How Do I Adjust the Master in My Swap Car?

When setting up your new Monster Clutch in a swap application, more often times than not, you’re using an aftermarket adjustable master cylinder. If this is the case in your setup you MUST set your release bearing travel correctly to avoid damaging the pressure plate assembly. Failure to do this can ruin your pressure plate, or leave you with a setup that will not disengage – and that’s not good for anyone.

You’ll need two people to do this, three is preferred, but two is the minimum.

With the slave cylinder line hooked up and the system bled place the slave cylinder on a solid surface so that you can take accurate measurements of the overall height – once this is achieved adjust the pedal one inch off of the floor.

You’ll measure the slave cylinder fully compressed (at rest) and record the height. Remember, you’re measuring bearing travel here so you want to measure from the face of the release bearing (fully compressed) to either the slave base or the table, whichever is easiest to measure from.

Record that number as your “at rest” number.

Now, this part is very critical – have the person in the vehicle SLOWLY depress the clutch pedal until it’s on the floor (you must apply pressure to the release bearing while they’re doing this to keep from pushing the bearing off the slave and damaging the slave), have them hold the pedal to the floor.

This is where the third person comes in handy as they can hold the pressure on the release bearing while you measure. This is possible to do by yourself, just having that third person makes it a heck of a lot easier. With the pedal on the floor you’re going to take a measurement from the exact same place you took the “at rest” measurement from.

Record that number as your “extended” number.

Your overall bearing travel is the “extended number” minus your “at rest” number – you’ll want to set this between 0.500″-0.550″ on all of our units with a stock style slave cylinder, if you’re using one of our setups with a Howe slave cylinder set the gap on the clutch to 0.080″-0.100″ and the bearing travel between 0.500″-0.525″ (do NOT go past 0.525″ of travel on the Howe slave cylinder). With an adjustable master cylinder you can increase or decrease this travel by moving your pedal further away or closer to the floorboard.