Last night I embarked on an expedition to install my quadrant and firewall adjuster from UPR. First impressions upon opening the parts revealed some high quality parts with all the parts needed to install on my 04 cobra. I will start with the quadrant. Taking the stock one out without removing the seat is a PITA but it can be done losing only 1 of the pins holding the stock quadrant in place. FYI you can get an assortment pack of pins at the zone for around $2.99. Autozone trip count: 1. Now that I got the stock one out I moved to the firewall adjuster. Taking the stock adjuster or blob out as I called it is pretty easy. The UPR directions are WRONG. It is a 5mm bolt and there are two of them NOT one
Taking them out is pretty easy with a long 1/4 inch extension. Don't worry about losing them you can't use them on the UPR adjuster anyways they are too short so just get them out so you can remove the blob. UPR says you can use these bolts :shrug:. Now that you have it out of the firewall pull off the end off the blob that has the two hooks. Bend the hooks back and pull, twist, whatever it takes to get it to move. Once you got it off you will see a rubber bushing where it used to fit in the firewall side of the blob. I cut this off and the firelwall side of the blob using a set of dikes. Now it gets fun.
Take the UPR adjuster and drop it behind the drivers side cylinder head between the cylinder and the brake master cylinder :dw:. Now that you have done that fish it out from under the car. Your going to drop it installing it so that was practice Ok for real now line it up with the double locking rings on the engine side and stick it in the hole in the firewall (it is easier to install with the adjuster adjusted all the way out) Now take the two phillips screws UPR gave you with the kit and drop them behind the cylinder head again as practice. Actually you can skip that step becaue the screws they give you are F#%# wood screws and have no place being used to fasten this adjuster to the firewall. The CORRECT screws to use are #8-32 X 1" with a washer and a lock washer. You can get these at autozone. Autozone Trip Count: 2. Now take your screw, washer, lock washer stackup and thread into the top hole first. Then get stackup number two, good luck threading it into the bottom one, I had my gf do it because my hands could not reach it to thread it. My advice is to prethread the screws with the adjuster off the firewall the clean up the threads and to give youself and idea of how to line it up right to get the screw to go in smooth and not crossthread! Lock it all down and feed the cable into the adjuster (don't forget to put that pos bushing on with the set screw) and through the firewall. Once you do this crank the adjuster all the way in clockwise....this makes hooking the cable easier.
Get inside the car.
Smack your head into the window to numb your head. then invert yourself and get under the dash. Hook the cable on whatever hook you like.....hook closer to the firewall = high clutch and the farther you get the lower the clutch will engage. Unless you modify the adjuster you can't use any hook other than the closest or your clutch is going to slip and smell bad. I'll go more into this in a minute. Then I used some cheep washers from autozone I had in the garage....about 1/2" bore diameter and 1" OD by about 0.100" thick to space the quadrant. On the pivot shaft on the quadrant I used 3 washers on right (as you are looking up at the quadant on your back, or drivers side of quadrant) and 1 on the left. On the second shaft I used 2 on the right and you can almost fit 6 on the left but I could only get the pin in with 5. Get you washers on the right half of the shaft and put the adjuster on, then put your washers on the left half and put the pins in. Your almost done.
Get out of the car. Check under the hood to make sure the cable is snug against the adjuster. Adjust as needed. Start the car and see where the clutch disengages. Should engage about 1 - 1.5 inches from the top of the pedal. If not adjust.
IF YOU USE THE LOWER OR MIDDLE HOOK ON THE ADJUSTER GOOD LUCK. I tried the middle and I could not get the adjuster to come out far enough to take up all the slack. The adjuster jams into the valve cover and thats as far as it lets you go. Therefore right now I'm using the closest hook to the firewall so I have a really high clutch. But it shifts much better than stock and I can acually downshift and speedshift without grinding 2nd which is good enough improvement for me.
My suggestions:
Do one of two things: Either turn down the outer ring on the adjuster so it clears the valvecover........or buy a steeda adjuster or something that clears the cylinder heads. I believe you have to use a steeda adjuster anyways if you want to use the lowest clutch hook.
The washers work but they jingle like sleighbells under the dash, and if you use washers with 1" diameter like I did on the 2nd shaft they keep the clutch from comming fully up by about 1/16". Plus, they are washers and that is just a crappy way to space this thing properly, it's a cobra, not a chevy Here is what I did.
Those are the dimensions to center the quadrant. If you go to McMaster-Carr online you can order some flanged bronze bushings to replace those washers, well almost all of them. Here are the P/N's
7815K31 SAE 660 Bronze Flanged Bearing for 1/2" Shaft Diameter, 5/8" OD, 3/4" length QTY 1 PRICE $3.47
7815K28 SAE 660 Bronze Flanged Bearing for 1/2" Shaft Diameter, 5/8 OD, 3/8" length QTY 2 PRICE $5.60
These should get you pretty close to center, you may need to sand off a few thousandths of material (approx 0.025" for the 3/4" and 0.050" for the 3/8") but it will get you pretty close without using washers. I will let you know when I get them in the mail and install them.
