This one is for you guys doing 4 speed conversions or contemplating do a 4 speed conversion. After 30 plus years of being used and abused I am pretty sure some of your parts will have wear and tear on them, namely the clutch pedal. I have two sets of clutch pedals and in both the hole where the rod that connects the pedal to the z bar has widened greatly to the point that there would have been a lot of slop in clutch action. I was able to cut and fit a spacer into the hole to take out all the play, temporary fix. The better thing to do is to have the hole welded and redrilled to the proper size before you install the clutch pedal in the car. I just found out today how much of a pain the neck it was to have to lay on my back and modify and install a spacer to take out the slop. I had originally did this last year but do to other issues I hade to install a different spacer. And speaking of issues, do make sure that the rod that connects the clutch pedal to the z bar is the correct one or correct length. I was using a chevy one, which was quite a bit shorter. It worked initially but as the clutch wears you will end up adjusting the small z bar to clutch fork rod till you run out of travel like I did. Then two things will happen: one it becomes very hard to shift (gear grinding also) as you do not have enough travel to fully disengage the clutch although the pedal will go all the way down to the floor. Two you will start bending and possibly breaking the clutch pedal were the rod attaches as you continuously try to push pedal into floorboard. Luckily I didn't break anything but I bent that part of the pedal so bad the rod was rubbing on the bracket by the clutch start switch. I was able to bend it back in shape in the car but like I said a real pain in the neck. So on the good note I found the proper pedal to z bar pushrod and installed it. I had to readjust the little z bar to clutch fork rod but now it has a whole lot of room to compensate for clutch wear and my shifter once again shifts smooth and easy like butter where as before I had to muscle it through the gears and the clutch pedal doesn't have to go all the way down to the floorboard to disengage the clutch. So hopefully you guys will take this advise and not have to fix things the right way like I did today in 35 degree weather. Time it took to fix all this, almost 3.5 hours including changing z bar (not quite correct) and removing frame bracket to facilitate removing of a z bar in a header equipt car. Allen allioop108@aol.com
Our clutch pedals are very poorly constructed. Note that the guage of the steel is perhaps 66% of the gauge of the brake pedal. ou: Ummm - gee, which pedal gets more use!!!???? :error: The portion of the pedal connected to the pushrod is spot welded in two locations perhaps covering an area smaller than your pinky nail. I have to believe millions of these failed. I just repaired mine after that connection started bending and screwing with the entire linkage. Heated (really just warmed it up a bit) and hammered it square followed by mig welding these two scofflaw pieces of metal back together.
Yeah, I think I will have to weld mines or brace it. I had everything perfect and shifting is getting hard again so the pedal must be bending in that spot again. I'm thinking of putting a bar from the pushrod area to the pedal or something of that nature so it can't bend out of shape. Anyone ever do something like that and can post a pic? What a pain in the @SS to work under there. Hope everyone learns from this. Allen allioop108@aol.com
I just looked at the clutch pedal and link rod to z-bar and both are worn on the one end,i need to repair the rod and where the rod mounts into the pedal.The pedal should be easy,just weld and redrill,the link rod might be interesting :shock:
Easy solution for fixing the elongated hole for the upper clutch rod. I work in a shop so we have stuff laying around. What I ended up using was the slide that goes in the brake calipers of, my guess some import car, probably toyota. I'm sure the slides can be found in the HELP section of your local auto parts store. Lots of times they end up becoming stuck in the caliper because lots of mechanics dont take them out to clean and lubricate so lots of times after we pound them out we may have to replace them altogether. The slide itself is a metal cylinder about 2 to 3 inches long and hollow in the center. The upper clutch rod fits perfectly in the slide, absolutely no play. all you have to do is cut a section of the slide the same thickness as the metal on the clutch pedal. Now open up the elongated hole in the clutch pedal just enough to put the cross section of the slide in and weld it in place. Then just sand or grind the clutch pedal smooth and your good to go. I will see if I can grab one of the slides so I can post a picture of it. BTW. My clutch pedal ended up breaking on me. It was stuck halfway down to the floor with the "U" shape piece that holds the upper clutch rod just barely hanging on. I had to drive home, a few miles, in first gear as I could no longer shift. The clutch was slipping since the pedal could no longer come up past halfway, which was lucky for me because when I got caught by a red light I was able to push the pedal down slightly, hold my foot on the brake, and use a flashlight and my right arm to push down on the gas pedal all at the same time to keep the car from stalling. Once I got home, it took me 2 hours in the dark and 30 degree weather to change the pedal. Luckily 2 days prior I found a spare one (and already beefed up at that) amongst my parts. Allen allioop108@aol.com
Thats a good idea for the fix,i was wondering what to use,i have one pedal thats good and the other clutch pedal has a broken weld on the top pivot point,and the mounting part for the rod is bent and wore out.I am going to try the fix on it and reinforce where needed,that way if i screw it up i still have a good pedal,thanks for pointersi will let you know how i make out...
