The idea is basic but hopefully I've explained enough of what I found out along the way to help some of you with your own problems.
I was pretty far along in modifying a '36 pedal ***embly to fit my current AV8 project. I had torched the odd X member mount off and started a new pedal box using the left over pivot and a piece of 3" square tubing. (I was annoyed with myself for not paying attention to the seam before cutting it) It was at this point I tried to order a rebuild kit for the pedal ***embly and found out no one has it and it is not being reproduced. Tried Joblot, Spadarro and all of the usual suspects. SOME had the bushings, but the shafts were needed as well. I got a few suggestions for quick fixes from a few places but nothing I felt comfortable with. So this raised a question with me, what good are the bronze bushings anyway? They aren't sacrificial or really reducing wear. As an example: The underlying steel was just starting to peek through the bronze in the picture above... but the steel shaft is wasted on both brake and clutch pedals. I decide I'm ditching the bushings all together and rebuilding my own pedal box and pivots. Another length of 3" square tubing, three pieces of .120 wall DOM, (7/8", 1 1/8" and 1 3/8") and some time with a hole saw and angle grinder netted this stuff. I was going to need to split a piece of the tubing and make it into a clamp so here's what I came up with. An allthread coupler and matching bolt, an improvised clamp and a super high tech depth stop. Start by drilling a bit over half of the threads out of the coupler, and finish off by unclamping the piece to watch it drop right through the hole in the center of the table, the hole in the center of the base, and into the chips underneath. Fish it out and you end up with this: Squared everything up, welded it together then carefully and squarely cut the center of the tubing away. The modified allthread coupler is welded to the bottom of one side and split to make a clamp that will hold the new shaft in place. And here are most of the pieces ready to re***emble. New clutch shaft is 7/8" which has to be within a few thousandths of the original – the pedal slipped right over it after being heated with a torch and locked in place when it cooled. I welded it to the shaft through the original locking pin hole. I also welded a pipe fitting to the end for a grease zerk and drilled everything for the grease to flow through starting at the clutch shaft and ending at the brake pivot. (this was just copying the stock configuration of the holes) The groove in the clutch shaft will make sure grease can get to the brake pivot no matter which way it's clocked. I had originally planned to use the 1 3/8" tubing for the brake pivot and weld the pedal onto it, but when I punched the bushing out of the pedal it was so close to slipping over the new bushing that I decided to ream it out to fit. And here is the trial ***embly. I still have to weld on the pivot for the master cylinder linkage. A deep chamfer and some preheat and it will be good and plenty safe. Also have to weld the back of the box on and do a final tune of the pedal position once it's bolted in the car. There was so much slop before it was hard to know where to heat and bend to clear the steering column, etc.
So that's it. The pivots are all steel on steel now but with a healthy dose of grease I'm confident it will last at least as long as the stock parts did. I will post the final pics when it's completely finished and adjusted in the car.
Nice work Kevin. I do believe that the bronze bushings would allow a little less friction or resistance. But I have to agree that with enough grease, this should work solidly well into the future. Just make sure to keep it greased and dont let it sit idle for any length of time
Yeah, I know technically the bushings help. But this will work well enough to be someone else's problem in sixty years or so. Also thinking I will add a little chamfer at each end to sneak a thin o-ring at each intersection to keep the grease inside.
like the o ring idea... as I said really nice work. I like that you dropped the coupler down into the deep almost bottomless drill press base (just like I would)
Good job Grimlock! I think the same way, for the amount of wear you will ever give it, greased steel on steel should be fine. You can always machine a bushing sometime in the future. There is a stock ford pedal ***embly, it may be a '28/29 AA truck, or a 33/34 that has a similar configuration. So fill me in, You're working on an A-v8, but what happened to that chopped coupe? TP
Here it is installed. Like I said, I'll need to tune the arms a bit to clear the column, but everything is legit.
zibo - It's going to be a pretty basic AV8, but with modest engine setback and some other tweaks to keep it from looking like you're driving a grandpa's car with the fenders removed. The engine is an inch or two lower than typical. The seat is lower and slid back 4 or 5 inches. The column has been lowered 5 inches. The goal at 6'+ is to get in, be comfortable and feel like I'm INSIDE the car. Something I was never able to do in the old modified.
Looking at that shot of the inner kick panel, I see a whole new heap has sneaked into the garage. !!! I bet this one uses less than 10% of the welding rod and wire expended in the coupe! When are you going to come clear your ^&%%^$ heap of junk out of my shed? Thoughts here...really good tech! Using the tube witin a tube technique would allow adapting cheap '40-48 pedals or F1's to work cluch like the '39's. Using those types would give you a good ratio with integral forged brake lever, a bit of extra security on that bit. There are a lot of good ideas here. The GM type bushings, though a touch out of your time comfort zone, would be interesting if suitable sizes exist...thin plastic between two steel parts: No metal wear at all, if they fail a loud squek will announce the need for another 29 cent slide-in bush. GM brake ones are likely too big, but surely similar bushings are out there in Industrial Supply Land. I suspect that the bronze eats steel by ac***ulating embedded dirt and becoming a machine tool, like carb shafts eat iron bodies. I think the route to preservation is excess grease sticking out at both ends, frequently renewed and looking like hell. That's how kingpins survive.
Looks good Kevin. I just got my '29 AV8 on the road if you need any references. Im just up the road. Tim
Kevin, I always look forward to your tech threads. You're approach is always really smart and well within the limits of the do it "yourself-er" if they thought as clearly as you do. Really cool stuff and useful to many of us I'm sure. Thanks bud. Oh and the gas sign in your garage? I covet that.
Thanks for the compliments. Bruce Amazing how much faster things happen when you're not spending a month s***ching several pieces together to end up with a section of a component of a part. Somewhere between work, family and more work I need to round up a few measurements to figure out how things are going to fit. The bed of the F1 is 48.5" wide. And then there's the small matter of putting overdrive in the truck to make realistic time.
Found some info on that, entirely by accident! I was happily reading the April '56 HRM, beginning of the fabulous flathead building tech series from Don Francisco, and tripped over an engine swap: The Chrismans had just won a new '56 Hemi engine ***embly as a drag prize, and decided to give their '52 F-1 puller some extra steam. First step to keep everything properly located was to mount a Merc OD trans to the original flathead, so this is full applicable to semi-stock pickups. The trans was set in place, demonstrating a SERIOUS interference between the solenoid and the dip in the crossmember...this required cutting a big notch, big enough to be structurally dubious, so support structure was welded across top of the notch. The OD trans of cours lacks the mounts at rear of main gearbox the truck has, and instead has a simple flat mount sort of like a turbo 350 several inches back on the OD housing. A simple flat tab with a few gussets was welded to the back of the crossmember to make a platform maybe 6" or so abaft the original mounts. Done. Note that the rear mount nowadays could also be handled by one of those bolt-in trans crossmembers sold for engine swaps in pickup trucks, the ones that are just a dipped tube with cut-to-fit length and simple mounting sockets. Obviously, you'll need a column shift setup to do this up right.
I'm saving this one for future use. I've got one ongoing project that can use this and one future project that might benefit from it. Thanks Keven for a tech that many of us will actually put to use.
The Jalopy Journal
