Fixed my Cobra (dumb question as well)

[Team Dave]

About 2.5 months ago I blew out my clutch in the Cobra. I wasn't mad at the time because I knew it was on it's last legs. Well today I finally was able to coordinate a time to get all my new parts installed. It was funny, the car wouldn't engage into gear, but I didn't want to pay for a tow truck. What did I do? Started that sucker in 2nd gear and limped it down there, LOL. Yes, I was that jackass going 30 mph in a 40, ha. Got it down there around 9:30 am, and picked it up about 2 pm. Had a friend at a local clutch shop do the work and he did an excellent job. Replaced my stock POS clutch (95k miles on it!!) with a King Cobra clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing, new clutch fork and pivot, Fidanza aluminum flywheel, Steeda adjustable clutch cable and a Ford Racing aluminum driveshaft. I couldn't be happier with it now.. Rev's a lot quicker, clutch grabs a lot harder, and it's finally adjustable! What should I do as far as breaking it in? Just drive slow and don't shift hard? Should I wait 500 miles? I've had so many cars, I've never had one long enough to replace a clutch until now, hah.

And for my dumb question.. I've seen on some cars where there is light coming from behind the needles in the instrument cluster (at the base, where the needle pivots). I know there are bulbs that sit behind the bases of the needles to make them light up.. What would happen if I threw some higher wattage bulbs in there? Or are the ones I'm seeing (mostly on Saleens) just pulled out a tad so light can escape underneath? Or am I completely wrong? Haha. It's a cool looking thing I've always liked.

 

[PACIFICGREENSVT]

do not put in a larger bulb or higher wattage you will melt your cluster!!

 

[AtlanticCobra98]

take it easy on the clutch for 500 or so miles...

 

[fasvtcontour00]

Sounds like you did the job right the first time with all the extra compentents to compliment the clutch. I want an aluminum flywheel and driveshaft so bad, I would buy all the same components you did with the exception of the steeda adjustable clutch cable because I can get a discount on a Zoom. These will be my next mod, just have to save the money. Good choice.

 

[Toasty]

Sounds like you did the job right the first time with all the extra compentents to compliment the clutch. I want an aluminum flywheel and driveshaft so bad, I would buy all the same components you did with the exception of the steeda adjustable clutch cable because I can get a discount on a Zoom. These will be my next mod, just have to save the money. Good choice.

I have an 03-04 Ford Racing alum flywheel, clutch and pp waiting for an install with a new D&D T-45 (stock replacement with some 3650 pieces in it). The 03-04 kit is quite attractively priced, and you know that there are 03-04's that are putting down ~500 hp with the stock setup..

 

[98 svt]

It's good you replaced VERYTHING.
As far as the bulbs in your cluster go, you can replace them with LED bulbs. They can be found on Ebay as well as various other sites.

 

[Team Dave]

Yeah, I wasn't totally sure what the issue was when it happened, so I just decided it was time to upgrade all of it. I have 4.30's and an Xcal3 that will be here on Wed, along with some DR's. Figured a nice clutch setup would accent the gears nicely. Not to mention I'm getting LT's come spring time, and I didn't want to dig into the tranny for a long while!