So I've recently bought a 1989 Ford Bronco full size, the trucks beautiful, sits on 39.5 super swampers, twelve inches of lift. mild cam, long tube headers straight piped. the main issue when i bought the truck, as many AOD trans have was when you put the truck in Drive, it would only drive through first. I know I know just a valve body. but i didnt want to break into an automatic trans so i decided to goto my local salvage yard and snag up another AOD trans. So i went about pulling the trans out of the bronco quiet easy being how high the truck was off the ground. i replaced the trans with the AOD out of the same bronco from the yard. Now with my luck, and nothings just 1,2, done especially not when you get a great deal on both a truck and a trans, the AOD had the same issue, now i was thinking the same thing you might be, maybe its a linkage issue, or a throwback issue, but again not as easy i hoped. i unhooked each linkage manualy switched the gears from underneath the truck, quiet tricky by yourself. Determined the trans again needed a Valve body. as i was outraged by this as the newer AOD came out of a wrecked bronco with 36k miles on it, i let the truck sit for a while. jumped back in it a few weeks later started it up just to see what it would do, still the same issue. now as i was headed home my luck got worse. Since the fuel gauge wasnt working when i purchased the truck, and it wasnt a priority to replace, i ran out of gas. walked to my local gas station and couldnt get the truck to start to save my life. in doing so i ended up burning up my starter. GREAT! at this point i was outraged again and decided if im doing all this work to this truck im going to do what i want this time. so i went to the yard i got the AOD and told the manager what had happened and he promised me everything i wanted to make the truck a manual. i chose a T-18 out of an 84 f250, this truck had a hydraulic clutch, which i liked due to the easy assembly less fabrication etc. now i hate it. haha. my main issue here is the fact that when i push the clutch pedal, im forcing the slave cylinder to push up on the swivel bracket continueing to press the clutch with a threaded rod. all works well losely fitted/placed. I went about overcoming the obstacles on fabricating the two extensions to move these brackets off the frame 2.5 inches to reach the trans. thus i have two pieces of sheet metal, 1/4 inch thick that hold each bracket off the frame where it needs to be. now today i started to bleed my slave cylinder and the brackets are bending, not bent but more so flexing. instead of being able to push my swivel bracket arm up to push the clutch back, its pushing the bracket extending the slave cylinder out, down. i need to stop this therefore let the slave push the arm so i can attempt to start the truck with some starter fluid. please help ill post some picture in the morning so everyone can see exactly what im talking about.

 

Pics of what's happening, or at least pics of the setup?