On the 1983 F-body with the T5 transmission, where does the clutch return spring get attached? One end is connected the clutch fork. But where does the other end go? I suspect my return spring was not installed correctly and I cant find anything in the service manual. On my car, my spring was attached to the clutch fork and one side to the z-bar, that does not see correct. I see 2nd gens people talk about attaching the spring to the frame.

 

On my 82 there was a small hole for the return spring in the front cross member. It's by the rear most mounting point on the driver side a arm.

 

My car has the hole also, when i moved the spring there it does make the clutch feel more stable. But my pedal does not fully return, it looks like my spring is sightly stretched. I'll need to replace it and see what happons

 

On my 83 there was no "return spring"; only the spring that held the fork securely to the adjustable rod. No return spring is ever needed anyway: the clutch itself has PLENTY ENOUGH spring to return itself, and bring the linkage and pedal with it.

Sounds to me more like you have something that needs lube. Probably the pedal pivot bushings. May need new bushings.

 

It's a good point, yeah it holds the clutch release arm to the pedal adjuster. The adjuster rod adjusts pedal height to a degree. If there isn't enough tension on the spring or no spring the adjuster falls out of the dimple on the release arm. I guess if the spring is stretched the pedal may feel 1/2 inch low or just off in general because the slack in the system is not taken up by the spring.

OP, I've been following your restoration. It's totally awesome. The effort and work your doing is great and looks to be leading to an incredible restoration. Thanks for posting all the progress.

 

Or maybe, the ball things that the Z-bar pivots on. Those things used to drive me NUCKING FUTS when I still had that Stone Age linkage crap on my car, and all of the older cars I had with manuals before that. I ended up drilling them and putting a zerk into them so I could pump it up full of grease; that helped it out some at least, even if it didn't fix it entirely.

One of the first mods I made to it was to put the hydraulics out of a junked 84 into it, in about 85 or so. AMAZING improvement. I'll never go back to that Neanderthal stuuuupidity in ANY car if I can help it.

 

That's interesting, I bought a z bar like in 96-97 from the dealer and it was drilled/tapped for a zerk. The original wasn't.

 

That is interesting about 83 not having a return spring. Everything i have found online, people talk about hooking the spring somewhere to the frame however those where older cars. That is part of my confusion. There is also a post on FB where i asked the same question and one responder posted a picture with the spring being attached to the zbar. So maybe that was a one year only thing or a T5 thing, I'm not sure.

When i got my car, the spring was attached to the fork and the zbar. It always felt a little loose. I've removed the sloppiness from the linkage during the rebuild process and I'm working on finishing up the linkage and adjustments. The spring does look stretched, I'll replace it and adjust it again.

 

On a side note, This is the diagram in the service manual for pedal travel. Its says the Pedal free travel is .875in +/- 30 in.
is that suppose to be .30 in? there is no dot in front of the 30 in the manual. I have 4 service manuals for 82 and 83 and they all say 30 in.
that cant be right, or I'm missing something.

 

Yeah, it's .30. I always adjusted it by feel of the clutch.

pretty sure the spring is the same on the 83/t5 cars. My first car was an original 4speed car. My current car is an 82 that I swapped in a 83 drivetrain from an 83 wreck. The clutch release parts were the same. Obviously the bell/trans were different.