jimbo486

Bear with me on this one as it turned lengthy. Those of you who have an auto or swapped to one from a manual, make like a tree and get outta here!

Do you sometimes or constantly have issues with starting due to a possible bad or failing neutral safety switch? Have you bypassed the switch in the meantime or permanently to avoid a failure to start? Have you considered just how many times that clutch pedal has been actuated in the truck's lifetime? Things wear out as most of us here know in dealing with these trucks. Maybe the neutral safety switch still works just as well as it did when the truck left the assembly line?

What could be the problem is the eye of the clutch master cylinder rod that links to the clutch pedal. It's very likely worn and out of round. Not only that but also the pin on the clutch pedal that the rod attaches to, likely worn just as much and now has a flat spot on it. Those combined will decrease travel of the rod and the safety switch, preventing the contacts from closing. As well, if the linkage parts are worn severely, you may notice the difficulty shifting or getting the transmission into gear as the clutch may not be fully disengaged. Would you like to be able to remove the rod and fix it without having to remove the entire hydraulic assembly?? The fix for the pin on the pedal will be easy to see once you can yank it out from under the dash and get a look at it. But this post is about the linkage rod and how I fixed it. I installed new pedals so the pin on the clutch pedal didn't need fixing in my case.

I happened to find the rod eye in my truck was worn. As deep as I was into the job, I was adamant about fixing it without a band-aid or half-assed work. I was curious if the rod could be removed at all whether the cylinder was in the truck or not. I poked around for quite some time along with some research on Google. One search result was a thread posted here. I read about a retainer of some kind and that if you could push one of the tabs aside, you could maybe get the rod out. "The tabs are tough but it might be possible." A few folks said the cylinder has to come out in order to get the rod out. I'd like to think that's not the only option. That is, if the rod is in fact removable.

While talking to BJ McClure at Holy Performance in the middle of installing one of his pedal sets, I came up with an idea. My view into the bore of the master cylinder was fairly impaired even with the dash apart, gauge cluster removed and using a mirror and flashlight. As luck had it, BJ had a master cylinder on his bench and looked at it closely. We discovered that there is what appears to be a 3-tang spring retainer clip that captures the rod. The rod has a ball end with a small shoulder that the tangs rest behind to hold the rod inside the bore.

My initial thought to remove the rod was to use a fuel line quick disconnect tool. Unfortunately, BJ found that the retainer clip is at a depth of about 7/8" inside the bore. My fuel line tool's sleeve was only 1/2". Scratch that plan. The only other idea I could come up with was to make a sleeve from a piece of metal tubing; copper, stainless or mild steel. Any should work. I had a length of 3/8" stainless tubing with an ID of about 1/4". So I cut a short piece off. Not more than 2" I'd guess. I cut it in half down its length to make a 2-piece sleeve.

Mating the 2 halves together around the rod, I slid them into the bore until they stopped. With a pair of pliers clamped loosely over the rod and the plier jaws against the sleeve, I pushed it against the retainer clip. If I released pressure, I could feel the retainer/tangs spring back into place and push the sleeve back. So I pushed again a few times while simultaneously giving the rod a slight pull. The rod popped out and fell onto the floor.

After researching and fighting with it for hours, I can't tell you how stoked I was to have been able to do that. Removal of the rod made the fix so much easier. With it clamped to a welding table, I added filler into the eye of the rod until it was just under size. Measuring the size of the new pin bushing on the clutch pedal (which BJ provides), I found the diameter of the eye needed to be 1/2”. This was easily accomplished by drilling, starting with a drill bit just slightly smaller than but eventually working up to 1/2".

With the installation of new pedals and being able to resize the eye of the master cylinder rod, there is absolutely no play in the linkage and the clutch pedal rests at the same height as the brake pedal. What's funny now is that the engagement/disengagement of the clutch happens at a higher position in the pedal. After many years of driving the truck with the worn linkage parts, it's like I'm having to learn how to drive a manual all over again.

Hope this can be of help to a lot of you out there!

For anybody interested in these pedal sets...

BJ is very active in some of the truck groups on Facebook but at the moment doesn't have a website. I don't know if he has any plans of doing so. As of now, for customers outside of Facebook, he prefers contact via email and can be reached at holyperformancecenter@gmail.com.

