Hydraulic clutch release bearing for T50 gearbox

[Phife]

For stock clutch they offer

Ideally to be safe you'd want to stick with whatever was matched to the slave cylinder, in the case of the saab unit the clutch master is 5/8".
I believe the howe's seem to work well with larger 3/4" master cylinder.

[Sam-Q]

well that makes sense but they still don't say the inside diameter? or am I missing it somewhere where it's really obvious?

[Phife]

Yeh it's not very clear, but it does fit over W5x shaft


One of the recommendations against the howe units

[squeak]

any more advancement with the t50 adaptor , have used a saab bearing in my son's clubman and have had no trouble in 6 years so fair to say pretty reliable , used in type 9 ford box behind 20valve toyota in prb composite chassis.
would be very interested in this style of release bearing for my rally car,4age with t50,any info would be great.

[Stain]

Yeah really keen to see someone offer a 'kit' for the T50/4AGE

[gareth12]

X3!

[Sam-Q]

I will wait for Jimmy and if it doesn't work out then I will have a go and offer it on my website with my other parts

[jimmy19650]

Sorry, I have been really busy with work and have only done a bit of work on these bearings. To summarise, the SAAB unit is by far the best option for the t50, in my opinion. Mainly for quality reasons. The dis-advantage is the requirement of the adaptor, which isn't too much of a problem. The SAAB wont fit the W5x boxes, not easily anyway.

The Howe unit will fit the t50 and w5x series boxes, but im not keen on the simplicity of the mounting, and would rather make up some sleeves to ensure a better fit. There is a question of reliability for the Howe unit overseas, although I have no problem with quality.

I have currently a SAAB unit mounted to a T50, with no problems. It hasn't done much work, and Im still getting the adaptor thickness right before I go any further. As mentioned before, the SAAB units are quite cheap, especially with the current Aussie dollar.

Sam, you are correct with only needing 2000 grade aluminium for the adapter, but I use 6000 series all the time, it is a bit more expensive, but I find it comes in a more usable range of sizes, is quite strong, machines well, and can be welded easily.

[Sam-Q]

thanks for the update Jimmy, so to get things straight the Saab unit will slide over the outside of the slave bearing tube on the T50?

Why are you not concerned with the quality of the Howe unit? do you think it's ok?

[jimmy19650]

To use the SAAB unit, you need to use the adaptor which I made. At the moment, I just want to make sure I have the adaptor heights spot on as this dimension determines the travel of the release bearing, and if not correct could result in clutch slip or incomplete release. The bearing tube and the SAAB unit are both the same diameter, so the tube has to go.

As for the Howe unit, I have read quite a few bad comments, mainly from the states, about quality and reliability. Some have mentioned it is actually a chinese copy of something. I have no comment or knowledge of this, but on face value, the unit looks fine. My concern is that the Howe unit floats on the input nose, or slave bearing tube as you call it, and is only anchored by 1 stud. It also uses some cone washers to align it. This stud doesn't secure it, it simply stops it from spinning. I would like to see a sleeve used that holds it concentric with the bearing tube, so it cant bounce around. From the top of my head, this sleeve only needs to be about 1mm wall thickness to fit over the existing tube.