you do not need a tree trunk for a leg to depress the clutch.

I’m definitely gonna be pulling this video up when I install a hydraulic throw out baring in my ‘68 Firebird

Nice addition knowledge to the newest Roadkill Garage where Freiburger installs the same thing on the Disgustang and even mentioned the gap ( just coincidence?). As always good video, loved Ep. 71 especally, the rolling shoebox as i call it is just a thing of beatuy. Greetings from Germany (this explains the bad english :)

Rendering mishap? I'll still watch it :D

Your a clever guy MR Finnegan 👍,you could save people a lot of sleepless nights .

It was a lot easier using the Z-bar setup. All you had to do was crawl under the car and adjust the threaded rod for full release and free travel.

Its awesome to be here BEFORE this becomes a multi million sub channel ✌

Love your show an “obstream” amount! Keep up the good work. I always learn interesting tricks watching you.

Thanks for the show happy fathers day, Fastlife

That tip literally just helped me and my buddy. Working all night to finally sit back and have beer just to say.. “f*** how many shims?” Sat for a while until his young guy was having a fit over the “video baby monitor”..( how did the dads do it before?) watched this laughed and said what are the freaking odds! The car was a 67 fire bird. It got hit head on by a suv. Everyone ended up making it home safe. We’re on day 13 of the full divetrain and interior swap into a clapped out 68 should be driving her by Friday!

Super dope opening scene, love the tips too!

one of the best explanations of this type of CSC, we had all kinds of issues trying to set ours up, in the end determined that the master cyl bore was too small to get the full travel, to release fully. is there a method of checking the travel/release needed? this would be a great video to have on hand.(in our case the master was said to be a 1" bore, but was in fact only 7/8")

love the tech tips... roadkill is knowing you are doing it wrong, but it is ok because you know. if only finnegan could afford a hi res camera....

just seeing Blasphemi on the highway, sounding badass, instant like.

Just incredible. Thank you for giving me joy on my free time.

5 min that's all you give us eh! Throw us a mid week video your starving us! We need more! MORE!!

Must be a coincidence that Dave and Steve gave a similar tutorial on Roadkill Garage today. Good info dude!

Holy crap Mike, I never knew that's what the damn pointy part of the caliper is used for! Make a shop tips video on how to use calipers and micrometers and other measuring devices

You should do video on measuring/centering the bellhousing!

Whats up with the 80's background music? Did you get that off one of those donated cassettes?

So much to be learned from this guy. Know his stuff!

Great stuff but also explained in the manual of literally all racing clutches :)

I'm thinking about a hydraulic throw out bearing because I have exhaust issues with the fork style. I've not wanted to do this because I'm not sure of myself on how this works. This video really made me not scared of it at all and I think I will go this route.

Thanks fin! Great info, you saved me some headaches down the road!

Needed this rn. Was freaking out over how much air gap I needed for the TOB I'm installing on my LT1 T56. Had 31.10 mm. Didn't know how I was going to measure the bearing and trans side. Didn't wanna have to remove the bell housing off the engine.

I really enjoyed the high quality of sound on this video --- jab jab (sorry Mike) nice work 12V Dave

Funny u made this video. I had a 04 mustang gt I supercharged, did a tko 600 swap and the thing ate clutches like it was its job. Cause, no gap on throw out bearing. As clutch wore at track, it started slipping cause fingers were hitting throw out bearing. Drove me nuts 3 clutches! I milled down the ball stud hex where u wrench it down so I could make it shorter, and adj with washers for stud leangth. Problem solved on 4th clutch lol

Excellent video, however I do have a question…At the 4:34 time frame you gave a tip that said you needed to compress the bearing for measurements then said you didn’t. I am using a different brand of bearing and the instructions tell me to compress the bearing fully to get the needed measurement. I am confident about the one I am using following the provided instructions. A bit confused on which process is correct for the American Powertrain bearing.

Good point about seeing someone do the installation as well as reading the instructions. Some of us are visual leaners...👀🕵️‍♂️

Love finnegan’s garage !

What holds the bearing against the transmission? When you let out the clutch, the face will retract from the clutch fingers, but what holds the bearing back from the whole unit sliding towards the clutch?

Thanks for the Video, Mike and Dave. Maybe I'll use a Hydraulic setup in my car next time.

Thank you for putting this on RU-vid

If I saw Blasphemi blazing down the highway, I would make chase to meet Mike :)

Mike, ur informative & fun to watch. Keep putting out awesome videos!

When do you attach the supply and bleeder lines? Do you snake the lines through the bell housing during the transmission install? Or do you attach the lines are the trans is installed?

There is no me without you...if you have any questions feel free to ask or email me! Thanks

you don't need to measure to outside of ruler, then remember to subtract ruler thickness, the calipers have features on them just for measuring between things use your calipers correctly and you dont need to remember to subtract

Thanks for the tips!

Great video and Tech Tip, thank you!

Thanks Finnegan.

Best explanation ever!!!

HEY!! So when I took measurements for my air gap between pressure plate and throwout bearing I left between .10-.15 ths of an inch. Now with everything installed and hopefully 100% bled, the throw out bearing isn’t seating all the way back from where I initially took measurements from so now it seated a bit forward to the point where I think it’s touching the pressure plate. I keep reading different things on whether or not they should be touching. Do I still have air in by lines or should I just remove a shim?