He makes a variety of other small parts as well. Custom, carbon-fiber gauge pods similar to the old Banks 3-gauge pod that attaches to the dash above the message center, cab clearance light gaskets, brake and clutch pedal pads and cargo light gaskets are a few I can think of at the moment. A pedal set will run you $400 plus whatever shipping will cost to get them to you. Cost may scare you but he has a lot of time and machinery invested in the process to turn out such a quality product. Best of all, Made in USA!

I don't know if it's my place to share much but his son suffers from a severe disease and he's doing what he can to raise money for all the treatment he has to go through. BJ is a good ol' boy. Very humble, down to earth. Good guy to talk to. He's also a (current or veteran?) serviceman.

edwinsmith

I had the same problem when I first got my truck. I temporarily fixed it with a piece of copper tube as a bushing but that didn't last long. Eventually I got a new master and slave cylinders and a new hydraulic line. The line wasn't bad but before I took it apart I wanted to make sure it would work when I was done.

The worn spot on the clutch pedal assembly was a different matter. I wanted to weld/resize it but I didn't see any easy way to take the assembly out of the truck. I wound up using JB-Weld to fill the worn spot and with the new plastic bushing that came with the MC I put it back together. Like yours my pedal height was back up and the clutch engaged much later. I have to be careful about letting my foot rest on the pedal between shifts.

Can you detail how you got the shaft out to replace the pedals?

Thanks so much for the details on fixing the MC pushrod.

Edwin

death row dave

I removed mine and cut the rod in two threaded it and installed a heim joint that can be greased from time to time . The pin on my pedal was **** near in two . I drilled that out and added a hardened pin made from 1/2 in grade 8 bolt .

edwinsmith

I saw that thread! Excellent work. I wanted to do something like that but I couldn't figure out how to get the pedals out.

oliver foster

Edwin,
You take out a small bolt with a nut on the base of the passenger side of the pivot rod. After it is unbolted and the clips on the pedals have been removed along with the rod for the brake booster and clutch hydros. The rod just slides out to the passenger side. With the rod gone the pedals will fall down into your hands, not your head hopefully.

edwinsmith

OK, thanks. I assume I can just slide it far enough over to drop just the clutch pedal. It the shaft hard to move? IIRC I took out the bolt but the thing wouldn't move but it's been a few months and my memory doesn't go much past 2 or 3 days.

death row dave

Mine was a little gummy from grease on the pivot shaft . I just tapped it enough to move it , grappled it with a plier and slowly worked it out . It was very easy once I determined what I was doing upside down . Grease it and the bushings up , replcecthecshaft and bolt when finished . If you use the heim joint approach to repair the push rod it is now adjustable in length also .

NJTman

Nice write up, there Jim. Although I made like a tree, and grew slowly, and eventually became infested with Chinese beetles, I found your explanation, and removal process quite informative.

patdaly

This is from the factory parts manual, might make it easier to visualize.

oliver foster

Thanks for the picture Pat!

It doesn't show it, but there is a bolt and nut that holds the the pivot rod [part 21] in place on the steering column support that needs to be removed before the rod will slide out.

mknittle

or me the hard part is getting under the dash especially getting back out every time I need something. The hole in my pushrod was worn oblong so cut it off and threaded it 3/8 24 and installed a heim joint. he stud was also screwed up so I removed it to fit a 3/8 bolt. I don't remember if I welded up the hole and redrilled it 3/8"or not as I suffer from CRAFT.

jimbo486

With the dash apart as I mention in my OP, I felt it was relatively easy to get the pivot shaft out. The worst of it was trying to remove the bolt for the shaft's retainer. Why couldn't Dodge have installed a captured nut or threaded piece of stock into the column support bracket so that the bolt could easily be installed and removed?! I was hung up on that for a while until I could get a second set of hands to help. I do recall the brake master cylinder linkage being a slight obstruction.

I say relatively easy, because when removing or installing the shaft, it has to be fed to or from just behind the A/C controls and between the wiring harness and ducting there. It still took a little doing but I'd bet doing so with the gauge cluster and message center out of the way is a little easier than laying on the floorboard, having to reach up through the rat's nest of wiring from below the dash.

I can't guarantee that it would speed up the process but I've never messed with any pedal assemblies so I have no comparison.

mknittle

That's a PITA!

jimbo486

That little bolt or taking the dash apart?

mknittle

Both, but The little bolt from the bottom