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Pedal mods?

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CanberraBJ8

CanberraBJ8

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Has anyone done any serious modifications or improvements to the pedals - especially the throttle - in their Healey. I hate the sloppiness of mine and also miss being able to heal-and-toe on that dinky little throttle pedal...

Pictures?
 
I revamped mine about twenty-five (>25) years ago, it now pivots at the floor and is similar to 60s era American cars. MUCH, much more positive (and linear) feel. It's also been engineered with a fairly long pedal travel, allowing lots of room for modulation.

If you look closely, you'll see it's been made from mostly "repurposed" Healey throttle parts...

179705_10150894654692720_114491282719_9497692_825761841_n.jpg
 
Randy,
Does this configuration give you any more leg room? I have wondered if you put your right heel farther forward with the pedal hinge at the floor if it gives you the feel of more room. Does that make sense?
Lin
 
I thought throttle sloppiness was just in my BT7. I have to push the throttle about an inch before I get any response. Is that typical? Also, most of the time, I have to lift the gas pedal with my toe to get the car to idle down. Is that true of others? If not where should I look to find the solution. I tried "winding up" the circular springs on the throttle shaft a little tighter, but all that did was make the accelerator harder to push. Did not help return to the correct idle speed. Any suggestions?
 
It's been my experience, that the brass bushes wear out,the ones that are on either side of rod going through firewall. If I remember right, they are held in by a cup shaped tin piece & 2 1/4 in bolts about 1 inch long.There are a bit of a bugger to get at , have fun,
 
I have to blip the throttle to reduce idle speed. It's a pain, but I've been doing it for 30 years.
 
I have customized all my pedals, including adding a "dead pedal". The triple SU's run off a fully adjustable cable system for immediate response.
 
Rob Glasgow said:
I thought throttle sloppiness was just in my BT7. I have to push the throttle about an inch before I get any response. Is that typical? Also, most of the time, I have to lift the gas pedal with my toe to get the car to idle down. Is that true of others? If not where should I look to find the solution. I tried "winding up" the circular springs on the throttle shaft a little tighter, but all that did was make the accelerator harder to push. Did not help return to the correct idle speed. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Hi Rob,
The first place I'd look into is the throttle linkage bushings. Moss motors sells a Teflon replacement set. Here's their write-up:

Teflon not only has a longer life than the original materials, it flexes less so your throttle reacts as fast as your foot hits the go-fast pedal. If your throttle linkage is loose or sluggish, it's probably because your original bushings have disintegrated. Replace the original felt or rubber/brass bushings with our Teflon upgrades. Fully illustrated installation instructions are included.

I'd confirm that the accelerator relay shaft is straight and not binding anywhere, example at the bushings. I'd look at all the linkages starting from the gas pedal till you end up at the carburetors. Make sure they are not bent, adjusted for correct length, secure, no slop and if need be, greased.

You can also look at adjusting the carburetor coupling shaft. You may have slop there too. It can be set so that there's hardly any play when you step on the gas pedal. If there is too much play there, you'll notice you'll have to push the gas pedal more before the carbs open up.

"Also, most of the time, I have to lift the gas pedal with my toe to get the car to idle down." That sounds like somewhere, something is binding up. Or maybe the carburetors need to have a return spring attached to the choke lever?

"I tried "winding up" the circular springs on the throttle shaft a little tighter, but all that did was make the accelerator harder to push." Being that did not fix the problem but add to it, I'd back off on those springs. You only need enough pull pressure to return the throttle shaft.

Speaking of springs, take a look at the gas pedal return spring, and see if anything is coming in contact with the gas pedal, or anything related to any of the hardware for it up line.

Good luck hunting.
Roger
 

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Derek -

I have additional heat shielding on both the positive and negative side of my footwells. The aluminum diamond plate is fastened with flush mount hex screws on the floor and hi-temp adhesive for the side panel.
 
I agree with Roger about the teflon bushings. Also, if the linkage rod ends are adjustable for wear (like mine), those have to be tightened up, but not too tight or they'll bind.
 
Thank you Roger for the suggestions. I have wanted to change over to the teflon bushing for a while but never could get up the gumption to tackle the job. It looks like it is best done with the engine removed. Maybe could get enough access with the transmission and bulkhead covers removed but not sure.
 
Hi Rob,

I can't speak on the difficulty with this job on a BT7. I did replace my original bushings with the teflon bushings on my BJ8 with everything in place. Maybe someone with a BT7 will chime in.

Cheers,
Roger
 
Rob, it is difficult to undo the rearmost bolts that hold the cross rod shaft brackets if the engine is in place. They are tough enough with the engine out. But... it can be done and is well worth doing. I have replaced them both ways. When the only available bushing replacements were felt I rebuilt mine using the original sintered bushings inserted into Gates rubber air line then shaped and glued into the cups. Recently, I replaced some shot bushings in an early 3000 with Teflon bushings from Moss while the engine was in place, it was a small torture to remove the rearmost bolts. I am leaning towards replacing those rear bolts on my Tri- carb BT7 with Allen heads. :cheers: What a beautiful morning we have had here at the coast.
 
dougie said:
I have customized all my pedals, including adding a "dead pedal". The triple SU's run off a fully adjustable cable system for immediate response.
Click to expand...

Hey Dougie, Its hard to see in the photo, but what have you had to do to the mechanism - is it completely new parts or modified existing system?
 
Frankenhealey said:
This works very well for me.

tiltonpedalsinstalled.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks great, and bet it works really well... big mod though ;-) - In keeping with the rest of the work.
 
The only modification I did was to replace the factory fluid activated brake switch with a mechanical switch, which presses against the break pedal arm. The mechanical switch can be adjusted to activate depending on how much travel is applied to the break pedal. Once set, it's problem free. More reliable than the fluid style.
 
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