Volvo V8 Forum

First, just a little background--around 1989 or so I got my all aluminum 1963 Oldsmobile 215 V8 powered 265 on the road. It served well for my wife and I and as a first car for my daughter. I built it originally with the Olds Roto-Hydramatic and around 1999 I rebuilt the motor and substituted a much younger transmission for the then 250k unit. All was swell until about 12k into the new motor the perfectly working trans lost forward gears, so I installed a third good working unit--but decided to take the car off the road until I had all the bits to make a stick shift--and find a body in better shape then the tired '76 I had. I have the bits now--a Camaro Z28 T-5, the Olds bellhousing, flywheel, clutch parts and driveshaft. A family friend just gave me a non-running '93 245 with 192k. The body is dent and rust free--but with auto trans. I have the brackets, pedals and cable for a 240 clutch car as well as the brackets, pedals and cylinders for a 265. So I need to make a decision which way to go. My reservation with the hydraulics is that every stick 265 I've ever driven seemed to have a very heavy pedal--maybe a result of worn clutch plates, they all had lots of miles--which seemed out of character for a "luxury" car. My clutch guy could only come up with an original style coil spring pressure plate to fit the Olds flywheel--which I expect to need more pressure than a diaphragm type--so I'm concerned with what I'll wind up with using the Volvo cylinders. Wongg3 mentioned in answer to a previous posting that many V8 conversions use the Volvo cable. I had considered this and wonder if my thinking is in line with what has been done before---the Olds bellhousing/clutch fork had been operated by a "Z" bar--pushing the fork back. My thoughts--anchor the cable end to a bracket behind the fork and then anchor the cable sheath to the fork. This setup would require enough slack in the conduit at rest and total length to allow it to push the fork back. Is this how it's been done? Is the Volvo cable long enough to do this? I have towed the original car to my son's shop in NC and will bring the new subject body there to continue the project. I'll have to complete the job over the course of a few visits but have to budget my time wisely--have a plan--either go there with cylinder kits and flex line in hand or maybe have a new, longer cable made up by a local truck parts supplier/fabricator. Any suggestions, caveats or ridicule (if gently presented) would be welcome--thanks all, Dave