So....
Its been something of a voyage of discovery. Grab yourselves a beverage, some snacks and pull up a pew.....
R3 came without a clutch cable. Ok, technically not true, the clutch cable was one of the many parts stuffed in the boot, but it came without the clutch cable connected, and we kinda need it connected to settle the front suspension down before torqueing to final figures.
I dug the cable out - It'd been repaired with one of those RAC/AA emergency repair cables. Meh! Lets grab a new one.
Yes, clutch cables are unobtainium. Most of the ones listed are actually for LHD vehicles.
So, grab a second hand one from the bay, spend an evening upside down in the footwell and voila?
Not quite....
Because with the cable slackened all the way off (with just enough thread for the locknut)
the pedal was like this:
And thus, down the rabbit hole we went....
Now, R3 is an early car. 6 months earlier than R1, so I went and had a look at R1. The pedal box is
completely different. Less than 6 months between the cars, but the differences are incredible!
Various people were text and begged to go upside in their footwells (and I'm indebted to each of you!)
So, the early cars look like this:
Whilst the later cars, like this:
It'll become a clearer in a moment....
Sadly, I couldn't just grab the later pedal box from 312, as it's an auto (yes, I did check it!), so instead I spent 6
glorious hours upside down in the footwell of a 440 in lakes, removing the complete pedal box assembly.
You see, on the early cars, the clutch cable sits against the bulkhead. On the later cars, it doesn't. It passes THROUGH the bulkhead and sits on this huge spacer, which sits on a reinforced pedal mount.
So, the later assembly looks something like this:
and the earlier one like this:
So, as you can see - the amount of "throw" on the cable is significantly different.
Now.... Just to fit it all.
step 1: Lube up!
I know the cables are lined, but a bit of extra lube is a god send.
What then followed, was 4 hours of cursing and swearing removing the old pedal box, followed by about the same to fit the new! It sounds simple enough. Remove the cross bar that holds the clutch and brake pedal in place, undo the 4 nuts on the servo, a couple of bolts and that's it. Except that the servo was probably fitted AFTER the pedal box, meaning you need to remove it (and the master cylinder/brake pipes) to make removal of the pedal box "easy".
I shall spare you the details, but it's done. I was ruined for the rest of the week, but we now have a working clutch - Which was actually a worry; imagine doing all that and discovering the
actual clutch was knackered?
So this weekend, we did light duties - No, not actual rear light duties - just gentler things....
For example, this horrible thing has finally been removed.
So we have a normal tailpipe now!
Also popped the front seats back in
then noticed the side plastic was cracked. Luckily I had one in stock, so whipped it off and discovered this!
Yes, I googled the address - It's a key cutting shop that's still there! Anyway, replacement panel on!
The list of jobs before MOT is getting shorter and shorter now.....