I have all of the parts from a ‘56 Mercury including clutch/brake ***embly and the equalizer bar(z-bar) with frame mount and linkage. I was missing the engine side bracket for the z-bar so I bought one from a ‘56 Ford, well it turns out that it is different than the Mercury. The Ford bracket has an internal socket that accepts the ball on the end of the z-bar, however the the Mercury is just the opposite, the ball is on the bracket and the socket is in the z-bar. So before I continue my hunt for a Mercury engine side bracket to match the rest of my Mercury parts, will the Mercury parts actually work on my ‘55? Why would they have made the Mercury z-bar different than the Ford? Sorry for the long winded explanation.
I’ve made a few z bars and engine bracket mounts. Unless you’re trying for a 100 point concours car I’d make it. I cut up quite a few and welded parts together and never had one fail. I used a oxy/act on my first 2 and then a stick until I bought a mig.
As to why it's different, who knows? Maybe that was an easy way to tell the difference between the two models on the production line. With that said, I'd do as Jimmy Six suggests and just make it. There's a bunch of various pivot balls out there, find one that's close... ford clutch pivot ball - Google Search The one fly in the ointment is FoMoCo used clamshell bronze bushings on the z-bar pivots through the '50s/early '60s and the parts you need for those are in short supply. Ford switched to a nylon bushing in the early '60s, eliminating the bronze bushings. The socket/tubing these fit into is smaller, but a short steel sleeve to reduce the socket size would fix that. A short piece of heavy-wall tubing with the right ID welded into the socket would do it...
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