Cudaized
Well-Known Member
I’m writing this post to help my fellow Big Block owners. I have been around ‘Cudas since 1970 when my dad bought me an Ultra Violet 440+6 , 4spd for getting into college on a scholarship (cheaper to buy a car than pay for school) . Although I never drove a 4 spd I told him that’s what I wanted. You didn’t dare get an automatic trans back then. I picked the car up from the dealership and bucked and stalled out of the showroom and most of the way home until an 18 wheeler driver got tired of stopping behind me and offered to show me how to drive it. A half hour later I was zooming around the neighborhood. My inexperience with 4 speeds allowed me to become very familiar with clutches….as I needed 3 replaced in the first 6 months.
Unfortunately as we get older our interests change and old friends go to make room for new. So in late 1977 the Cuda was sold for $1,500 to buy an engagement ring. The car buyer was a friend who shipped it to Puerto Rico and a few months later totaled it on a drag strip and almost killed himself. Lucky for me, my new wife realized I missed my Cuda and convinced me to go out and find another. So in 1978 I took $3,200 of our wedding gift money and bought my 1970 Vitamin C, numbers matching 440 +6, 4 spd, Cuda which I still own today….and yes, we are still married.
Now for the point of all this B.S…… after all these years it gets hard to remember the right parts needed to keep the old Cuda running right. So when I needed a new clutch about 2 years ago I went to the new fangled internet to search. I started to see stuff about different size bell housings, 10.95 inch, 10.5 inch clutches and was a little confused because I remembered burning up 11 inch clutch discs on my first Cuda and I knew that was original equipment. So I opted for the 10.5 to make sure it fit. I really wasn’t happy with the new disc it looked flimsy and had 8 light weight springs instead of the 5 heavy springs the old larger discs had. That clutch lasted for 2 years. But, since I rarely drive the car that was less than 300 miles….I do like to get on it when I do drive it. So this spring I decided to pull that clutch out and began another internet search. There seemed to be a lot of confusion about a 10.95 inch and 11 inch disc with use on the 10.95 inch scalloped pressure plate. So I decided to use my old worn out memory as a guide and ended up with these results:
For a pressure plate I choose the McLeod Scalloped 10.95 inch part # 360153. (Includes special mounting bolts). For the disc I choose the 11 inch Hays part #40-220. Now I was a little worried about the 11 inch size being too big… but I did like the fact that it had the 5 heavy springs as my original clutch disc. Visually it appeared to fit right, but I still took the set up to a friend of mine that runs a machine shop. He raced quite a few hemi cars back in the day and still works on some. He agreed that the .05 inch difference was not a problem. So I’m here to tell you that this particular set up worked perfectly. My car does have the original big over the clutch pedal spring. The pedal effort was just like original and the clutch really hooks up great. Also remember that my car is original and has the 130 tooth flywheel and aluminum bell housing. Hope this helps someone with the never ending clutch size debate.
Unfortunately as we get older our interests change and old friends go to make room for new. So in late 1977 the Cuda was sold for $1,500 to buy an engagement ring. The car buyer was a friend who shipped it to Puerto Rico and a few months later totaled it on a drag strip and almost killed himself. Lucky for me, my new wife realized I missed my Cuda and convinced me to go out and find another. So in 1978 I took $3,200 of our wedding gift money and bought my 1970 Vitamin C, numbers matching 440 +6, 4 spd, Cuda which I still own today….and yes, we are still married.
Now for the point of all this B.S…… after all these years it gets hard to remember the right parts needed to keep the old Cuda running right. So when I needed a new clutch about 2 years ago I went to the new fangled internet to search. I started to see stuff about different size bell housings, 10.95 inch, 10.5 inch clutches and was a little confused because I remembered burning up 11 inch clutch discs on my first Cuda and I knew that was original equipment. So I opted for the 10.5 to make sure it fit. I really wasn’t happy with the new disc it looked flimsy and had 8 light weight springs instead of the 5 heavy springs the old larger discs had. That clutch lasted for 2 years. But, since I rarely drive the car that was less than 300 miles….I do like to get on it when I do drive it. So this spring I decided to pull that clutch out and began another internet search. There seemed to be a lot of confusion about a 10.95 inch and 11 inch disc with use on the 10.95 inch scalloped pressure plate. So I decided to use my old worn out memory as a guide and ended up with these results:
For a pressure plate I choose the McLeod Scalloped 10.95 inch part # 360153. (Includes special mounting bolts). For the disc I choose the 11 inch Hays part #40-220. Now I was a little worried about the 11 inch size being too big… but I did like the fact that it had the 5 heavy springs as my original clutch disc. Visually it appeared to fit right, but I still took the set up to a friend of mine that runs a machine shop. He raced quite a few hemi cars back in the day and still works on some. He agreed that the .05 inch difference was not a problem. So I’m here to tell you that this particular set up worked perfectly. My car does have the original big over the clutch pedal spring. The pedal effort was just like original and the clutch really hooks up great. Also remember that my car is original and has the 130 tooth flywheel and aluminum bell housing. Hope this helps someone with the never ending clutch size debate.
