Clutch pedal replacement in 1/2 hour! (Pics)

[remraf]

[alaskadan]

OK so I thought my clutch pedal finally wore through today. My road is really rough right now, looks like the surface of the moon. My sliding door latch has been grieving me about it by popping open. Twice this am within a couple miles from home it popped open meaning I have to stop and shut it. The 1st time upon taking off the clutch felt unusually close to the floor, I knew it was coming someday. The 2nd time I barely got into 1st gear and set off went for 2nd and clutch pedal to the floor no shifty. Darn. OK fine. Pulled into an uphill driveway and pulled it out of 1st. Rolled back down and onto the road facing back home. Had to shut it off and restart it in 1st gear. It lurched along and fired up. Then had to speed shift to 2nd and stayed there back to the house. Here's pics of my pedal assembly. Not all the way worn through, which I could see before removing it but knew it needed it.

The fluid in the reservoir is down to the low mark. Honestly been a while since I looked at it. Brakes are good. I couldn't find any wetness anywhere where clutch/brake fluid might leak. I have a clutch master ordered. What does it feel like when the clutch slave goes out? S.C. 2.5 suby slave .

[Sodo]

[alaskadan]

I do recall this. I thought one of the main reasons was to eliminate the spacer. My clutch has always been fine as far as softness and smooth grab. Really no complaints at all. Right now all parts have been welded and filed back to original. I am leary that my good functioning clutch was also due to a certain of slop that was present when I got the van and did the suby swap. Also I had looked for leaks at bell housing and saw none.

[Sodo]

You can see that your clutch was unable to push its plunger "all the way".
With the full plunger action restored, you really "need" that spacer.

The mod had a goal to eliminate the spacer 'on principle', but the spacer is not really a problem that needed to be solved.

The problem is the modulation, the clutch action.
The release band is narrowed, and the clutch is more abrupt.
This is more important for 'offroad' especially in a Syncro in granny, where you would not enjoy a jerky clutch.

You have learned to drive with the abrupt clutch, but moving the hole 13mm, the release band will be ~20% wider and ~20% softer pedal,
and more like the long-forgotten OEM smoothness.

Since the smallcar pedal mod is not a "1/2hour replacement" topic, I replied to your question in more detail on page 17 of the SmallCar bellhousing thread.
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[alaskadan]

Appreciate your input.

[alaskadan]

You got me with buttery smooth.

[Sodo]

very nice presentation.
I'm anxious to hear your thoughts WRT the difference in modulation.

What about cutting off that un-used arm?
If you are working from the driver footwell, that arm makes it difficult to re-insert the plunger down into the master cylinder.
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[alaskadan]

I did cut it off, will post pic later. And kudos to those who did this in short order.

So when I pulled the clutch pedal the clutch master was installed. I'm replacing the clutch master so I pulled it out . Reinstalling the pedal is way easier to work on with the master out. Still a bit of a pain though. After multiple attempts to get the pin started into the clutch pedal I took a dremel and champhered the inside edge of the pedal hole. That's a pic of it after. After that I got the pin started on the first try. So now with a clutch pedal that's getting full throw I started to bleed the system and NOW I'm getting a leak at the bottom of the bell housing.

[alaskadan]

So is the all metal slave for 6 speeds part number 0A5 141 671F still the go to one?

[alaskadan]

We have clutch. Haven't driven it yet but it feels good. Only wiggled it back and forth because my wife parked behind the van. Plus it was dinner time. FYI I did the gravity bleed on the clutch. The new slave cylinder got bench bled. Just compress the throwout bearing and submerge the tip of the slave cylinder in brake fluid and release slowly a few times until no bubbles come out. Keep tip vertical after that. The plastic slave I removed did not flex off as I removed it, that's to say it sat nice and flush on the boss's in a relaxed state. Maybe that's why I got 6 years out of it? Anyhow I got an all metal Sachs clutch slave and the supposedly proprietary clutch disc from small car was from Sachs also.

[alaskadan]

I would have to agree that buttery smooth is a good description . Just drove around town and all is good. Only thing I might do is adjust the push rod a little to give more free play at top of pedal throw. Just to make sure there is no pressure on the throwout bearing, I might have 3/4" of play right now. Thanks to all the contributors to this thread.

[Honuak]

Go it out. What a b^%th of a job. If this community wasnt here there is no way I would have done it.
Putting it back in is going to suck too.
Im trying to determine for sure if I can do the 13mm move as described, it wouild be nice in that I would not have to reweld/redrill the hole.
My plunger is quite worn also, so may get a new one of those on the way.

[Sodo]

[Honuak]

Got it done.
So many thanks to this community. Even with the support this task was daunting. All of the info here was key.
If I had it to do again I would h ave unbolted the master cylinder (MC) prior to removing the pedal. I removed the pedal with the MC in place, which made it more difficult than it needed to be becasue you have to be pushing the clutch pedal down to get in there. For the re-instal I removed the bolts on the MC and it made a huge difference. It seems like it would be almost impossible to do the job with the MC bolted in. I did cut off the unused tab/ear on the pedal.
I filed/dremeled the clutch pedal where the big pin goes in. I sanded the big pin as best I could, sprayed PB blaster on the whole area, cleaned it all up and greased it. I used a small wonderbar to gently pry the big pin in, turned the pin to line up the retaining pin with the indent on the pedal assembly, used tape and a rare earth magnet on a big flat screwdriver to instal the c-clip. The return spring was pain to get back in there.
Drove the van this weekend. My seven yr old: "dad, I cant believe you got this thing fixed!"
Thanks son, and thanks to this community.

[Sodo]

[Honuak]

[R0ckyMtnCamper]

I gathered the courage and replaced my pedal assembly with the GoWesty version today.

Thank you to everyone who contributed here.

Removing the master cylinder and using the magnet trick for the circlip helped tremendously. I will caution that the plastic barb on the feed line for the master cylinder is quite fragile.

[bluesforcarlsagan]

Been struggling for hours trying to get the pin pushed far enough to the passenger side so the pedal drops... I need some words of encouragement/guidance or I am just going to give up, my neck can't take the abuse anymore.

[R0ckyMtnCamper]

There is a set pin on the passenger side of the clevis pin. If the clevis pin is not rotated in the right orientation, towards the driver, that set pin may instead interfere with the body of the van and not slide out far enough for the pedal to drop.

Hope this helps. Stick with it!!!