Also, if you don't like using flathead button screws from autozone, you can buy some self-locking flat head socket cap screws from McMaster-Carr as well. UPR convienently countersunk the holes to mouth the adjuster so I ordered a box of these:
91266A200 Alloy Self-Locking Flat Head Socket Cap Screw 8-32 Thread 1" Length QTY 1 Pack of 25 PRICE 8.18
So for 17 bucks plus shipping if you do it using these parts you should have a pretty slick install fixing all of UPR's mistakes :thumbsup:
Let me know what you guys think! I'll post pictures when I'm totally done!
Taking them out is pretty easy with a long 1/4 inch extension. Don't worry about losing them you can't use them on the UPR adjuster anyways they are too short so just get them out so you can remove the blob. UPR says you can use these bolts :shrug:. Now that you have it out of the firewall pull off the end off the blob that has the two hooks. Bend the hooks back and pull, twist, whatever it takes to get it to move. Once you got it off you will see a rubber bushing where it used to fit in the firewall side of the blob. I cut this off and the firelwall side of the blob using a set of dikes. Now it gets fun. Take the UPR adjuster and drop it behind the drivers side cylinder head between the cylinder and the brake master cylinder :dw:. Now that you have done that fish it out from under the car. Your going to drop it installing it so that was practice
Ok for real now line it up with the double locking rings on the engine side and stick it in the hole in the firewall (it is easier to install with the adjuster adjusted all the way out) Now take the two phillips screws UPR gave you with the kit and drop them behind the cylinder head again as practice. Actually you can skip that step becaue the screws they give you are F#%# wood screws and have no place being used to fasten this adjuster to the firewall. The CORRECT screws to use are #8-32 X 1" with a washer and a lock washer. You can get these at autozone. Autozone Trip Count: 2. Now take your screw, washer, lock washer stackup and thread into the top hole first. Then get stackup number two, good luck threading it into the bottom one, I had my gf do it because my hands could not reach it to thread it. My advice is to prethread the screws with the adjuster off the firewall the clean up the threads and to give youself and idea of how to line it up right to get the screw to go in smooth and not crossthread! Lock it all down and feed the cable into the adjuster (don't forget to put that pos bushing on with the set screw) and through the firewall. Once you do this crank the adjuster all the way in clockwise....this makes hooking the cable easier. Get inside the car.
Smack your head into the window to numb your head. then invert yourself and get under the dash. Hook the cable on whatever hook you like.....hook closer to the firewall = high clutch and the farther you get the lower the clutch will engage. Unless you modify the adjuster you can't use any hook other than the closest or your clutch is going to slip and smell bad. I'll go more into this in a minute. Then I used some cheep washers from autozone I had in the garage....about 1/2" bore diameter and 1" OD by about 0.100" thick to space the quadrant. On the pivot shaft on the quadrant I used 3 washers on right (as you are looking up at the quadant on your back, or drivers side of quadrant) and 1 on the left. On the second shaft I used 2 on the right and you can almost fit 6 on the left but I could only get the pin in with 5. Get you washers on the right half of the shaft and put the adjuster on, then put your washers on the left half and put the pins in. Your almost done.
Get out of the car. Check under the hood to make sure the cable is snug against the adjuster. Adjust as needed. Start the car and see where the clutch disengages. Should engage about 1 - 1.5 inches from the top of the pedal. If not adjust.
IF YOU USE THE LOWER OR MIDDLE HOOK ON THE ADJUSTER GOOD LUCK. I tried the middle and I could not get the adjuster to come out far enough to take up all the slack. The adjuster jams into the valve cover and thats as far as it lets you go. Therefore right now I'm using the closest hook to the firewall so I have a really high clutch. But it shifts much better than stock and I can acually downshift and speedshift without grinding 2nd which is good enough improvement for me.
My suggestions:
Do one of two things: Either turn down the outer ring on the adjuster so it clears the valvecover........or buy a steeda adjuster or something that clears the cylinder heads. I believe you have to use a steeda adjuster anyways if you want to use the lowest clutch hook.
The washers work but they jingle like sleighbells under the dash, and if you use washers with 1" diameter like I did on the 2nd shaft they keep the clutch from comming fully up by about 1/16". Plus, they are washers and that is just a crappy way to space this thing properly, it's a cobra, not a chevy
Here is what I did.
Those are the dimensions to center the quadrant. If you go to McMaster-Carr online you can order some flanged bronze bushings to replace those washers, well almost all of them. Here are the P/N's
7815K31 SAE 660 Bronze Flanged Bearing for 1/2" Shaft Diameter, 5/8" OD, 3/4" length QTY 1 PRICE $3.47
7815K28 SAE 660 Bronze Flanged Bearing for 1/2" Shaft Diameter, 5/8 OD, 3/8" length QTY 2 PRICE $5.60
These should get you pretty close to center, you may need to sand off a few thousandths of material (approx 0.025" for the 3/4" and 0.050" for the 3/8") but it will get you pretty close without using washers. I will let you know when I get them in the mail and install them.
Also, if you don't like using flathead button screws from autozone, you can buy some self-locking flat head socket cap screws from McMaster-Carr as well. UPR convienently countersunk the holes to mouth the adjuster so I ordered a box of these:
91266A200 Alloy Self-Locking Flat Head Socket Cap Screw 8-32 Thread 1" Length QTY 1 Pack of 25 PRICE 8.18
So for 17 bucks plus shipping if you do it using these parts you should have a pretty slick install fixing all of UPR's mistakes :thumbsup:
Let me know what you guys think! I'll post pictures when I'm totally done!
