My DIY clutch pedal linkage worked well enough to get us down to V@V and back, but the bolt and nut kept loosening up while clutching our way through the back roads. An upgrade was in order. As mentioned before, I had been searching McMaster-Carr.com for a suitable heim-jointed replacement. And I found one.
As it turns out, McMaster sells a nearly perfect replacement for that foul little pot metal piece of crap excuse for a linkage. Part # 59935K83 is a beauty of a heim joint with an M8 x 25mm thread on it. The dimensions couldn’t be closer for an off the shelf replacement. Plus, the heim joints are zinc plated steel and come in a choice of PTFE (Teflon) lined or non-lined. I chose the cheaper non-lined versions at $6.73 a pop.
(Plus it’s made in Illinois!)
Installation is a straight-forward job. All you need is a bolt of proper length and diameter to fit through the heim joint and snug it up against the clutch pedal. You can see in this picture below that once everything is installed, the bolt actually holds the spherical joint to the pedal and allows for the head of the linkage to rotate as needed. This eliminates the side to side torquing motion that beckons the end for the pot metal versions.
So far I’ve gotten a few drives out of the car with no problems. In fact, the clutch pedal has never felt better. There is hardly any play in the linkage and the pedal motion is as smooth as butter when depressed.
::UPDATE:: 4/23/12 – It’s been over two years and this same linkage is still going strong!
::UPDATE AGAIN:: 3/1/15 – Still using the same linkage…5.5 years and counting!