Trans Am Transformation Update (Part VI)

I just finished the hardest – so far – part of the transformation of my ’76 Trans-Am from automatic to manual and you might be surprised to hear it wasn’t removing the old transmission or installing the new manual flywheel, clutch/pressure plate and bellhousing (all of which were easy). Nor the installation of the manual clutch actuation linkage; i.e., the Z bar and the rods that connect to it.

That all went easy peasy; a simple matter of removing old things and installing new things. Just bolt removal – and bolt tightening.

But getting the original brake pedal assembly off – now that was challenging. Not because the job itself was hard. It was hard because the job was almost impossible (for me) to  get at. It was just a nut and a bolt. But getting at both – at the same time – was something like successfully juggling five milk bottles in a 35 MPH headwind while standing on one foot.

Okay, maybe that’s a little exaggerated – but not much.

If you have ever worked underneath a car’s dashboard you will feel my pain. The parts tucked up under there were among the first parts installed when the car was being built. Everything else is built in top of those things, which makes them hard to see – let alone remove. Some were designed never to be removed, like the bolt and nut that serve as the swing perch for the Trans-Am’s brake pedal. The designers assumed – correctly – that the brake pedal (and its lever) would never need to be removed because it is not something that wears out and is almost impossible to break. If one has ever broken, I’d love to hear about it.

But it needs to be removed, if you’re doing a transformation from automatic to manual – because you need to install a clutch pedal and a new (smaller) brake pedal. These two new pedals swing on a new – longer – bolt that must be installed in place of the original (shorter) bolt and that entails removing the old bolt, so as to get the old, automatic car’s brake pedal out.

Sounds easy, right? It isn’t – because it’s very tight under the dash and (naturally) the bracket that the bolt goes through is shaped in such a way as to make it impossible to see either the nut on the one end or the bolt head on the other head. You have to figure out how to get a wrench or socket on both, because if you don’t all that will occur when you turn the nut or the bolt on one side is that the whole thing will turn. You must prevent the bolt (or the nut) from turning on one side in order to be able to loosen/remove the nut and thus the bolt. This has to be done by feel – and it’s hard to do that because it’s difficult to reach one of the two – let alone both at the same time.

It is also impossible to have a helper help, because two people cannot fit under the dashboard at the same time.

It took me three days of intermittent sessions to get the nut off that bolt. I removed the driver’s seat so that at least I could lay mostly flat on my back and look up (and sigh) at my despair. I experimented with various combinations of wrenches and sockets. I settled on a slightly modified socket mounted on a non-ratcheting extender bar, held at the correct angle with duct tape, to secure the bolt head and a long, angled-handle ratchet on the other end. The circus trick was getting them both on their respective nut and bolt and then holding one tight to prevent the whole mess from turning while trying to turn out the other (the nut).

An agile teenager probably would have had an easier time of it. But I am neither a teenager nor agile. Both of my shoulders are stiff and it took some time (and purpose-driven masochism) to figure out how to twist and angle myself in such a way that I could use both hands at the same time in that tight space. I’d try for awhile, then quit. Drink some coffee, sullenly – and think. Then try again.

And then once more.

At last, my efforts were rewarded. I felt the nut coming loose. That is an ecstatic feeling because it means you are going to get it. I didn’t stop. I overcame the pain. At length – to put it as Poe might have – the nut came off. I extracted the bolt and the pedal came out!

Installing the new (smaller) brake pedal and the new clutch pedal will be much easier because the bolt is longer. It clears the bracket on on side such that you can see the end and get a tool on that end much more easily.

They did go on easily. Also easy was drilling the hole in the firewall for the clutch actuation rod that secures to the new clutch pedal because GM thoughtfully built in a template for where the hole goes – in the form of a trim plate that’s the same for both factory automatic and factory manual cars, with the same slot for where the hole goes. Drill here.

There are still some things yet to do – the main one being cutting the hole in the center console for the Hurst shifter. But I’m well past the halfway point.

I still have to buy the shift linkage and the Hurst shifter to be operational.

Hoping I can afford to do that soon!

. . .

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