Installing clutch pedal helper spring

[Ellie]

Hey there, I have been enjoying my Spider for about 4 years and have put up with the clutch pedal being pretty hard to push down. I have had a new cable put in and both the firewall and pedal forks look fine. I have read several excellent threads revolving around possible causes and reckon I'll start with installing the helper spring under the dash. I have several boxes of parts from the previous owner and found a spring which looks like the right one, it's about 3 inches long (including the hook ends). I can't find the S hook in the box so I'll have to get one of those, however Not ever seeing the spring and S hook in place I am not sure where they connect to. There is an eye in line with and towards the driver seat which I presume the spring hooks into but how and where the other end goes is a mystery to me. Any guidance would be great.

[narfire]

Just did this evolution several times the past week.... first thing one needs is patience as that freeking spring can be a pain.
Anyway there is a large S hook that will conect to the back of the clutch pedal, the large bend has to go over the bolt that holds the brake and clutch pedal. The thick spring attaches to that and other end to a tab that is proud of the assembly box. Kind of to the left of the ignition. The spring is VERY strong and damb near impossable to just pull back and attach. Years ago I read a trick about using pennies in the spring and this will stretch the spring enough to reach or get close to the rear tab.
I took my spring and put it in a vice and while bending it a bit to get the spring coils to open up I stuffed a total of 17 pennies in there and that got the spring to about 1/8 inch away from the tab, I managed to pull and get the spring on the tab. I used a pair of bent needle nose plyers to pull them back out.
Another thing is the little plastic retainer clip that goes on the clutch cable behind the fork.... make a note as to where it fly's off to when taking the old cable off.
When the spring is off, do check the pedal movement. There a re a couple of plastic bushings in the pedal that can sometimes break down, so I'm told, and can cause binding. I took the bolt out and greased the brake,clutch and the bolt and put it back together but with the bolt going in from the tranny side.
Chris

[Ellie]

That's great thanks Chris, Yep located most of those points and am going to give the penny trick a go. The only thing I am not sure of is where and how the big end of the S hook connects to the back of the pedal. Is there a hole or Another tab or does it just hook onto the pedal in front of the cable forks? It's pretty cramped in there as we all know.

Did you notice any improvement in the amount of pressure you have to apply to the pedal after you'd put the spring in?

Cheers
Mike

[narfire]

Get a light in there when you are contorted like a pretzl. There is a slot at the back of the pedal the spring goes into. Its a combination of brail and visual to get the end of the spring in there.
I recomend the pennies go in on either side, not top and bottom...easier to remove.

I found the proper pedal "feel" for me when the spring is attached and the fork spring is attached with clip and the release bearing is as close to the plate fingers without touching. I moved the rubber boot from the hole the fork goes through to check this. This should give you the recomended 3/4-1 inch of pedal play at the top. Currently the adjustment nut on my clutch cable is about 1 1/4 inch or perhaps a bit less from the front of the adjustment threds.(hope that made sense) and I have plenty of clutch material left.