mark kibort

Does anyone have experience with the pedal assembly?

I have noticed a lot of slop down in the pedals, and i thought it was just due to the fact that the Holbert car was a automatic to stick conversion.

after a few years of squeaky pedal and a lot of movement, one of my bmw friends noticed when he was driving the car, that it was not right. Upon closer examination, he is right. it looks like there is a shaft that goes in from the right side and goes through both the brake and then clutch pedals at the pivot points. BUT, they dont seem to end up attaching to anything. Im wondering if the shaft should attach to the left side and maybe it has sheared at that point, and i just cant see the break.

Ill see if i can get some pics. Im wondering what i need to do to get some stability in the assembly!
MK

Bill Ball

The whole pedal assembly fits into a large U-shaped bracket that is bolted/welded to the firewall and the main pivot shaft (part 12 below) goes through that bracket from the LEFT side to right. Here is a picture of the exploded view of the pedal assembly, WITHOUT the bracket. The second photo shows the pedal assembly in the bracket.

jon928se

IIRC (and on a RHD car as well so it could be diff) it is tricky/nigh impossible to see the left hand end of part #12 the pivot pin.

My money is on the needle roller bearings (#20) have droppd to bits.

I think that must be a photo of an early style clutch pedal assy. The later (S4 at least) clutch pedal has a ball welded or pressed into the side of the pedal that connects to a crappy plastic ball socket on the end of the pushrod to the clutch M/C

Black Sea RD

Mark,

Easiest way to figure it out is to get under there with a few hand tools and dismantle the pedal assembly and see what you've got. As can be seen in the picture Bill nicely posted for you, there is a lot of bushings and a few needle bearings that could be worn out. These pedals are made of aluminum and they could also be damaged if the worn bits are completely gone.

The disassembly is not that hard from what I remember when I did my own 5 speed conversion. I replaced a lot of the bushigs and bearings with brand new bits as a precaution so as not to have any operational issues with the pedal assembly. The way you've been driving the car it would be about time for a good look at what you've got in there.

Good luck,
Constantine

Mike Simard

That #12 shaft Jon mentioned goes in from left to right. That head on it is actually a roller bearing, that bearing fits into a large hole in the body bracket. The shaft has a clip #11 on the right side to keep it.

If that shaft were to be moved to the left slightly, the bearing would fall out of the bracket leaving a very sloppy fit. If that happened or if a home made shaft was used, the body bracket's hole could be damaged even if new components were put back.
Sounds like you need to dismantle yours completely.

If you need any more information like the hole sizes of the mounting bracket etc. let me know. I'm intimate with the pedal assembly having just replaced everything with redesigned components. I have all the measurements as well as everything from Bill's picture sitting here in a box.

If you fix it don't tell your racing buddies and use this as a card. 'yea, those Miatas passed me because of those darned pedals again'.

BC

The shafts wear, and also the holes either in the pedal or, I guess, the bracket, could be elongated.

mark kibort

when i move the pedals, it almost seems as thought that shaft is broken at the left side. Ill take a picture and show what im talking about.
i think it might be those needle bearings are gone or were left out (thats what it feels like) If i pull that circlip off the right side, will the shaft slide out?
will i be able to put in new bearings and bushings myself?

thanks. I think this is reall important. i would hate for the car to have no brakes going into turn 11 at Sears in a couple months!

mk

BC

Maybe the clip Mike mentions came off the left side, or something else is letting the shaft and therefore the pedal move laterally.

Mike Simard

The clip is only on the right side. I think either that shaft has moved to the left or the built in bearing on the left end came apart.

BC

Right side? Well, I'll defer to you. I remember feeding it from the right to the left.

Ispeed

No offense, but do you really have to fix it? What's wrong with just beating the snot out of it for a while longer the way it is? Does it matter?
















j/k

Bill Ball

There are a pair of bushings (16) and bearings (20) on the pivot shaft. It may have broken free from the bracket on one end or have bad bushings/bearings.

mark kibort

I have to agree, i thought the shaft was broken or something. I got in there pulled the clip, its on the right side by the way, and the shaft is pretty tight in there. I got under the edge of the washer of the shaft on the left side and pryed it up. the shafte moved out and the shaft has this thick bushing (metal) that is very loose around the shaft. it fits in the housing. maybe that bushing is supposed to be part of the shaft as the drawing says, and it broke off, or there is susposed to be some meat or bushing material around it so the shaft cant move around. Im tempted to push it back together as its never been a problem, but my BMW racer buddy, who is kind of **** about these kind of things, said to pull it apart and fix it.

Here are some pics before i pulled the pin. (i feel like i just pulled the pin on a handgrenade!

mk

Bill Ball

The exploded view and photo are from early documents but I can find no indication that the construction changed. PET shows same exploded view orientation for the parts in all model years. There may be nothing to stop you from putting the pivot shaft in from the right to left.

mark kibort

Here is a picture of that shaft, with it pryied out a bit. the shaft moves a lot in that metal washer, bushing. im temped to try and put it back together and put the clip on and forget about it. thoughts?? if that thing comes out, i think ill never get it back together.

mk