Firebird77

Hello guys, something went wrong with a brake pedal on my '73 yesterday. After a click sound, the pedal went loose and wigeling from side to side (see photos). The brakes work, only the pedal is loose. Any idea or scheme how the pedal is connected there. I looked underneath but the attachment point in very hard to get to - lot of things in the path. Thank you.

Alan 71

Hi F77,
Since it appears the whole arm is moving perhaps the weld at the pivot point broke?
Can you contort your body enough so you can look up there with your head in the footwell?
A/C duct may need to come out to get a clear look.
Regards,
Alan

Firebird77

Thank you Alan. Will do so tomorrow. If anything is broken there, can the pedal be removed or the whole brake assy needs to be taken out. And if so, how difficult is it? Any description of the procedure available anywhere?

Mooser

Way up at the top there is a bolt that the pedal pivots on, it goes through the U shaped bracket side, through the pedal and out the other side of the bracket. There are (might be) 2 plastic bushings in U bracket for the both to go through.

IIRC, the bolt can be pulled out of on side of the bract be not removed without dropping the entire unit as a whole like Alan shows.





It's possible this has come out of one side as shown in the second picture. This would allow the spring to pull it forward and off to the side and it would still sort of work since it's still pivoting and the brake rod would help guide it

I think it was a nut that held in in but it might have been a clip, one way or another it was a PIA to get back on.
Pull the drivers seat helps
M

Firebird77

Thank you Mooser, will check the situation and get back with more details.

LT-1 kid

thats a speicial clip on the end of the rod, to remove the brake setup every
thing thats around it must come out, big job

Mooser

It is a clip then.
I can't remember and it's not in any of my pics.
Only recall that it was a huge PIA to get to, even with the dash and column out.
M

Firebird77

Sounds like a bit of work ahead... I was never working on this part of the car before but prefer to do it myself than giving it to someone else. Are there any dismount method descriptions, here on the forum or somewhere else that would help me (removing the dash etc.)?

bazza77

this has the clutch pedal but an auto unit has same clip

Sluefoot

Any way U look at it...it's definitely NOT safe to even think about driving!!

Firebird77

I went the shortest possible way to the garrage when that happened, fortunately not far. Thanks for advice, totally agree.

Rebelrob

Looks good with the side pipes. Just replaced my brake booster and yes the pin that holds the pedal to the u shaped bracket could of come loose. That is relatively easy fix, just probably gotta remove the seat to get up under there to take a good look. That little clip in post #9 above is what I had. Or you can get a different pin with a hole and use a cotter pin or maybe even a good zip tie to secure it.

Duane4238

If you remove the seat and can look up and see where the clip should be, you should be able to put a new one on with little trouble. I'd get a long pair of hemostats to hold the clip and reach up to where you need to put it on. Make sure you disconnect the battery, first. Good luck.
Duane

Firebird77

Work done! Removing the seat was easy and very helpfull. Except for an easy removal of electric swich that was in the way there was no need to remove anything else. And the problem was very simple - the pedal retainer clip was not broken, it was missing . Thank you guys for your help.

Mooser