In researching options for converting an automatic car to manual, there seems to be various opinions about how to deal with the pedals. Some say the wider automatic tunnel makes driving with the manual pedal assembly in place impossible, so say it's easily possible with small shoes, etc. I figured some other people in my position might find the information below useful.

This is where the manual pedals land when installed in a stock automatic car. There is about a quarter of an inch between the gas and brake pedals. My feet are not big (10.5) and I wear pretty slim shoes, but it was pretty obvious this would make driving pretty difficult.


The most frequent solution seems to be taking a chunk out of the transmission tunnel and moving the gas pedal to the right to generate the needed clearance.


I was trying to avoid hacking up the tunnel, not because I'm some "don't permanently modify the car" purist, but because I wanted to keep the wide tunnel in the event myself or the next owner wanted to go down the path of installing a T5.

I figured the easiest solution would be to jog the clutch and brake to the left by the needed amount. After measuring some of the other manual cars in the family, it seemed like an extra 2" between the gas and brake would be about right. A couple of cuts, grinds, and tacks later this is what I ended up with.


They obviously still need to be gusseted and fully welded, but I wanted to check the fit in the car before going too much further. I think it will work out pretty well, giving enough room to work everything in a comfortable position, but it still clears the foot dipper switch with room to spare.

After installing the T5 and redoing the tunnel, I ended up heating mine up with the propane torch and moving them over about 1 1/2". It has worked just fine. I guess they figured we don't need much room down there.

Good job, once they get the final welds and braces I'm sure they will be soild. Thats way less work than cutting up the tunnel, I would probably have used square tubing instead of flat bar for the added metal but thats gust me.

Using square tubing probably wouldn't have been much stronger given the forces it's under and direction it's loaded, and you'd have to shorter the arms by the thickness of the tubing to avoid making them too long. The welded joints are the potential failure points here, regardless of what material is used to butt the arms against.

Nice job. But wouldn't bending the original metal 45 degrees to the left and then 45 degrees back, a little lower, achieve the same result? Your setup just appears to be a little flimsy.

You might want to move the clutch a little to the right so you have a place to put your left foot. My size 14's have a terrible time with the floor dip switch.

BTW, while you are under the dash, it is time to instal a brake light switch.

Klaus
--
Praying for Cynthia Amendt, heaven bound

The only thing I did when I went to the m46 from the bw35 was bend the gas pedal. Everything is fine and I wear a size 12. Welding the pedals like that seems like it throws the center of force off and creates extra force on the pedals.

I didn't think I'd be able to get this amount of room by bending the gas pedal. It looked like it'd end up contacting the tunnel and not getting full travel, or making my foot at least rub the tunnel and carpet when working the gas.

I'm not claiming this is the best or easiest solution, (requiring welding probably makes it inaccessible for some) it's just what I happened to come up with using the parts at my disposal, and is certainly a viable path to consider for anyone considering this changeover.

As for the addition of a brake light switch, I assure you it is very much included in the plan. In fact I bought the Swedish Embassy kit within weeks of buying the car, only to figure out it won't work with the automatic brake pedal configuration. So the kit is sitting here ready to go once the pedals are in the proper places.

I considered doing exactly what you are describing (cutting and bending the stock arms). The reason I didn't go that direction was because you'd end up "consuming" some of the length of the arms with the bends and the jog, which would effectively make them shorter and consequently be higher than the gas pedal. How much shorter, I do not know.

I mentioned before that these will get some needed reinforcement before final installation. I just wanted to check the fit before beefing them up. I will likely end up gusseting them like this.


Or plating both sides like this.

Tim;

...nice solution basically...as other poster mentioned, it does apply additional force on the ends of the bushings at the top pivot (so keeping these well lubed is even more important in your case!) ...just keep an eye on them to see if their wear accelerates and you develop slop in the pivots ...also, I too was a little scared by the potential weakness of the weld joints of your first posting (it would be an instant BAAAAD DAY to have a brake pedal brake off just when you needed it most!)...but if you are planning to reinforce before calling the changes final, then I expect you'll be fine...and considering the forces and their directions, I would much prefer to see your second "plate solution" to the "gusset solution" ...I would say that even just one plate would be fine for reinforcing the assembly back to its original strength...

As far as interaction with the Brake Light Switch Upgrade...since you are not moving or affecting the upper brake pedal arm, I don't expect there to be any issues...and if there were, someone of your insight and abilities (demonstrated here) would surely be able to handle those too.

Cheers

I'll bet you make those gussets plenty stout..and I agree with you for a cut and paste rather than bending the stock arms. If you were only going to move them a small amount, you may have been fine. But you would have probably ended up with a pedal about 3" shorter or more if you'd stayed with the original. Now that makes for some bad ergonomics!

Heck, I don't see why that won't work out great! Do the pedals fall in line pretty well with your feet while you are sitting in the seat, or are they "shifted left" some? Otherwise, I think that's a great solution to a nasty problem. Especially if the T5 is in your future.

Thanks for posting this Red - I'm getting near this stage and your write up and pictures are a help. Thanks!