Yes, that stupid little lollipop linkage made of the world’s weakest pot metal mysteriously snapped on Uber’s clutch pedal. As far as I can tell, I must have knocked the clutch pedal a bit sideways while welding up the driver side floorboard/rocker panel in preparation for Vintage at the Vineyards and sheared the threaded piece right off.
And, unfortunately, a replacement part doesn’t seem to actually exist unless you buy a new clutch master cylinder with which the linkage is included.
I have a couple friends whose clutch pedal linkages have bit the dust at inopportune moments. I, so far, have been lucky. One would think that an item that sees so much use would be forged from stronger stuff. Well, now it is.
Using a bit of aluminum scrap, a 40mm long M8 x 1.25 bolt from the hardware store, a drill press and tap I set off to make a reasonable replacement. I found a piece of aluminum scrap and cut off a square chunk. It is about 10mm thick, 4mm more than the OEM linkage piece. The large hole that the clutch pedal bolt passes through is just shy of 16mm in diameter, or nearly 5/8″. I used a 5/8″ drill bit to punch a hole in my aluminum scrap. I then drilled and tapped a hole on the longer side of the aluminum scrap. I needed the thicker aluminum to allow the bolt hole to be tapped. Since the hardware store didn’t carry metric threaded rod, I found a bolt that fit the threading of the clutch master cylinder (M8 x 1.25) and estimated the length that I’d need. Using my handy angle grinder with a cutting disc, I chopped the head of the bolt off and fed the headless end into the threaded hole.
So far it is working just fine. The original bolt that attaches the linkage to the pedal has a thicker nut and I can’t thread it all the way on due to the aluminum piece being slightly thicker. But, it is holding with no binding. Once I get the car back on the ground, I’ll give it a good road test and report back. My next iteration might incorporate a heim joint rod end from McMaster-Carr.
