Clutch pivot

I was able to get me toploader set up today. I see a few items that concern me. One is the clutch fork may be too short. I will be using a hydraulic CNC slave cylinder. The Lakewood bellhousing might be in the way. Has anyone dealt with this? Another issue might be the pivot for the fork. I had two bellhousings. The one cast housing has a pivot with a slot in it. The other that was in my aluminum housing had a wire clip. I had to use the pivot with the wire clip because both forks I had were set up for them only. You can see what I mean in the pics. With the amount of HP I will have, do you recommend something stronger? With the Centerforce throw out bearing in place it stabilized the fork. The first pic is of the steel housing with the pivot that I could not use. The second pivot I used with the wire clip. The third pic is of the fork installed. Any recommendations are appreciated.

I used the pivot and fork that is referenced in the first picture. That is the setup that was recommended to me. It serves me well at the strip and is bolted on just like you did with your spring type.

My fork also seems short, even though it was from an 11" Ford bellhousing. I solved this problem by notching excess material off the bellhousing. My notch is about 1/2" deep and 1" tall. Be sure to take off enough or your clutch linkage might snag it once in a while. I have used this setup for thousands of miles now and 80 or so runs at the track.





You can just barely see the notch on the lower left of the Lakewood--I have since made it a little larger since then.

Hopefully you tested your headers too as the Lakewoods normally need some notching by the starter:

I had to do some grinding on my lakewood bellhousing as well.I actually bought mine used and it already had a notch cut out for the rod to the clutch fork to pass by..I had to do some additional grinding to clear my headers....I am using the same style fork as Dennis but I have used the one held on by the wire as well...The type with the spring clip seems a little more stable when installing the fork but after everything is all together I don't think it makes much difference either way....Someone had welded the fulcrum in my lakewood too close to the center of the opening so I had to remove it and reinstall a new one in the orginal position...I was able to buy one off of ebay cheap.

Same here, I've been running the Lakewood bell for almost 35 years using the small spring style pivot. I also had to notch the bell flange to clear the pushrod.

Thanks guys. I am glad to hear the spring retainer is OK. I will notch my bell housing for my CNC slave cylinder. Do any of you have a pic of the mount you made for the slave?