Steeda Adjustable Clutch Cable Kit Mustang V8 1982-1995

If you drive a five-speed Fox Body long enough, clutch cable failure is pretty much inevitable. Once the cable starts to stretch, you have a lot of problems putting the car in and out of gear. If it breaks, you’re not going anywhere without tow truck. Even with the stock clutch, a good-quality adjustable cable and quadrant is an excellent upgrade. If you’re running an after-market clutch it’s pretty much a requirement. Today, we’re going to remove our factory cable and quadrant, replace it with an adjustable cable and it’s an aluminum quadrant from Steeda.

The factory quadrant is going to be two-piece plastic with gears in-between them. As we know, plastic can flex and as the gears wear down you get some inconsistent clutch engagement. Switching to the billet aluminum is going to make that much stronger and much more consistent. Adding the adjustable cable will allow us to really fine-tune our clutch engagement. For this installation, we need a lift or a jack and jack stands, a 3/8 ratchet, 13 mm deep socket, 8 mm deep socket, 13 mm wrench, needle-nose pliers, flashlight and safety glasses.

We’re going to begin the installation under the car. We’ll start by removing the cover for the clutch fork. Disconnect the clutch fork from the cable, and then we’ll disconnect the cable from the frame wheel and move up top. We’re going to remove the little retaining clip for the cable. Disconnect the cable from the fork. Now, we’ll start fishing the cable forward. Next, we’ll remove the clutch cable bracket from the frame rail. Now we can move up top. The cable goes through the firewall right here. If you still have a completely stocked car, there will be a single bolt here you’ll have to remove to get the cable out.

At some point, somebody installed an after-market firewall adjuster, so in our case the cable’s free and just has to be disconnected from the peddle. To replace the cable and the quadrant you have to get underneath the dashboard. If you’re my size, take the seat out. It will make your life a lot easier. If you’re small and flexible and you want to try … Some people can’t do it with the seat in place. This sometimes happens when you’re working on a 24-year-old car. We got underneath the dash, were ready to install our new quadrant, and low and behold the previous owner already installed one. Obviously, our problem is cable only, so we’re going to go ahead and replace that.

If you do you have to replace your quadrant, you simply remove the two cotter pins, slide the factory one off and reinstall the new one. Once you get the cable disconnected from the quadrant, you can remove it from the car. Before you install your new cable, you’ll want to take a look here. As I mentioned when we took the cable off, there is an additional screw that holds the stock cable in place. If you have an after-market firewall adjuster you don’t have that screw. The reason being is this plastic spacer has to be removed from the cable before installing it if you have a firewall adjuster.

Once you remove the black plastic factory piece, you want to take these little studs off before you try to install it. Fish the cable down to the bottom. Give yourself some slack to push through here to connect the quadrant. Now, we’ll go inside and connect it under the dash. There’s two hooks on the quadrant. It basically depends on what your setup is. If you have firewall adjuster, use the lower hook that’s closer to the firewall. If you’re using the stock firewall piece you’ll want to use a further hook.

Be sure to remove the bracket from the frame from underneath the car. It’s actually just as easy to get to, possibly even easier from the top, so we’re going to put that on before we go underneath the car and connect it. Now, we’ll fish the cable back to our bell housing. Fish it through the bell housing. Reinstall the retaining clip. We’ll thread on the stop bolt for the cable. We’re going to thread it down, and we’ll tighten it up a little bit so you start getting tension on the fork. Once you get that there, before you put the cover back on, before you put the stop nut on, why don’t you go up, start the car, and make sure it engages and the clutch moves properly before you put the lock nut and the cover back in place.

Once we have everything set up properly, we can put the lock nut on and tighten it down. Now, the last step is to reinstall the cover. Our installation is finished. The clutch cable is one of those parts many people don’t think about upgrading until unfortunately, it breaks and it’s too late. If your cable is working properly, the adjustable cable, along with a firewall adjuster and a quadrant it’s a nice upgrade. It gives you a lot more control over your clutch engagement. Installation should take you around two hours. You’ll be back on the road in no time.