Pedals

(2 hours this weekend, 40 hours total)

I installed the pedal box (brake and clutch) this past weekend. Went in pretty easily once I got all the parts together The trick was in getting the brake pushrod out of the Mustang brake booster.

I had started this process a long time ago, when I first pulled the booster out. The build manual says something about crushing the plastic part in a vise and then pulling the pushrod out. Fine, but the studs were in the way of crushing it. So I did some cutting and drilling and whatnot and broke off the plastic part pretty good, but the pushrod did not come out. So I set the thing aside until this past weekend.

This time, I read up on the process on FFCobra.com. The consensus was to just keep breaking plastic with a chisel and a BFH. (That is, a hammer.) So I did that, and got the pushrod out. Then you're supposed to remove the aluminum fitting from the pushrod by heating it with a torch. Sounds like fun. I heated that thing up really good, then pulled on the fitting with some pliers.

Now the thing you need to know at this point is that the aluminum fitting is connected to the pushrod by means of a rubber bushing. You can't just cut the bushing, because it is inside the fitting. By heating it, what you're trying to do is melt the rubber, so the fitting slides right off.

I did more than melt the rubber. When the fitting came off, the rubber was so hot that it ignited, and I had a flaming pushrod in my vise, and a flaming fitting in my pliers. I just wish I had a picture of it.

Next up would have been the gas pedal, but after a little trial fitting, I decided to ditch the donor pedal. It just doesn't fit right, and the proposed modification from the build manual would result in the pedal pad being at a strange angle and the lever arms being all wrong. So I bought a Russ Thompson pedal from Breeze. Should have it in a couple of days, hopefully for installation this weekend.