Help - Clutch pedal mount loose

[Diver944]

I've just developed a scary little fault.

When I push the clutch pedal down I can feel a heavy clunk through the pedal, if I am braking at the same time the clunk is also felt through the brake pedal. I've laid upside down in the footwell and can see the black metal mount for the pedal and brake is loose and moves when the clutch is pressed. It appears to be held in place by a 13mm nut (marked yellow) in the picture below but if I try to nip it up it is already completely tight? [&:]

Anyone know if the bolt comes out in the engine bay somewhere as I can't see it myself?

 

[chrisg]

Paul

I've not done much with the pedal box, but IMSR there is no bolt going through the bulkhead and into the engine bay. Pedal boxes tend to be well built and very secure to withstand the pressures/ leverage of well applied brakes and the associated forces from the clutch.

I would suspect that the nut highlighted in your picture is a stud onto the firewall, possibly broken/sheared ?

Yours

Chris

 

[Hilux]

Check your firewall for flex/cracking - you will see it move when looking in the engine bay - its a known weakness.

 

[Diver944]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've spent a bit more time in the footwell and looking at the other side of the bulkhead as the pedal is pressed. I can see no movement anywhere so I don't think any metalwork is cracked or flexing (thank god!).

The stud looks like it's still attached to the inside of the firewall as the nut and stud don't move, it's just the bracket itself when the pedal is pressed. It's almost as if there should be a spacer between the bracket and the firewall and it's dropped out but I've had a good look at the diagram for the pedals on PET and it shows nothing.

I need to spend some more time upside down I think. I'll try to actually remove the nut but it's torqued up tight and there is no room to move down there

 

[colin944]

I've just had a look on pet and it looks like a stud on the upright section of the pedal bracket.However the diagram shows two more studs/nuts on the horizontal section of the bracket . When you look at the diagram on page 214 illustration 702-05 the nuts and washers are numbered 7 and 8(x2) one on the upright and one on the horizontal at the top and what looks like another fixing numbered 13.
I can't get the page to attach onto this but I'm sure someone will.

Hope this helps.

 

[Diver944]

Thanks Colin. Yes I've seen those two nuts/studs at the other end of the bracket and they are nice and tight. Here's the picture from PET

When I next get a chance I shall try to loosen the nut and put a spacer between the bracket and the firewall

 

[colin944]

I am starting to wonder if it might be one of the"bearings" on the end of the shaft as a small movement there would surely feel like a clunk through the pedals.Have you tried wiggling the pedals and feeling the shaft to see if there is any play? ( no dirty comments on that please)

 

[zcacogp]

A suggestion (and I don't know whether this would be physically possible), but could you get someone else to push the pedal down while you are looking at the assembly to see what moves?

If it's a substantial 'thunk' then I'd have thought there would be something visible moving around, even if only a little bit.


Oli.

 

[Diver944]

Thanks guys.

I've already been able to push the pedal down myself when I was under there and I can see it is the black bracket that slides left and right in the ovalised slot. The stud stays still and the bracket moves a few mm, the clunk is the stud striking the inside edge of the slot.

Maybe they all do that and it is the bearing on the shaft as Colin suggests so I'll check that too []

Get ready for the most boring Youtube ever if I record the 'action' for you

 

[zcacogp]

Hmmm. Have you lost some other fasteners from the box somewhere, that has allowed it to move in the ovalised slot?

Oli.

 

[colin944]

The problem with bits like this are that they never really go wrong.Therefore you struggle to find some one who has worked on that part of the car. If you make a video than put it on so we can all see whats going on.

And good luck..

 

[T3rra]

Hi, Iv had this b4. It's a very strange set up, like a square washer with a captive style bolt.

The square washer sits in what appers a square cup which stops it rotating.

Simply its like a threaded stud weild to the inside off the fire wall. What's happened is it broke free. The proper fix would be 2 remove the whole pedal
Assembly and get a new peace fabricated.

As I need the car 4 work and had all ready lost a day trying 2 find out what was the problem
And fix it. I made a bracket inside the engine bay and bolted the pedal assembly up against the top off the underside off the firewall. I used the 90deg part to add some strength to the bracket.


It worked, clucth got stiffer and it would flex a tiny bit. Not really ideally but got me back on the road

 

[Diver944]

An update to this one.

It turns out the firewall stud that goes through the elongated hole on the left of this pic had snapped.

It was still held in place by the two studs that go through the holes on the right but as you can see this had caused the box itself to split in the centre. Promax supplied a new pedal box, bolted it to the firewall and the pedal action feels better now than it has felt for years. I wonder when the initial stud snapped?