Bronze bushing kit, new pedal rubber, black paint, white lithium grease
Hot Tip:
If you cant easily get out the press pin, take it to your local machine shop
Performance Gain:
No more squeaky pedals, no more binding pedals
Complementary Modification:
Replace your clutch cable, check/replace your master cylinder
This article is one in a series that have been released in conjunction with Wayne's book, 101 Projects for Your Porsche 911. The book contains 240 pages of full color projects detailing everything from performance mods to changing your brake pads. With more than 650+ full-color glossy photos accompanying extensive step-by-step procedures, this book is required reading in any Porsche 911 owner's collection. See The Official Book Website for more details.
Check out some other sample projects from the book:
Very often on the older 911s, the pedal cluster will have a tendency to stick and bind. This is often caused by rainwater leaks starting to rust out the assembly, or a master cylinder that has leaked corrosive brake fluid over the bushings. The original pedal clusters were installed with plastic bushings that have a tendency to wear away during many years of repeated use. Rebuilding the entire assembly with newer bronze bushings is an easy and straightforward process, and can possibly solve some of your shifting and clutch problems as well.
Your pedal cluster should be rebuilt with the newer, aftermarket bronze bushings. Not only will these bushings perform better than the stock plastic ones, but they should also last a lot longer over a greater length of time. Replacing the plastic bushings should also assure that your pedals will not squeak anymore, or worse, get stuck in the down position. In addition to the bronze bushing kit, you will also need some new rubber pedal pads, some black paint, and some white lithium grease for lubricating the entire assembly.
Removal of the pedal cluster is not too difficult, but can be tricky if you haven't done it before. The first thing to do is to remove the carpet, the wooden floorboard, and disconnect the clutch cable. See Project 40 for more information on this procedure. Now, you need to unbolt the assembly from the car. The pedal cluster and the master cylinder are bolted together on the early cars, so you need to disconnect the master cylinder in order to remove the pedal cluster. This is accomplished by removing the two nuts that attach the master cylinder to the pedal cluster. These two nuts can be reached from underneath the car, after removing the belly pan that covers the steering rack. To actually remove the cluster from the car, you may also have to unbolt and disconnect the accelerator pedal as well. It would be advisable to take a vacuum cleaner and clean out the area near the cluster before you remove it. This will make the job a lot more pleasant, and will also prevent you from tracking dirt and other debris across the interior of your car when you remove the cluster. Make sure that you unhitch both the clutch cable and accelerator cable as well. See Project 9 for more details.
Once you have the pedal cluster removed from your car, take it over to your workbench, and begin the disassembly. A roll pin that is pressed into the end of the clutch pedal holds the majority of the cluster together. The first step to try for removing the roll pin is to place a bolt on one end and tap it carefully with a hammer. Make sure that the base of the clutch pedal is firmly mounted in a vise so that you dont dent, damage, or bend any of the parts on the cluster. Tapping the pin with a hammer might make it move slightly, but in most cases probably wont be enough to remove it.
Another removal method involves drilling the inside of the pin out before trying to remove it. Get a few new steel drill bits (and plan on destroying them in this process), and start by drilling inside the roll pin. The pin has a hollow center, so it should be relatively easy to get the drill bit started in the pin. Drill out the pin by increasing the size of the drill bit that you use, until the inside of the pin is significantly larger in diameter. Now, the pin should be easier to press out. Try to tap it out with a hammer, or you can place it in a vise with a screw behind the roll pin and compress the vise until the pin is pressed out. If all else fails, you can probably take it to your local machine shop, where they have the proper tools to press out the pin in about 1 minute.
Once you have the roll pin out, then the rest of the cluster should come apart quite easily. Remove the nut that holds on the inner cylinder of the cluster and pull it out. At this point it should be easy to completely disassemble the entire cluster. Take a screwdriver and remove all of the older plastic bushings. At this time, you might want to take your pedal cluster parts to your local machine shop to have it sand blasted and painted. This gives it a very nice appearance, and will also protect it from rust in the future.
