Thread: Looking for someone else perspective

Can you remove the lever arm entirely and replace it with a steel section about 8mm thick? I'm not sure that I'd trust a splint such as you describe in an accident, but that may be me just making up excuses to dislike that die cast arm.

What's the go with a LH accelerator?

Greg

Hi Sterob,

I'm with GQ, best fix would be make a new one, but if you are going to modify the existing one, I'd have thought the plates should be on the top and bottom rather than on the sides.

The force of (lead foot) on pedal is straight down, putting plates on the top and bottom would be stronger.

What material is the existing arm made from?

Regards
Ray

What about removing the red ribs, making an Alum block to fit into the space, epoxy in place and add as many srcews/bolts as you feel is necessary. edit*plates top and bottom as Ray suggests if you like*
Not sure about making it to strong, it maybe meant to fail in a crash, of course yours is a little different now.

Stuart

"Can you remove the lever arm entirely and replace it with a steel section about 8mm thick?"

No, its an integral part of the pedal.

I'm not sure that I'd trust a splint such as you describe in an accident, but that may be me just making up excuses to dislike that die cast arm.

Not sure what you mean about in an accident.

What's the go with a LH accelerator?

I'm a Right leg Amputee

Greg[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Stustoys

What about removing the red ribs, making an Alum block to fit into the space, epoxy in place and add as many srcews/bolts as you feel is necessary. ...

Stuart

Thats an interesting idea.It might be alot less mucking around as well. I'll have a look tomorrow and see how hard that would be.

Thanks Guys!

Originally Posted by Sterob

1. I could use epoxy to fill the voids and locate 2 spacers on either side, so that I could bolt a aluminum plate to either side of the arms, when set. ( not sure how I could locate the spacers and stop them filling with epoxy, while it sets overnight.)

That's basically what I would do. But don't bother with spacers.
Tape up the crack and fill voids with epoxy.
Drill tight fitting holes in the epoxy after it has set.
Make up two plates out of 4 or 5 mm ally and use counter sunk screws and thread the plate on the other side.
Put the whole thing together with loctite - even loctite the bolts in the epoxy so nothing moves.



If you could get a friendly ally welder to weld the two plates together across one side would add some strength.

Originally Posted by RayG

Hi Sterob,

I'm with GQ, best fix would be make a new one, but if you are going to modify the existing one, I'd have thought the plates should be on the top and bottom rather than on the sides.

The force of (lead foot) on pedal is straight down, putting plates on the top and bottom would be stronger.

I'd have thought that wider Flat plates on edge (sides) would be much stronger than narrower flat plate top and bottom - a combo of both or a U-channel would be better still.

I thought side plates would be the best as they will be straight (top and bottom plates would need to be banged into shape and if they were off, they would load the join when I tightened the fasteners.)
I made some spacers today and I think I will still use them as they a very snug in the geometric spaces, so will offer very high rigidity and will spread the load on the surrounding epoxy.
I think I will also use epoxy on the side plates and not tighten them completely until it sets.
I have Arildited the parts together( to seal the gaps) and will buy some epoxy tomorrow.
Looks like it won't be finished this weekend.....

Thanks for all the comments guys. Sometimes others see good alternative ways of doing things that one don't always see.

Sterob

Originally Posted by Sterob

"Can you remove the lever arm entirely and replace it with a steel section about 8mm thick?"

No, its an integral part of the pedal.

I'm not sure that I'd trust a splint such as you describe in an accident, but that may be me just making up excuses to dislike that die cast arm.

Not sure what you mean about in an accident.

What's the go with a LH accelerator?

I'm a Right leg Amputee

Greg

[/QUOTE]

I understand better now, thanks. Let me retract what I said earlier about the side plates...they would have better beam strength.

Thinking about strength in an accident...I guess its about 1000 times more likely that your foot would be on the brake pedal.

Years ago I owned Porsche 911 cars from time to time. Cheapest motoring imaginable for many reasons. Anyway, their pedals were made by blacksmiths...just a chunk of 8mm steel with a tube welded across the top and a plate with rubber pad on the bottom. Something like that was what I was thinking. (They were top hung btw)

Greg

And on third thought...I see that the throttle assembly is an Audi throttle-by-wire unit. I can see now why my earlier suggestion wouldn't fly, or at least would be a major pain to fabricate.

Greg

Originally Posted by Greg Q

And on third thought...I see that the throttle assembly is an Audi throttle-by-wire unit. I can see now why my earlier suggestion wouldn't fly, or at least would be a major pain to fabricate.

Greg

Yes, my previous cars were all cable operated and they had 'different' problems when converting to LH accelerator pedal...lol
Incidently, the original pedal for this car, does use a 10mm round bar for the arm, but I didn't want to tackle that for 2 reasons.
Firstly the arm itself is has quite random bends in it and would be difficult to re-align without cutting it and secondly, I want to keep it for when I sell the car, down the track. ( I always make sure I leave no evidence of the changes when I change back to stock.)

I have finally finished fabricating on this job. Four days of work it has taken me....unbelievable.
Anyway I am very pleased with how it turned out and confident that the join in the pedal arm will be very strong.
I just have to tidy up some lines and paint the parts I made satin black and refit the dash cover. Will have to wait for next weekend now.

Hi Sterob,
Come up great.

Stuart

Hi Sterob,

Looks the goods, better than a bought one, and looks plenty strong enough to handle the heaviest lead foot..

Regards
Ray