floor-mount pedal maintenance?

[Rich]

Guys,

you need to remove the pedals from the car, as the bottom of the pedals is pushed through the rubber.

You cannot push the rubber over the pedal (where you push with your foot), you can't expect the small hole with thin rubber to go over the large part of the pedal and not tearing.

It will take a while for you to remove the pedals from the car, but at least you won't tear it again.

I don't know what happened to picture above!
But here it again.

[FMD159]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Guys, you need to remove the pedals from the car, as the bottom of the pedals is pushed through the rubber. You cannot push the rubber over the pedal (where you push with your foot), you can't expect the small hole with thin rubber to go over the large part of the pedal and not tearing. It will take a while for you to remove the pedals from the car, but at least you won't tear it again. I don't know what happened to picture above! But here it again.

[Alex]

I might be wrong, but Rich's pedal gasket appears not to have come from EB Spares, as the reproduction I bought from them a few years ago has their company name moulded into the rubber itself, below the pedal pivots. I cannot comment as to the ease (or otherwise) of fitting this repro as I decided to resurrect the original rubber when I further renovated the pedal linkages earlier this year. However, it did feel as though the repro rubber was - perhaps - made from a slightly less flexible rubber compound; I didn't, however, measure the thickness of the original vs. the repro. When I removed and finally reinstalled the rubber, I also found it far easier to slip it over the bottom of the pedals, using plastic bags, plenty of hot water, washing up liquid and glycerine. Any consequent splits can be sympathetically repaired using thin rubber sheet and that type of superglue which requires a separate primer - it's much, much more effective.

Incidentally, the main reason I took everything apart earlier this year was to cure the slop in the pivots that I noted five years ago but did nothing to remedy at the time. It's worth mentioning that, despite a worldwide search for the correct bronze/graphite bushes which involved dozens of emails and phone calls, I could only find an equivalent (and very inferior) modern teflon-lined DX bush. Short of actually having the pivot pins machined down to the next undersize, and having the pedal holes sleeved, then fitting one of the bronze/graphite bushes that was available, I was stuck. Then my Dad had a brainwave. We carefully pressed out the bush (actually, I should say 'bushes', as each pedal has two bushes pressed in one behind the other) and then, using Loctite, fitted a length of 1.5 thou shim steel bent into a ring. Once that had set in place, we filed a little off the gap in the bush (when you remove this style of bush, you'll see the split down the middle that's revealed when the bush is taken out of compression) and refitted it with plenty of ancient graphite grease - resulting in a bush with a marginally smaller I/D (about 3 thou) and more than enough to remove any trace of slop between the pedals and the pivot. It was a lengthy process owing to the fruitless search for the bushes, but if you have the necessary facilities then I really do recommend this as a winter project.

Cheers,

Alex.

[Chris1750]

I got my boot from Chris Sweetapple at Highwood and assembled it as Rich (and Chris) suggest(ed). Got it very warm and soft first and gently pushed the well greased pedal bottoms through the holes from the top - worked well first time with no torn rubber. Regreased the brass bushes, had a new pair of clevis pins made and reassembeld the box. Now it's as good as new.

The boot looks very much like the one in Rich's photos.
Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any photos at the time because it all seemed very routine and the assembly went without problems.

Chris

[Alfa-Red-GTC-66]

Pisa, 6 November 2009

Dear Alex,

I don't know whether I actually understood what you are speaking about. But if I got correctly the meaning, please look at the picture attached here. The parts shown can be found at Classic Alfa in London!

Kind regards

Giovanni ( ... that one of the RHD Giulia GTC bought in London two and a half years ago!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex John, As far as I am aware, the only people to stock the large rubber diaphragm through which passes the brake and clutch pedals, is EB Spares in the UK. They had some new ones made a few years ago, but not many know about them because they don't even have a printed catalogue! I bought one a couple of years ago as a spare - from memory, approx. $60 springs to mind, but I might be wrong! While you have the pedals out, I would recommend inspecting the pivots and replacing the bronze bushes if there is too much slack. This type of oil-lite bush is common to all kinds of applications, but unless you find one with the correct i.d., you may have to ream them to fit the pedal pivots. Reassemble using a heavy graphite grease. Good luck!! Alex.

[Rich]

FMD159,

The rubber boot that i have is very soft and flexible, purchased here in Oz for $200.00 so i did my best not to tear it. I'm positive that it originally came from the UK.
I have told you exactly the way i did it, no other trick up my sleeve.
Get in touch with Chris from Highwoodalfa to purchase another if you wish, other wise you can buy thin rubber sheets, cut and glue it to repair the one you have.

Hi Alex,

I did the same thing as you did regard the slop in the pedal. I used aluminum from a Coke can, cut it to size and glued it and then pressed in the brass bushes, greased everything and it worked perfectly.


Rich