Brake Pedal Safety

[BirdLives]

I know this is VERY controversial, I have searched, but here's my situation:

I am very tall, 6'6", and amazingly comfortable in my 67 Ghia, except for 1 thing: The brake pedal is so high that it is very akward/uncomfortable for me to get my giant leg up high enough to push down on it with my size 15. So my goal is to get the resting position of the pedal as low (as far away from me) as safely possible.

Certain "facts" from my searches stick out to me:

The brake pedal and pushrod are a mechanical linkage. Their only job is to push on the master cylinder piston. You could stop the car by pushing on it with a srewdriver if you were strong enough right??

There are 2 adjustments to the pedal - the stop on the floor and the pushrod. (If the pushrod is too long, it will be depressing the brakes all the time, too short and the pedal will hit the body)

That said, the simple solution to lower the pedal would be to move the plate on the floor as far rearward as possible, then adjust the pushrod so that I have the Bently spec 5-7mm play at the pedal.

Would VW have made that stop-plate so adjustable that you can put the pedal in an unsafe possition?

Thanks in advance, Ryan

[Bart Dunn]

Give it a whirl, but you run the risk of having the pedal bottom out on the firewall before your brakes are fully engaged, plus some other "parade of horribles." Might also consider relocating your seat mounts on the pan a little further back. Who ever sits in the back of a Ghia anyway? Finally, maybe look around at some aftermarket pedal assembly setups, like for dune buggies, etc. Those might provide what you're looking for, like a shorter brake pedal. Good luck!
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Not enough car seats fit into my:
'58 Beetle convertible
'58 Beetle sedan

[Bruce]

The first thing you should do before deviating from the spec is to make sure it is in the correct position right now. Measure the distance from the pedal to the front panel (available travel) This should be 200mm. If it is greater, then adjust the stop bracket on the floor until it's 200mm. Then check the pedal freeplay. At this pedal position the freeplay should be 5-7mm at the pedal, 1mm at the tip of the pushrod. If this is not correct, someone has messed with the pushrod and you need to fix it.

You can modify the seat so it goes back further. Remove the seat and look at how it hits the stop on the runners on the floor. Using a hacksaw you can cut away part of the seat's channel to get it to go back further. I'm only a slight 5'12" and I have to get that extra travel on cars I own.

[execk2]

I agree with Bruce and think you should be looking at seat travel and not messing with the brake pedal. It is a linkage that requires the travel for powerful stops. Reducing the travel will develop a coaster brake. Something you do not want.

Mike
www.mikeandjosee.com

[BirdLives]

Wow, thanks for all the replies.

Bruce - the 200mm of pedal travel sounds like the spec I was looking for, I suspect mine is more. I may look into that seat track mod, but I'm really pretty happy with the distance to other things like the wheel, shifter and gas pedal. It's just that going back and forth between the gas and brake is like highstep marching!

Bart - I hadn't thought of a shorter pedal, that would solve my problem nicely. In fact, I could cut down a stock brake pedal and have the pad welded back on. Without getting out the geometry book - if I made the pedal 1/2 the height, it would take twice as much force to stop the car . My leg is pretty strong, but I don't know if that's a very good idea. Do the aftermarket pedals have a power assist or something to overcome this? Sounds expensive.