Pedal Bushings

[grey beard]

From lurking and reading threads on this forum over the past year or so, I have come to learn that several here have done frame-off-type restorations on Pilothouse trucks. Have any of you restorers/fixer-uppers found a source for clucth and brake pedal bushings? My pedals scrub the floor sheet metal with sorta' nasty sounding results. Are bushings available, or must they be made to order by a machinist? Any machinists on this forum? Any advice, suggestions, criticisms, wisdom, prayer requests? :cool:

[Don Coatney]

Dave;

I spoke with my machinist when I was at the point in my project of re-bushing the pedals. I had a slight amount of side to side play but it was not too bad. My machinist told me that he could re-bush the pedals but the materials he had available to make this repair were inferior to the original stuff Mopar used 58 years ago. He recommended I put the original setup together and run with it so I did so.

[David Muma]

VPW have a repair kit on page 14 of their catalog. It says it is for power wagons but if you check with them it just might fit our pilothouse trucks too.

[Young Ed]

Dad had the pedals rebushed for his 40 plymouth. The machine shop redid them. Another thing to check. In my 46 the clutch pedal scrapped the metal floor. The noise was really annoying! I figured the bushing was bad but it turned out the pedal was bent! Little heat and a big pliers and no more noise.

[Tim Frank]

Don,

Would "oilite" not work for bushings? or is a bronze-based bushing simply too soft?

Am I being naive to think that I will be able to drill and ream the pedal and press in bushings that I turn up on my Atlas?

Finally put up a pic, but as you can see am a long way from needing brakes and clutch....

Tim

[Guest P15-D24]

The VPW kits will work for our trucks. Part numbers are the same. I've used them myself.

[grey beard]

Thanks, GTK

This is what I was hoping to learn. Now I know how to fix the problem. I was amazed to see Don Coatney's automobile brake pedal setup shots (Thanks, Don). His is totally different than the Pilothouse type - master cylinder behind rather than in front of the pedals, etc. Truck pedals are much more "S" shaped in configuration than are car types, and have the bell housing cross member between the pedala and the master cylinder. Can't help but wonder if they are any easier to get at than trucks. Pilothouse pedal bushings are accessable only from the "beneath and behind" position, unless the cab is off the chassis.