Next up is getting the clutch and brake pedals out. The pedals themselves are easy enough but there's the rest of the hardware in the engine compartment that is more involved.
First up is removing a pair of springs from beneath. First spring is attached to the clutch itself.
This spring comes off easily, just a firm grip on the main body and I'm able to push one end out.
The other spring is on the other side of the body support, attached to the clutch pedal.
This spring is a bear to remove - it takes clamping a vice grip on the forward end and pulling like mad to get it to budge.
Next up is getting the pedal plate/rods out. Simple enough process, remove the bolt, and get a flathead into the slot on the pedal to loosen the grip on the rod end. This is a two-man process, sadly - me on the engine side with the flathead, and ever-helpful Frank in the passenger side, giving the rod some twists and tugs to free it up.
Next up is removing the protective plates from the toeboard. I took a look at those small Phillips screws and thought "oh no, these are going to strip on me", but they each came out easy.
Protective plates, washers and rubber seals (what's left of them, at least). Into a baggie they go!
Now to start working on getting the pedals and pedal shaft out. First task is to detach the hardware on each end of the pedal shaft. Here's the end where the brake pedal is attached. These two bolts/nuts holding the pedal to the flange on the end come off fairly easily, along with the bolt holding the flange to the end of the pedal shaft.
The other side of the pedal shaft is another story. First up is getting the turnbuckle off the end of the clutch release fork. This takes a while as the rearward post (left side of photo) has to be unthreaded a fair ways to get it out of the recessed area of the release fork, and the nut on that end of the turnbuckle is on there but good.
But, after a few applications of penetrant and a fair number of applications of oomph, the nut releases its death grip, the post unthreads, and the turnbuckle comes free.
Once the cotter pin holding the other end of the pull rod is removed, the rod end comes off the lever on the end of the pedal shaft.
Next up is removing the swivel support plate. Two nuts on the clutch housing side of things come off without worry.
The circlip on the end of the pedal shaft, however, is a different story. Very annoying to get this clip off, considering the position I'm in beneath the car.
In the end, the clip itself snaps in two while trying to get it off, but that's fine with me as I intend to replace most of the small hardware in the end anyway. And now the swivel support is free, and gets bagged.
While I'm under here, I take a look at the bolts holding the transmission to the engine. Time to break out the big ratchet and a 17mm socket, and give each of these some oomph to loosen them up for the later task of getting the tranny out.
Next task is to get the two levers off the ends of the pedal shaft. On the clutch/tranny side, there's a small cap on the end - parts book PDF calls it a "needle cage". It takes a bit of wrangling but it comes off by hand.
And on the other side, the brake pedal connector flange needs to come off as well. This seems like another candidate for the two-man assualt - one with a flathead opening up that one gap, the other working on getting the piece off the shaft end. No good though. In the end, other ever-helpful neighbor Eddie suggests just repeatedly pulling one end of the shaft so that the lever/flange on the other end bumps into whatever piece is there - basically whacking the suckers off. And lo and behold, this was a good idea - each piece came off with minimal effort. Go figure.
At this point, the pedal shaft is devoid of any attachments. But, there's no room to get the shaft free of the body support that it passes through. What's the next item on the removal instructions from the service manual? "Remove the transmission." Harrumph. Pedal shaft, you win this round...
