Damn Zagato!!!! Clutch cable removal issues. Help.

[Jon Logan]

OK, I really need to swap out the clutch cable on the Zagato as I need to adjust
mine and the adjust screw area is chewed up. Simple task, right? NOT!!!

Where the clutch cable attaches to the top of the pedal... simple pin with a
circlip retainer... remove clip and push pin through the hole and replace
cable, right.... NOT!!!!!! The frickin pin tat retains the cable to the pedal
passes through a bushing with a metal sleeve on each side. That little freaking
sleeve has become one with the pin on BOTH SIDES. I cannot push the pin either
direction because the fused sleeve will not pass through the hole in the center
of the cable loop. WTF?! Only a freakin Beta would have a damn issue like
this. I fought this for 1.5 hours tonight and finally gave up. I can hardly
get a screwdriver on either side of the pin and I certainly have no room to get
in there to cut it.

Any thoughts?! Help.

Jon

[SubGothius]

Might I suggest removing the pedal box entirely? I don't have my manuals handy at the moment, but I think it's designed so you just release the brake plunger and clutch cable from their anchor points, remove a few bolts, and the whole clutch-brake pedal apparatus comes right out. In your case, it'll only come out as far as the cable will allow (mebbe cut it at the other end to pull thru?), but that'll at least give you more room to work on things. BTW, in my experience, the worst part of replacing the clutch cable was passing the pedal-end eyelet thru the firewall, where it passes thru a rubber sleeve-grommet thing; in the end, I had to pull that sleeve out, pass the cable eyelet thru it and the firewall, then use a big ol' screwdriver tip to tuck the grommet end back into its hole in the firewall.

Yeh, sometimes those Lancia engineers got a bit too ambitious and clever for their own good -- 'specially on the Beta, where the remaining olde-skoole Lancia engineers of the best-practices cost-no-object era were apparently making-do in a rush with whatever they could cobble up from the FIAT parts bins! In this case, instead of just running a pin or bolt thru the pedal top to secure the cable, they just had to make the cable-end eyelet move freely around the pin and make the pin move freely inside some metal sleeve bushings and surround those bushings with rubber grommets that fit into ginormous holes in the pedal top. All this, just to refine the clutch pedal action by removing some hard mechanical metal-on-metal feeling and isolating any vibrations which may travel down the cable. Which prolly worked well for the cars' first couple decades, until the sleeves started grinding into the circlips and/or cable-end eyelet, turning the sleeves inside the grommets and wearing the rubber away, so everything starts catching at odd angles and (in my car's case) bends the cable end back'n'forth with every clutch operation, snapping those work-hardening cable strands one by one...

I'm not sure, but I think the silicone rubber grommets I got from McMaster-Carr to rebush part of my gearshift linkage (the big eye at the lower end of the adjustable front stay rod) might just be the right size to rebush the clutch pedal top as well. Been meaning to try 'em out, will report back what I find; meanwhile, I'd inserted those metal sleeves into short bits of fuel hose as a clumsy rebush, which are hardly a snug fit but better than nothing! ;D

[Jon Logan]

Thanks, I will look at removing the whole box rather than trying to pull the pivot bolt for the clutch pedal and the brake pedal.

[Charley]

Jon,
I got curious about your question and went down to the garage and poked my head down under my coupe's clutch pedal to take a look at this.Before I would go pulling the whole pedal assembly I would suggest spraying some of this stuff on the frozen parts.It's called "Free All".The stuff is really amazing, I have used this stuff on rusted and corroded parts that I would have otherwise taken a torch to.It may take a few applications over the course of a few days to loosen things up (depending on severity) but with a bit of patience after a few good soakings with Free All ,and working the frozen parts back and forth with a long pair of needle nose pliers you might be able to get the thing apart.I think it is worth a try.Here is a link to the web site to purchase Free All.
http://www.gasoila.com
http://www.freealloil.com/
Good Luck,
Charley

[SubGothius]

Nevermind about removing the pedal box. I just checked my manuals and... well, I don't know what I was thinking. I could have sworn I'd once seen a pic or diagram of the pedal box that looked like what I described, but it appears the pedals are bolted to a large support which also holds the steering column and tilt adjustment -- considerably more involved than what I had in mind! ::)

That Free All stuff sounds perhaps similar to good ol' PB Blaster, which is at least readily available at hardware and parts shops, so mebbe give that a shot first. Removing the pedal does indeed involve unhooking the pedal helper spring and pulling the pivot bolt, the former of which (as another current thread here attests) is a PITA to get back on! You oughta see the specialized factory tool depicted in my dealer shop manual to un/reinstall that one... Godspeed you, good sir! :D

[Charley]

Tye,
PB Blaster is good stuff and I used to swear by it,but that Free All is about ten times better than Blaster at making mush out of corrosion,trust me! A freind of mine turned me on to the stuff and even though I can't find it locally I order it from the web site and keep a stock on hand,it's that good!

[davidb]

Charley's right about Free-All . I ran out of it & tried that Blaster
stuff until I could get more Free-All . No comparison, Free-
All is vastly better stuff .

[Jon Logan]

I will have to check into the "Fee All" stuff. Sounds good. If I spray it on my bills, will it make them "free" too. :-)

Anyhoo.... I had success last night (with the car!) The pedal assembly is different than what is listed in the Haynes book. The brake pedal and clutch pedal are not attached on the same pivot bolt. The clutch pedal has it's own. The UGLY thing is that the way the pedal is installed, it has to come out from the TOP of the box assembly. There is a notch at the very rear by the firewall that allows the flat foot pad part to slide up through (why oh why did the engineers design this assembly with a retaining lip on the bottom of the box?!) So, that being said, once the pivot pin was removed and the assist spring disconnected, the pedal had to be removed from up top, after pulling the gauge pod of the dashboard! ARGH! Fortunately I had some bad connections on the rear of the dash pod anyways so I killed to birds..

I cut the old clutch cable under the hood so I could simply dray out the pedal with the cable still attached. I used an old coat hanger and passed it through the tube from the interior to the engine bay, firmly attached it to the new pedal loop, and pulled it through the tube... no problem. On the pedal, I removed the old pin, cut out the worn out rubber bushings, and replaced them with a poly plastic bushing of the same size (no metal sleeve). Then using a short 13mm head bolt and nut, I fabbed a new connector for the clutch cable. As they say, reassembly is the reverse of removal.

Jon

[Jim Keller]

I can't help on freeing up the rusted, it's just trial and error, but take out your front seat, it's a lot easier to lay on the floor than across the sill when your working that area, BTDT

Have you thought of just cutting the cable then working with just the pin? or is the cable already seperated?

I am pretty sure you can take the pedal out once the cable is removed and get the pin out on the bench, I have done that for the pivot bushings, they fall apart and make the clutch pedal stiff and hard to push, but it is a bit of a pain getting all the levers and springs back together, especially figuring out which way that weirdly bend rod goes! LOL

Did you get my last long email? ??? I never heard back, :-\ the phone cut off the computer while sending it but when I logged back on, it showed it sent, let me know and I'll re-send it if you didn't :)