Clutch,brake pedal shaft

[tctrkca1]

I am looking for a picture of the pedal shaft where it connects to the left frame.This area is obscured by the inner fender and it looks like the outer has to be removed to get the inner.The veh is a 55 Fargo 1/2 ton p/u.The bushing or whatever it is is so worn the shaft moves forward instead of pushing in on the master cyl.Thanks Jim

[grey beard]

Jim,

If your Fargo is like US trucks, the pedal shaft is also the clutch shaft that turns the throw-out bearuing fork inside the bell housing. The shaft sticks out towards the driver's side and ends at the adjuster link for the clutch. There is no frame bracket on the end of the shaft.

Things tend to get a little tight in this area - starter, master cylinder, pedals, brake light switch, etc. To get to this stuff intelligently, you must first remove both upper and lower toe boards on the firewall floor, in front of the two pedals. The lower of these has the two mounting ball pins for the gas pedal. Once these two panels are unbolted and removed, you have some access to the pedal area.

If your pedals are like mine, both have lots of wobble, or slop in them. My pedals were so worn that both scraped the floor sheetmetal with a horrible noise. The brake pedal was made with a bushing in the pivoting end and a grease fitting for it. Trouble was, very few knew or cared about this fitting and it seldom if ever got lubed.

These pedals weigh nearly 40 pounds each and are heavy cast seel. When they develop play in the busing area, their own weight moves and bounces them around until they are totally hogged out, and then the pedal wobbles all over the place. To get the brake pedal off, you mus first remove the clutch pedal. Once the clutch is out of the way, the brake pedal still hits the steering column when you try to slide it to the left to remove it from the clutch shaft. You can either remove the steering box and column assembly or pull the cab up - both very difficult and involved jobs. I chose to bend my left side floor board up about a foot, and blocked it with a piece of wood cribbing, in order to get the pedal off. To do this, you must also remove the transmission floor cover - not very dificult.

The clutch pedal is heavy just like the brake pedal. Difference is that it was made with no bushing because it turns with the cluch shaft as one unit, and therefore should have no movement betwewen he two parts. Problem is that it also wobbles out just like the brake pedal and therefore must be repaired in order to work as it should. If you clamp the pedal tight to the shaft, the clutch free play cannot be adjusted, and this is critical to have this adjustment possible.

What we did with my worn clutch pedal was to saw through the eye where the shaft rides, and then we welded two ears onto the two ends of the cut, making it into a clamp. We drilled and threaded these ears to take a 3/8-inch bolt, so that after the pedal was installed and adjusted, we could then clamp it down tight onto the shaft to keep it from wobbling again. Now it it gets losoe again, I can retighten the clamp.

The adjuster for the clutch free play rides on the outside of the shaft, next to the clutch pedal proper, and has two adjuster bolts wih jamb nus tha ride against a tab protrusion on the pedal. This adjustment is used to create the one inch of free play at the top of the pedal travel, so that the throw out bearing on the clutch does not turn except when the pedal is depressed.

It is a lot of work to repair these pedals, but other than finding new pedals and clutch shaft parts, is the only way I know of to repair the wear problem. If you are a machinist or know somene who is, this work would be greatly simplified. My local machinist charged me $175 to to the two pedal repairs as outlined above.

One last piece of advice - after all the repair work is done, don't forget to lube the brake pedal each time you lube the rest of the chassis.

[Merle Coggins]

Dave, I believe the "C" series trucks did have frame mounted pedals.

[tctrkca1]

Your description and remedy works great with the older ones.This master cyl sits under the cab and needs the plunger pushed from the front.Somehow due to wear, the shaft that the pedals are hooked to moves as much foreward as the Mcyl requires to work.Everything equals ,except truck rolls away.There is no way to see as it is closed in by the inner fender.A real BITCH. Thanks Jim C