Of course the clutch pedal assembly had been bodged by a previous owner. Why wouldn’t it have been?
I noticed it a while ago, whilst putting the missing clevis back in the brake pedal, that the clutch pedal was a bit… weird. First, it was missing the correct C clip, instead someone had just hung an incorrectly sized circlip on the shaft, which promptly fell off.
It should have a clip like this
Second, the pedal had been welded together. From what I have gathered, looking at diagrams, the clutch pedal is from a first-generation mid-late 80s Alto. None of the newer Altos use this style pedal.
I don’t love bodges, particularly on things like pedals.
So, from the same HA11S at Pick A Part I got the coolant pipe from, I also sourced a complete manual pedal box. I had seen on some Japanese sites that the H Chassis pedal box will fit and work, it just needs some processing. What, I wasn’t sure of yet.
My original plan, since I didn’t want to remove the pedal box from the car, was to remove just the pedal and swap them over. The one in the car was easy, since the clip was missing. I just unhooked the clutch cable, popped the spring off and slid the pedal off
The pedal was way more butchered than I expected
Compared to the replacement pedal I removed
Unfortunately, the H chassis (donor) pedal doesn’t fit the (butchered) C chassis (my car) pedal box. The pivot for the pedal is longer on the C chassis and doesn’t use bushes. It also has different limiters for the pedal travel, using the arm at the top of the C chassis pedal to stop the pedal, whilst the newer H chassis has limiters further down the pedal, with nice little pads.
This does mean that I had to remove the pedal box anyway. It’s held in place by two vertical bolts and four nuts holding the brake booster in. The column center bearing is also attached to the pedal box with two studs/nuts.
Original C Chassis box on the left (with new pedal attached) and newer H Chassis box on the right
It’s kind of weird, it almost looks like the clutch part of another pedal box has been welded onto this pedal box…
The brake pedal switch needed to be swapped between the two, as one switch was 2 pin and the other 4 pin. This is just held in with a lock nut and then the switch is screwed into the pedal box
The switch also sets the brake pedal height at rest
Getting the pedal box in and out is zero fun. I hate working under dashes, particularly around the column, which just flopped around and got in the way
After a few tries of getting the new pedal box into place, finding the insulator pad fouling it, cutting some of that away to clear the box, I then found out what “Processing” the box needs…
H chassis on the left, C chassis on the right. The vertical bolt spacing of the newer pedal box is different.
After some measuring, I grabbed the Dremel and cut out some metal. In hindsight, it would be neater looking and maybe a bit stronger if I had drilled an oversized hole where it needed to be cut
Regardless, I checked it lined up and fit, quickly coated the bare metal in some paint, and fit the pedal box. I used a couple of large washers on the upper bolts to spread the load.
Other than those two bolts, it all bolts in place good, everything hooks up fine, and it seems to operate as it should.