Charles,
I did mine earlier this year with no trouble. I did not have to bend the
shaft up. The bushings are larger than the holes but if you follow the
instructions below and use lots of silicon or other slippery stuff it
should go in fine. If you're going to do one, I'd do them both unless
the one you have is driver side and it is in GOOD shape. Job took me
about an hour.
1) Before you start, put a small pot of water to simmer on the stove.
No not for tea, (that comes later if you don't have any Ale on hand) but
to heat the bushings. I let the bushings heat for 30-45 minutes. Those
buggers are HARD.
2) Remove accelrator shaft. I assume that this is straight forward so I
won't go into it unless you want me to. I did however at this point add
the following: Also disengage clutch and brake pedals from respective
forks by removing cotter pins and pin. Also remove brake light switch
and the trim panel. You don't need to do this to get the shaft out, but
it will come in handy later.
3) With the shaft out of the car, insert the bushings into the holes.
I inserted mine from the engine compartment side, leaving the squarer
side of the bushing facing in to the engine compartment. This is the
HARDEST part. Those buggers are hard. (did I say that all ready?) The
bushing is now somewhat flexible. Bend in between two fingers, and try
to get the lip into the hole at the bottom. Getting as much of the
groove as you can seated in the hole (it won't be much, but needs to be
some) hold the bushing against the hole with one hand and taking a small
bladed, (got a couple of differnt lengths) screwdriver and putting the
blade into the groove of the bushing next to the point at which you have
managed to insert the bushing lip into the hole, push and work a little
of the bushing lip into to the hole. Continue moving along pushing a
little of the bushing lip at a time into the hole. The thing is hard as
a rock (did I say that?) so you have little
danger of poking the screwdriver through the lip, but even if you do,
you really haven't hurt anything.
On both sides I managed this, but each time ran into a point where I
the lip of the bushing left out of the hole would get into a point where
I could not reach it with the screw driver. It was either on the bottom
side or up against the bulkhead. Trick is to have most of the bushing
in by the time you reach this point. (3/4's or so). Take a Large
bladed screwdriver, long handled or a stubby, insert it into the hole
where the shaft is going to go and if it is big enough it will catch
part way through, use this to gently turn the bushing in the hole to get
the part you need to complete pushing in to a point where you can reach
it. If you have enough of the thing in, it will turn without popping
out.
If you don't it will pop out. Have a cold drink and regroup. Start
over etc etc. This is the hardest part, but with patience will work out.
4) After the bushings are in, the trick is to get the shaft through
the bushing on the drivers side. The shaft is too long to be able to be
shoved staight at the bushing from the drivers side tunnel. But with
the clutch and brake pedals moved up slightly by unattaching them and
the interior trim panel out, you can get the accelerator shaft up to the
bushing at an angle whereby with a bit of force you can shove it through
the bushing. Don't worry about the force pushing the bushing out,
remember how hard it was to get in? It isn't going anywhere. After
pushing it through 3-4 inches you will be able to move it up and around
to push straight through the bushing and across the engine compartment
to the other side.
5) Only bit of advice, put the whole thing together, but don't
install the cotter pin on the passenger side until you have tested it
out to be certain that the pedal is where it should be. You have taken
the shaft off the linkage, and in reinstalling I found that I needed to
readjust where the linkage attached to the shaft from where it had
previously.
Let me know if this makes any sense to you. Ck out the diagram in any
of the manuals or sales catelogues prior to starting (they all are the
same).
Good luck and let us know how it's going
Marty Romagni
1974 TR6
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