Anyone who’s driven an aging Saturn Ion knows the woe of the broken clutch pedal... it comes up off the master cylinder rod and eventually the rod will punch through the backside of the pedal and you can’t properly disengage your clutch... here’s how I fixed my clutch pedal...

I bought a package of #10 machine screws (not sure what thread pitch)and nuts for like 97 cents, and drilled a 3/16” hole through the white clip that is on the clutch pedal, which unclips from the one side... removing the clip you can see the hole that the clutch rod can poke through (didn’t get a pic of that). I put two nuts on the machine screw up near the head and stuck it through the hole, secured it with a nut on the other side, like shown


This allows the screw to poke through the hole in the back of the pedal and contact the clutch rod directly, the screw (being metal) shouldn’t wear down against the rod like the plastic pedal did...

when installing the clip back on the pedal, you’ll notice that the clip, being attached on only one side, won’t hold still as you push the clutch pedal, you’ll need to run a sheet metal screw into the side of the pedal to secure the other side of the clip, and allow the clip to hold the pressure from the clutch rod...

Next, I made a pad about 1/4” thick from old useless wire that stops the pedal from overextending upward, not that it would come off the rod anyway, since the rod is no longer bottoming in the pedal, it’s contacting the machine screw...

 

This pic is showing the installed clip on the pedal, and the sheet metal screw in the side of the pedal... in theory if you attached the nuts on the pedal side of the clip to the clip itself you could adjust the machine screw and thus, the clutch engagement point. I hadn’t thought to do that at the time of install, and I’m too lazy to tear it all apart again to modify my fix, but I may do that later on...



By the way, can this be stickied? Would hate to see it lost to time

 

Nice job, bones.

 

Awesome. I love the ingenuity of it!

 

Bones -- do you have the part number for the white clip in case someone has a trashed one and wants to implement the fix?
What's the thread pitch on the screw and nuts? May make a difference later on w r t loosening.
Also -- please remove the reference to the store from where you acquired the supplies. They are an evil economic canker sore on the face of this country

 

I don’t know the part number to that white clip...

 

Hey 19bonestock88, was just googling "saturn clutch pedal fix" and this was the first link...so congrats on that! lol

I am in the same position as you were. I have had my clutch master cylinder replaced because the ball on the rod broke off completely. Now the pedal is allowing the ball on the new master cylinder to poke through too far and it won't engage well at all (and I have leveled up my skill with driving a stick without a clutch).

My question is, how is your fix holding up now that it has been a couple of months since you did this? I like what you did and I'm ready to pull the trigger to make it happen but just wanted to see if your experience was good with it holding up under normal use this long.

Please let me know when you get a chance...thanks!

Bob

 

I recently bought a new bushing for the clutch push rod going to the pedal since the old one wore out and the clutch pedal lifted up. I replaced the bushing and drove it to work but half way thru the pedal popped put for the push rod any ideas on what I can do or if I missed something.

 

thank you for this idea with the screw! I just tried it with minor fixes and works perfectly!