Removing Pedal Box Chassis Bushes
Having experienced the issue outlined in Neil Cairn’s article, “the Y Type pedal Box” where the brake pedal stayed at the floor when pressed with the clutch pedal, I thought it time to tackle and make good.
After losing a bit of bark from some of my knuckles, and inventing words SWMBO hasn’t heard before, I have removed everything from the pedal box, including the shaft.
A look inside the bushes in the chassis showed they had some deep scoring, plus once all the dirt and old grease and crud was removed, the “shaft” was quite sloppy in the bushes. Now that I had gone to the trouble of pulling everything down (include removal of floor board) I thought it wise to fit new bushes and needed to find a way to remove the old ones.
Firstly, I had a good look at what I was dealing with and noticed both bushes had burred over where they sat flush with the chassis tube (either from when they were first installed or due to wear from the brake pedal / brake leaver), I also noticed that the ¾” space between the two bushes was filled with dirt and water splashed up from the front wheel (my car did have a half dome cover over the end of the brake pedal). It was this second point that had me thinking as I made the assumption that this space between the two bushes would be a little rusted and could make the drawing of the two bushes out through one side (one behind the other) a little difficult, and may result in the lot getting jammed up, so I decided on a different approach, draw each bush individually out from the centre, one to the inside of the chassis and the second to the outside of the chassis.
After contemplating this approach, I set to making a up a drift that I could slide in through the bush into the internal space where I could then stand up the drift, connect a threaded bolt then draw the bush out using an oversize tube, heavy gauge washers and nut. I also made up a guide that fitted over the threaded bolt and into the bush so as to keep the bolt centred.
Once the binding agent (whatever may have been used in the ‘40s and 50’s) that was applied to the bushes when they were installed, was “crack”, the bushes came out quite easy.
In total the removal of both bushes took about 4 hours – 1hr of contemplation, 1 hr of gathering materials and tools, 1hr of making up the drift and guide and 1hr to remove both bushes.
The OD of the drift was made to the OD size of the bush (7/8”), less about 0.015” and threaded to take the 3/8” bolt. The bolt was a 3/8” x 8” bolt that I ran the thread all the way down. The “guide” was 3/4 “ less about 0.015”
The photo of the assembled tool is how I set it up to extract the bushes on the pedal box side. To extract the bush from the outside of the chassis, the “drift” was reversed and run down the bolt sufficiently to allow the guide, oversize tube, washer and nut to be installed after the bolt and drift was inserted into the chassis tube (with inner bush already removed), then the nut was turned to extract the bush out through the outside of the chassis.
John Coburn
