Installing an American Powertrain Hydramax system in your hot rod or muscle car is an excellent upgrade. If you are swapping to a modern manual transmission, and why wouldn’t you, then installing a modern hydraulic clutch is also an upgrade you’ll enjoy thoroughly. Doing so is easy thanks to American Powertrain’s kits, which are available as a direct bolt in for a variety of applications and also available as a universal system that can be installed in virtually everything. One of the key aspects of doing an installation with one of these systems is making some particular measurements so that you can set all the dimensions that need to be in place for proper operation.
One of those is measuring the air gap between the hydraulic release, or throwout, bearing and in this video from RedDirtRodz you’ll see Jefferson go over just how to do it on your own project. He’s doing this outside the car, and if you are doing a complete engine and transmission installation we’d do the same thing, but if you are swapping a transmission into a car with an engine still in it, this can be done in the car as well.
Video Description:
Hydraulic release bearings for manual transmissions are so much easier on the leg than manual release, but you have to set it up in order for it to work correctly. We are installing an @AmericanPowertrain #hydramax bearing to our Gen V L83 with a #Tremec #TKX 5-speed. In order to set it up, we have the engine on the bench (can be in the car or on the floor too), and we show you how to correctly measure the engine and transmission for air gap, then we make the necessary adjustments, recheck the measurements, and complete the job. In our case, we needed a spacer plate, as the air gap was a negative, meaning there was an interference between the bearing and the pressure plate. The space gave us the room we needed to dial in the air gap, making it a perfect fit. Spacer plates are not commonly needed, it just depends on the specific install. American Powertrain recommends an air gap range between .100″ and .200″.
