Lancia Beta Forum

Strange failure happened to me today whilst I was just about to take the Spyder out to see if it was still running hot. The clutch pedal went flat to the floor, and didn't spring back. Luckily, I hadn't left home, and just knocked it out of gear and pulled up. I found that the ball stud that is welded into a transfer piece close to the fuse box, had snapped. The snap had happened right inside the blind hole, and looked like it had happened a while ago - because it was quite dirty. I put it back in, and drove it out anyway. The force was trying to pull it sideways, rather than out, so it was ok - but I thought it was quite an unlikely thing to break, and at the position that it did. Must have been weakened by the welding process I guess.

I'll probably drill and tap a grub screw or 2 into the pin through the body of the transfer piece, rather than through the weld and up into the pin's base. The weld will probably be too hard to drill, but I'll see.


(http://clutch-link.jpg)

Had a similar problem a few months back (and the same problem on other betas).  My one snapped off at the end of the clutch pedal (same design) and is a nightmare to get the pedal out and back. The joint you had snap off was also no longer round on my car so that also needed replacing.

To repair my broken pedestal ball joint, I first used an angle grinder to clean the weld off of the back of the clutch arm to expose the original hole, then counter sunk the hole slightly to get more welding penetration. And finally welded it back together with two little tack welds on the ball side for good measure.

I suspect there is a manufacturing fault with the welding of a hardened ball/pedestal to the quadrant arm as the heat from welding will change the metal structure. This combined with the side loading of the ball every time you push the pedal causes a flex just above the weld on the opposing side of the arm.

I think you may have trouble drilling the post to fit grub screws as it is hardened steel.

After I repaired the clutch pedal, I chose to replace the broken ball joint that you have with a rose joint rod end.

Spherical bearing in place of original steel ball socket type clutch quadrant joint.

I like that as a solution. When my engine gets taken out again for the swap over, that's one of the jobs I'll be doing with the engine bay empty. Where did you source the rose joint from, if you don't mind me asking?

The spherical rod ends are readily available and cheap on a well know auction site. Just order a decent stainless one for a couple more quid.
The thread on the rod coming through from the bulk head (or top of the clutch pedal if you prefer) is a standard m8.  I made a hybrid m8 to m10 just because I always have plenty of stainless m10 rod ends hanging around in the garage.

It's a nice simple mod and will last a long long time. Easy to replace if you need to as well. 
It's also easy enough to mod with the engine in situ. As I had to.

Excellent. Thanks for that.  :)