TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:57 am

ok , so i bought an empi billet roller pedal.... i know i know empi. first thing from empi i have purchased, and guess what, it dosnt fit. is it normal to have to grind the radius at the bottom of the roller shaft so the pin will line up?. its not even close. i would have to grind at least 1/4 inch off the entire curved area on the bottom so the pin/pivot will line up with the hole in the pedal assembly. not a problem to do but am i missing something?

Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:56 am

You're better off grinding the pocket in the pedal cluster deeper. I had to do this on my last buggy with a roller pedal.

Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:20 am

really? why is that? there is a lot of metal at the bottom of the pivot. i dont doubt you, just curious as to why.

Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:06 am

I don't recall if my roller pedal was EMPI or not...probably was. Anyway, I had to do the same thing, even had to reduce the thickness of the "stop" because the pedal would not have had the same throw if I did not. Like you said, no big deal, but always a disappointment when you have to take a grinder to a brand new part to make it work.

Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:20 am

so you hit the part with the grider and not the mount?

Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:26 am

Yes. I figured if I was going to make a mistake on grinding something, it would be the roller pedal and not the pedal assembly, I took a radius of material off the area between the pin hole and the outer edge of the flange in small increments until I could get the pin thru. Then I checked to make sure the throw was the same, and reduced the stop "foot" in thickness until that was the same. Mine was NOT aluminum, as I recall, but metal, so maybe it is not the same part you are dealing with. Fix would be the same however.

Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:27 am

I also had to radius the roller a bit to get it to run smooth... not alot of work but frustrating that it does not work out of the box.

Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:43 am

yes the pedal arm is steel. the roller only is billet. thanks for the info guys. looks like i am back to the grinding wheel... again. man that think see's a lot of use....

Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:28 pm

Looks like I'm in the minority here. Grinding either the pedal cluster casting or the roller pedal arm is an almost necessity to make them work properly. In my case I chose to grind the alloy pedal cluster casting. Mine was all full of crud and corrosion and with a quick pass of the Dremel too, the roller pedal fit right in without a problem.

In the past I have also added shims in order to take some of the slop out of the roller pedal.

Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:08 pm

Also...check the geometry of the roller pedal once installed. With my car the roller pedal did not allow full throttle. I had to move the accelerator cable hole up and install a smaller "Home Depot" caster wheel to get full throttle. They are a POS in my opinion....I wasn't happy...Oh yea...I had to grind and fit mine too.

Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:12 am

i grond it down. fits fine. still, clearly just an error when being manufactured. it would be so easy for them to fix this before it even ships. such a simple part, glad i havnt purchased anything from empi that has to be a precise engineered piece. no carbs from empi i guess (or anything else for that matter)