Broke 2nd pedal box!

quarters

So today i was driving home from the lake and was unable to shift into any gears suddenly. i pull over, tighten the clutch cable which seemed loose. yay, on my way again, smooth like butter. make it another 50km... toasted clutch pedal pivot rod snapped and the clutch pedal just lay against the floor.

was able to nurse the car in 1st gear to a shop. i pulled the pedal box in the parking lot and he welded it up for me. this is my second pedal box replacement/repair! So if you suddenly think your clutch is toasted, get under the dash and inspect your pedal box first. the first time it was a hairline crack that was causing problems.

PS. THIS IS NOT A FUN REPAIR!!!!!!! my hands are cut to shit from trying to squeeze them under the pedal assembly. i cursed god and all of his followers for about 10 minutes. you need little rubber arms and hands to do it. now my clutch pedal is stiff right at the top, so i need to go adjust it. booo.

Old Skool

That sucks I've had similar issues in my '79 wagon with the D swap.. I 1st snapped the arm at the pivot point on the transmission (running a 6puck act clutch) and had to drive 300miles doing clutchless shifts finally got to our destination, got it welded up, and on the way home the pivot point on the pedal broke off (luckily only 100miles from home) after that I swapped the clutch( centerforce dual friction) and new transmission.. much easier to drive.. but it's now pulled out in favor of a B series

Haydz

Common issue with this pedalbox unfortunately. My Civic Pro also developed a hairline crack at the top towards the pivot and so it started moving slightly to the side, meaning it wasn't fully disengaging the clutch.

I would suggest rather than just weld/repair your current pedalbox, purchase a known good unit and reinforce the area where the old one started to crack.

Obviously you were in a situation where you needed it going there and then, but maybe food for thought in the future.

White&Nerdy

Hey, my gf's 88 CRX Si won't disengage the clutch... It started doing this at the same time I replaced the clutch, so I'm figuring I probably botched the clutch job. But is there any chance this might be a factor as well...?

Haydz

Yes check the clutch pedal, follow it up towards the pivot. There is a 90 degree bend in the bracket holding the pivot and that is where mine cracked.

quarters

Haydz wrote:

Common issue with this pedalbox unfortunately. My Civic Pro also developed a hairline crack at the top towards the pivot and so it started moving slightly to the side, meaning it wasn't fully disengaging the clutch.
I would suggest rather than just weld/repair your current pedalbox, purchase a known good unit and reinforce the area where the old one started to crack.
Obviously you were in a situation where you needed it going there and then, but maybe food for thought in the future.

5 years ago when i replaced it the first time it was from a good donor car. I was having the same problem you mentioned above. We replaced the clutch before finding the pedal box to be at fault... that was the worst part.

This time it was the pivot rod that broke, it looks way stronger now than it did OEM. very happy with the repair. my hand looks like i was punching a bag of nails though, from all the cuts and gouges under the dash.

Get some light under the dash, get your head under there and press on the pedals, it should be fairly obvious if you've got some excess movement going on. if it's not obvious, it's probably not the problem.

fettcols

I had to do that with mine, I went ahead and took out the seat just to give me some room to get up under the dash. Also unbolting the fuse box and pushing it out of the way helps.

I dread getting back under there but I'm having some trouble with the throttle cable sticking at the moment.

quarters

another thing that makes it easy is to just forget about leaving the steering column intact... just bite the bullet and drop it. my poor hand.







house-sitting someone's cabin/cats at the lake for the weekend. nice.