What would you perfer? CSC or external slave/fork?

You know the best part about this video? The new Roadkill garage, released the same day, has Freiberger doing the exact same thing on an engine for the Disgustang.

Interesting...I thought the .100-.150" clearance took into account the clutch wear over time and that's why you shoot for that gap initially, not having to re-adjust it over time as the clutch wears to maintain the .1-.150 gap. The .050" measurement would just tell me how abused the clutch was and how close to replacement I would be. Maybe I'm wrong???

Your like the coolest guy around

Now I need a video showing how to convert the mechanical linkage to this hydraulic setup.

Where does your clutch release/take up? Ive got a htob and a mcleod double clutch (rst) the release and take up are right at the top of the pedal, seems like the air gap is too small?

You should do a video on centering your bell housing with the crankshaft.

Step one... smash ur straight edge into ur bell housing lol jk... thanks for the tip

Nice explanation and video, Thanks!

This apply to most bearings my instructions are missing I have a apex clutch throw out bearing. Has the same deal same shims. And ist a self bleeding slave cylinder

I love millimetres

I am just now finding out you were the host of Roadkill that I used to watch on tv years ago. I did not recognized you. Small world.

That was great. My would a nice bellhousing you have.

I need help setting up the clutch master cylinder. Any video's

Hey Mike. Any chance you could do a "Jet Boat for Beginners" episode? I just acquired an old 71 IMP Comanche. It has an Olds 455 and a Jacuzzi YJ pump. Both of which I know are not desirable but I am a little naive as to quite a bit about it such as how to size a new pump, cam selection, anything I can do with the old YJ, how the cooling system works? How do you select parts for your race boat?

Can't help thinking this would be so much easier with metric dimensions!

When do we get to see Squareforce One do a pass at the dragstrip !??.....😝😝😝👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🔥🔥

will the hydraulic throwout bearing fit on a single plate ctluch?

fkn love you man, finally a decent explanation of this

to do the drops really easy get a digital caliper... .and a large machinist square.. set the thick part of the machinist square against the throw out bearing. drop down to the bearing face and zero out your caliper.... now on the straight edge drop down to the face of the trans... no need to subtract the thickness of your straight edge... do the same to the bellhousing to pressure plate fingers....

it seems you exported it as 4:3 rather than 16:9 which has caused the black bars to be all around it and look smaller. Since it's only just been uploaded would you be okay to fix it and reupload it?

so the hemi is back together and in the car? dude, how many projects do you have? I mean I would love to see the C-10 finished or the drag boat but you're running out of summer! I guess it doesn't get too cold in Georgia but the water could be brisk .. eh, you'll probably be going too fast to notice lol. 200mph in the Cadillac, let's go!

Thanks for the information. Any plans to align the steering wheel? 😉

My Tilton 6000 series hydraulic release bearing has been the biggest piece of crap on the planet. I set the air gap perfectly on mine (it's a screw type adjustment) and within a couple months my bearing was spinning all the time, which quickly wore it out. The bad news for me was that every replacement bearing is $50 and I've searched the entire net, all supplier catalogs, etc, and I can't source that flat faced bearing ANYWHERE else. I'm stuck paying $50 each time, and my Tilton is starting to make noise again after about 5000 miles. To top it off, when you get a new bearing, they're sealed, and they sound extremely dry internally. I knew I should have used an external (300z) slave cylinder and a stock Foxbody clutch fork on my V8 swap truck... I'm stuck pulling the transmission every time now, but with an external slave it's an easy part to adjust and change out.

Awesome tips

How long did this last

Could you have measured the fingers and then zeroed the gauge and then measured the tranny?? I’m not sure if there is variable that I’m overlooking since I have no experience with that tranny or bearing.

Technically you wouldn't need to subtract the ruler if you're adding that inch on both measurements anyways. Unnecessary step subtracting the inch, plus you won't get confused if you somehow screw it up and forget to subtract one or the other.

As a mechanic to be I do find it really funny that in mechanic speak 'too much gap' is considered a thou of an inch, like what would to anyone else would be like eh its fine it's not a big gap, whilst mechanics lose their sh*t over the thou of an inch gap that shouldn't be there

Glad you don’t have a automatic in it. The dirt track guys have a tool for that and I believe it is inexpensive around twenty too twenty five dollars

What do I do if i have no shims and the bearing is to tight ?

Ready for a jet boat update.

Mike, Going to build one with my son. His name is Mike too. Car is soooooo bad ass....

What happened to the Chrysler 300 you bought in Bakersfield

Strong fingers are a must for that than right? Do you recommend a clutch manufacturer for maybe an LS 6.0L? It’s either that or the Gearstar 4L85 and that’s gonna cost me all of the money I’ll make this summer prolly.

thought the yellow mailbox shattered broke When you raced Jon Chase? Whats up wit dat

Never seen these hydraulic bearings. Do I get it right when I say this converts a mechanic clutch to a hydraulic one?

At 2:30 I thought Newbern started beatboxing behind the camera, then I realized it was some oddly placed background music.

Coolest intro ever