Once the parts are cleaned up, insert the new bushings into the cluster. Refer to the photo and diagram in this section for the exact location of where each bushing is to be installed. Make sure that you place a light coat of white lithium grease on all the bushings in the cluster. The bushings themselves should not require too much force to be pressed into their mating surfaces.
Once you have the bushings installed, reassemble the cluster and carefully install the brake pedal and clutch pedal spring. Make sure that you inspect the two springs to assure that they havent been damaged or corroded to the point where they might fail. Its a wise idea to renew both these springs while you have the pedal cluster apart.
While you have the cluster out and apart, its also a good idea to test and adjust your brake pedal switch. On the earlier 911s, this switch is activated by the brake pedal and triggers the rear brake lights. Check to make sure that the switch is operational, and adjust it if the actuation point is not exactly where you think it should be.
Its also a good time to replace the pedal pad rubber on your cluster. The old ones simply slide off the back of the pedals, and the new rubber is pressed and fit onto the pedal with a little bit of effort.
Reassembly into the car is similar to the removal procedure. Make sure that you properly reattach your clutch cable, throttle cable, and remount the master cylinder. Make sure that you dont wrap the throttle cable around the clutch cable. If this happens, when you push in the clutch, the engine will speed up.
Before you reinstall the cluster, inspect the front floor of the car. If the area under the cluster is rusty, then you might want to consider some preventative maintenance through the use of some sand paper and rust prevention paint.
Figure 1
With the floorboards removed, you can see the pedal cluster. The plastic bushings that were originally used as OEM equipment have probably worn out a long time ago. Before you remove and disassemble the cluster, make sure that the bushings have not already been replaced with the bronze ones by a previous owner.
Its a wise idea to closely examine your pedal cluster prior to disassembly so that youre familiar with how it is supposed to be reassembled. The location and orientation of the pedal springs looks obvious when the assembly is together, but once its in pieces, it can be difficult to determine which part goes where. Refer to this photo when reassembling the pedal cluster, or take some photos of your own during the process. The top half of the photo shows the proper orientation of the clutch pedal return spring, whereas the bottom half shows the proper installation of the brake pedal return spring.
This photo shows the pedal cluster completely disassembled. The bronze bushing kit contains 7 new bushings that need to be installed into the cluster. Shown by the arrows in the picture, these bushings should easily slide into the pedal cluster, and dont need to be tapped in with a large amount of force.
Starting in 1977, the clutch return spring was moved to the outside of the pedal cluster. This heavy-duty spring is very difficult to install, and usually requires the work of two very strong people to wrestle it into place. One person must pull and stretch the spring, while the other person guides it onto its hook.
This diagram shows an exploded view of the pedal cluster assembly. Different year cars may have slightly different configurations, but the general design and assembly is the same for all the 911s. This diagram shows the pedal cluster assembly for 911s 1974 and later. The main difference from the early cars is the installation of a stronger clutch pedal helper spring. This helper spring can be very difficult to put on, and usually requires two people to complete the task. 1-Bolt, M6x25, 2-Washer, 3-Throttle pedal, 4-Throttle pedal stop, 5-Throttle control link, 6-Throttle control rod, 7-Clevis pin, 8-Nut, M8, 9-Lock washer, 10-Washer, 11-Nut, M8, 12-Lock washer, 13-Support, 14-Dust Boot, 15-Cotter pin for actuating rod, 16-Washer, 17-Intermediate piece, 18-Nut, M10, 19-Actuating rod, 20-Stoplight switch actuating washer, 21-Spring, 22-Cotter pin for bell crank, 23-Washer, 24-Bell Crank, 25-Bushing (Replace with bronze bushing), 26-Rubber Stop, 27-Slotted screw M4x10, 28-External tooth lock washer, 29-Stoplight switch, 30-Roll pin, 31-Clutch pedal, 32-Clutch pedal shaft, 33-Bushing, 34-Nut, M8, 35-Lock washer, 36-Support tube, 37-Bushing (Replace with bronze bushing), 38-Rubber stop, 39-Brake pedal, 40-Return spring, 41-Bushing (Replace with bronze bushing)
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