AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings?

[Guest]

You know the ones - accelerator shaft to firewall.
One was missing one disintegrated. No wonder the accelerator pedal was soft.

Anyone know an easy way to get the bushings in? I'm running out of swear words...

(Having tried myself now I know why the mechanic never bothered to do them even though I asked...)

 

[Guest]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

Alan, I think it is easier to put in new floorboards.

Seriously, there are a whole bunch of past posts on this, see if you can find them. I liked the one where a guy custom fitted 2-piece brass bushes from commonly available pieces.

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Hi, Alan -

If they're anything like the steering column bushing for the TR8, and I imagine they are, heat 'em in boiling water and "finesse" 'em in there. Took me forever, but eventually "persuaded" them in. Verbal persuasion is advised! As is a bigger hammer... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

Hope I never have to do THAT again!

Mickey

 

[bash]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

Here's the article Bill mentioned - Nelson Riedel again! The pictures have been lost I am afraid, but the text explains it pretty well. I haven't tried any of these yet, but sometime before the summer I will have to, so thanks for testing the ideas out!

Alistair

 

[Brosky]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

Alan,

I did pretty much the same route as the Riedel post above. I disconnected the linkage at the fulcrum near the header. I then slid the pedal and shaft out of the firewall. It is close on the drivers side, if that bushing is any good.

I ordered McMaster Carr self lubricating nylon bushings with a flange, that the OD matched size of the ID of the hole on each side and the ID matched the OD of the pedal shaft.

Next I removed the bushings from the holes in the firewall and was ready to put the McMaster Nylon bushings into place, with the flanges facing inward towards each other. I did cut off about 1/4 to 3/8" off of each bushing so that they did not protrude too far into the cockpit, which would have made the installation of the shaft much harder, especially on the drivers side.

The bushings were a very snug fit and to do this easily, install the passenger side first. It's a no brainer and taps in with a hammer. Then put the pedal and shaft in place, just barely through the hole on the left side. Slide the bushing over the pedal shaft and drive it into position with a deep well socket. This may take a bit of finesse, so that you can keep the shaft level and easily slide it into place after the bushing is installed.

Also, lube the shaft with a good grease just enough to slide it into the bushing on the left. After the bushing is installed, you can lube it well to slide it across to the other side. Hook up the throttle again and you're motoring away.

This will also allow your carbs to open fully on acceleration and generally stops a very annoying rattle over bumps.

EDIT: I just found some spares that I had, but there is no number on these for you to order. At least you can see what I was talking about, compared to the pain in the butt replacements. See attachment below.

Good luck!

 

[AltaKnight]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

I did the impossible and managed to install the [censored] things without cutting, nibbling or otherwise mangling them (too much)
I did the immerse in boiling water bit right next to the car on a camp stove, yank it out with forceps, liberally douse with washing up liquid (lubricant) and jam it in the hole before it cools, I found I could get 3/4 of the circumference wedged into the hole then had to use a blunt screwdriver to jam it in the rest of the way.
Some blunt tool trauma but not too bad.
Of course this took me 4 hours to figure out including the time on my hands and knees searching for the little bu--er after it flew out under intense installation pressure.
So now comes the tricky bit, getting the throttle x shaft back through the bushing, the plain truth is it won't! Ended up bending the shaft about 1/3 of the way from the end in a gradual arc so I could get it mostly square to the bush, then after slipping it through removing the bow with large vice grips so it was more or less straight again.
Good Luck!

 

[davidk]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

I put them in hot water (for half an hour or so). On the passenger side, it went in fairly easily with the help of a small screwdriver. I didn't want to remove the accelerator shaft, so for the drivers side, I cut the bushing, then installed it just like the passenger side. They've been in for a while now working fine.

 

[bobh]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

I had to cut little pie shaped pieces out of one side to get them in.
Curiously these new bushings are sold as "improved" bushings. Only one of the original bushings in my TR was bad. The other was intact. It is a nylon shoulder bushing similar to those described above. I'm not sure who decided these new poly bushings are an improvement. I have to disagree.

 

[swift6]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

Someone on 6-Pack came up with a two piece (per side) metal bearing set up that would positively locate the shaft and eliminated the one piece PITA bushings. They are not custom parts, rather existing parts from another industry. You might do a search on 6-Pack.

 

[Brosky]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

My entire process took me about 2.0 hours and that included cutting the bushings to length and cleaning and polishing the throttle shaft, which probably took the longest amount of time.

 

[Guest]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

I just got in from doing this so I'll post an update.
I found a pretty neat solution in the end thanks to the Nelson Riedel article above.

You need the following: McMaster Carr - 6338K461x2 and 6435K13x2 as well as (probably) a new coil washer (Moss 315-060), a letter W drill bit and a flex head Dremel with the pink 5/8" grinding wheel.

First, drill out all 4 of the McMaster Carr parts with the letter W drill.

Next, dismantle the entire assembly. You have to extract the pedal and shaft (Make sure you have the relative lever to shaft position marked).

Clean the shaft. Straighten it (you are sure to bend it taking off the lever)

Hone out the two holes in the bulkhead for the bushings with the dremel. Mine was exactly the right size for these bushings - ymmv - Make sure they are a press fit at each end. Don't do what I did first - break one of the bushings trying to drift it into place. This is so much easier.

Re-assembly is as follows:

Shaft through the hole in the drivers side. Push it 4-6" into the engine bay.

Thread the bushing onto the shaft, flange out. Thread one of the collars on.

Push the shaft through about 80% of the way. Put the lever back on, the coil washer, the collar then finally the bushing, flange side to the engine bay.

You should now be able to fit the two bushings into their holes. Use the collar on the drivers side to locate the pedal. Then the coil washer between the lever and the collar will hold the collar against the bushing on the passenger side.

It turns it into a really neat (neat as in tidy) setup, and took less than an hour to put back together. Should have done this in the first place - I wasted more time futzing with the rubbers...

One final thing - the hole for the bushing on the passenger side wasn't exactly square. This means the bushing isn't flush to the bulkhead all the way round. There is sign of repair under there.

I used epoxy to locate the bushing using the shaft as a guide so it's square to the shaft, and partially flush.

Hopefully you don't have that problem, but if you do take heart - you are not alone...

 

[tdskip]

Re: AAARRRGH - anyone got a tip for these bushings

Thanks for the info - good stuff.

So are you feeling any better about the car now?