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I have a question about the brake petal travel distance, but first I want to tell the story of how I got to this point. It is something that folks with a manual transmission may find useful and it is definitely a message to check those things that 'just don't seem right' when you first notice them.
My clutch petal has been loose for a while now. By loose, I mean that the petal would bounce a little. More recently, it has gotten very loose and sort of flopped back and forth on the trails. Just for the record, I know that petals are not supposed to have any play, I just didn't think to check it until it started getting worse.
I found the problem pretty quickly once I finally stuffed myself up under the dash. It required that I remove the brake and clutch petal assembly to fix it. That is a major pain in the neck (literally, you can only use one arm while stuffing yourself into the driver's side floorboard, so your head is cocked sideways during the entire multi-hour adventure).
After several hours, I finally had the assembly out of the Jeep:
The problem is this:
That is the pin that connects the clutch push rod to the clutch petal. That nice sized shark-bite out of the side of it is from the lack of a bushing and many years of driving it that way.
The eye for the clutch push rod faired better, but not by much:
I am heading to Moab at the end of the month and the only thing that kept going through my mind was "what if I didn't check this and the pin snapped on a shelf ledge like the one's on Moab Rim or Cliffhanger?"
Nasty images are still haunting me. :hide:
I used this motivation to take the time to take the assembly out so that I could fill-weld and grind down the damaged pieces:
I was also amazed to find that not only was the bushing gone, but the plastic clip that holds the clutch push rod onto the pin was barely existant. It broke when I removed it, but this is all that was left:
I used the clip from the brake pin as a guide and created a replacement clip out of some 18 guage sheet metal. Not as sophisticated as the original, but it worked very well:
Moral of the story is: Petals are not supposed to have play. If yours does, check it SOONER rather than later!
Okay, now for my brake petal question.
When I put the petal assembly back in, the brake petal doesn't go out to it's original resting spot. It stops before engaging the sensor that turns the brake lights off. Instead of letting the brake lights stay on constantly, I put some thick felt padding on the end of the sensor button so that it would turn the lights off. That is only a temporary fix.
Any idea why my brake petal travel distance is not the same as it was before I started?
My clutch petal has been loose for a while now. By loose, I mean that the petal would bounce a little. More recently, it has gotten very loose and sort of flopped back and forth on the trails. Just for the record, I know that petals are not supposed to have any play, I just didn't think to check it until it started getting worse.
I found the problem pretty quickly once I finally stuffed myself up under the dash. It required that I remove the brake and clutch petal assembly to fix it. That is a major pain in the neck (literally, you can only use one arm while stuffing yourself into the driver's side floorboard, so your head is cocked sideways during the entire multi-hour adventure).
After several hours, I finally had the assembly out of the Jeep:
The problem is this:
That is the pin that connects the clutch push rod to the clutch petal. That nice sized shark-bite out of the side of it is from the lack of a bushing and many years of driving it that way.
The eye for the clutch push rod faired better, but not by much:
I am heading to Moab at the end of the month and the only thing that kept going through my mind was "what if I didn't check this and the pin snapped on a shelf ledge like the one's on Moab Rim or Cliffhanger?"
Nasty images are still haunting me. :hide:
I used this motivation to take the time to take the assembly out so that I could fill-weld and grind down the damaged pieces:
I was also amazed to find that not only was the bushing gone, but the plastic clip that holds the clutch push rod onto the pin was barely existant. It broke when I removed it, but this is all that was left:
I used the clip from the brake pin as a guide and created a replacement clip out of some 18 guage sheet metal. Not as sophisticated as the original, but it worked very well:
Moral of the story is: Petals are not supposed to have play. If yours does, check it SOONER rather than later!
Okay, now for my brake petal question.
When I put the petal assembly back in, the brake petal doesn't go out to it's original resting spot. It stops before engaging the sensor that turns the brake lights off. Instead of letting the brake lights stay on constantly, I put some thick felt padding on the end of the sensor button so that it would turn the lights off. That is only a temporary fix.
Any idea why my brake petal travel distance is not the same as it was before I started?
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