Clutch Pedal Return Spring

[Gogs67]

Hi to all

I have a '55' Focus Zetec 1.6 petrol, last week I found a small-ish broken spring lying in my driver's footwell. Took it to my local dealer, who confirmed it's the return spring for my clutch pedal, told me it was a fairly common problem. They charged me £3.89 for a new one, however having had a look in the footwell I can't figure out where the new spring goes. Also, access is tight to say the least

Has anyone replaced this spring? If so, is there an easy way to do it? Any advice will be gratefully received. Also, a diagram or photo would be great too.

Many thanks in advance :)

P.S. Dealer service department want £70 labour to fit the spring, told me that a 'special tool is required, sir'. Aye right, just like the buttons on the back of my head!!!! :D

[gaz6076]

Ford, special tool? Never heard of it

It sits at the top of the pedal towards the back. It's very tight to get in there and if you've not seen where it comes off it's tricky to locate the holes each end of the spring sits in.

The "special tools" used is a leaver, some screwdrivers and a set of small vice grips usually helps. It can be done in place but if ur a big guy then gettng in there can be quite fun. Lol

[Con Rod]

Hi,

The same happened to my Focus after about three years.

The dealer quoted £150 labour as they claimed that the peddle needed to be split from the master cylinder !!

My solution was to use an elastic band or several hooked onto the metal bar just under the plastic fascia around the peddle and back onto the bar.

If you lay on your back in the footwell you can see the silver bar just under the edge of the dash and stops about where your left knee would be. Hook the bands onto this, then around the peddle and then back onto the bar. Just watch for the bands rubbing on the flat plate approx half way up the peddle for wearing through the bands.

Works OK. Hope this helps.

[Con Rod]

Hi,

The same happened to my Focus after about three years.

The dealer quoted £150 labour as they claimed that the peddle needed to be split from the master cylinder !!

My solution was to use an elastic band or several hooked onto the metal bar just under the plastic fascia around the peddle and back onto the bar.

If you lay on your back in the footwell you can see the silver bar just under the edge of the dash and stops about where your left knee would be. Hook the bands onto this, then around the peddle and then back onto the bar. Just watch for the bands rubbing on the flat plate approx half way up the peddle for wearing through the bands.

Works OK. Hope this helps.

[Gogs67]

Cheers for the replies folks :)

Went to another dealer today and managed to get a print-out of the clutch pedal diagram from the dealer's EPC, which shows the location of the spring, however it doesn't look easy to get to :(

Also spoke to a technician, who tells me that Ford allow them 4 hours labour, as its a 'nightmare' of a job to do without splitting the pedal and master cylinder :o Phoned the original dealer back, only to be told that the quote of £70 labour was incorrect, and that it should be £240

Day off tomorrow, so going to give it a bash myself and see how I get on.

[Gogs67]

Absolute nightmare of a job :(

Spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get this bl##dy spring on, gave up in the end 'cos there's not much skin left on my wrist and knuckles now

If the steering column is adjusted so that its all the way up and out, the very top of the clutch pedal (where one end of the spring locates) can be viewed through the gap between the column and the bottom of the dash panel; however I couldn't figure out where the other end of the spring locates. Despite the aid of a decent torch and plenty of patience, I was unable to 'feel' for the correct location.

Any further tips or advice would be much appreciated ;)

Anyone fancy a job????

[gaz6076]

55 plate? Would that make yours a mk2 then? Or a late mk1?

My m8 has a mk1 1.8. I can see if i can get a couple of pics of where his spring sits?

[stef123]

just done one of these springs this afternoon for someone, 2 hours and what a nightmare of a job. kit from ford was £4.89 but it had some other spring/mechanism with it too not that i used it.

if your gonna tackle this job be prepared for cut hands and a sore back. never again will i be doing this job unless its worth a good £100. i ended up fitting the spring to the backplate bit on the bulkhead and the using a screwdriver as a lever, brought the spring towards the pedal and used another screwdriver to locate the spring into the hole. not as easy as it sounds.

[Cornishozz]

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know, this can be done without removing anything. Just done mine, it's taken me about 3 hours of messing about but eventually figured out how to do it (hopefully after reading this it'll be a bit quicker for you)!

1) Buy the springkit from Ford (comes with spring and random plastic spring which I didn't use) - costs about £4.

2) Have a look at someone elses focus (if your not sure where the spring locates).

3) Insert 1p pieces between every coil of the spring, on both sides (probably around 30 in all), this will "temporarily" stretch the spring enough so that you can just insert it into the required position.

4) Have a feel around at the top of the pedal for a small hole (you'll put the longer hook of the spring through here first).

5) Have a look with a torch at the metal plate behind the clutch pedal on the chassis for a small hole (you'll put the shorter hook of the spring in here).

6) Depress clutch pedal to gain some tension on the spring (some coins may drop out at this stage, otherwise, push/pull then out by hand.

[w4rdy]

Just fitted a new spring to my dads Focus...took me a few hours lying on my back.

I fitted the short end to the pedal and had to 'adjust' the longer end to get it to fit into the hole which is very awkward to find and get into.

I fitted the spring so it hooked onto the pedal from the RHS and the other end then pointed to the front of the car..To extend the spring I stretched the spring and fitted 6 5p pieces in the gaps(pull them out when spring connected both ends)..difficult to do but it worked

[Mark focus]

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know, this can be done without removing anything. Just done mine, it's taken me about 3 hours of messing about but eventually figured out how to do it (hopefully after reading this it'll be a bit quicker for you)!

1) Buy the springkit from Ford (comes with spring and random plastic spring which I didn't use) - costs about £4.

2) Have a look at someone elses focus (if your not sure where the spring locates).

3) Insert 1p pieces between every coil of the spring, on both sides (probably around 30 in all), this will "temporarily" stretch the spring enough so that you can just insert it into the required position.

4) Have a feel around at the top of the pedal for a small hole (you'll put the longer hook of the spring through here first).

5) Have a look with a torch at the metal plate behind the clutch pedal on the chassis for a small hole (you'll put the shorter hook of the spring in here).

6) Depress clutch pedal to gain some tension on the spring (some coins may drop out at this stage, otherwise, push/pull then out by hand.

Thanks for this advice it worked a treat. Took me less than an hour and a half. Used 28 pennies, the only thing I did different was attach the spring to the chassis first.

[thfcmad]

Wow, this job truly is a b@stard to do!!!

Just spent about 4-5 hours doing this. Managed to find the hole in chassis and get the spring in there but getting the longer bit of the spring over the slot in the clutch pedal was more than a challenge. I tried the penny route but found i couldnt get the spring into the hole in the chassis, so i used 5p pieces instead as they are slightly smaller. Even with these in, the spring wasnt stretched enough and i just could not get the other end onto the clutch pedal.

My eventual solution - i found some old cable (think mine was off a lamp) and i fed this through under the steering wheel - i then tied this to the spring. I then pulled this to get the spring to stretch whilst my father in law positioned the spring into place on the clutch pedal. Job done.

On a separate note, does anyone know if i need to apply any grease or anything to this spring?

Thanks for the assistance of people who have posted before me as i wouldnt have even attempted this without finding this post.

I hope my way helps someone else who may be struggling with this. Just be warned, as Stef123 said, be prepared for a sore back and cut hands!!

[donkey]

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all you contributors - after some heated words managed to get the new spring fitted and would never have managed it without all your advice.

My learnings:

* get a couple of powerful torches

* adjust the steering wheel

* I used 15 5p pieces keeping the last couple of coils that fit into the bulkhead plate free. When inserting the 5p's do from both sides to make sure the spring is straight

* using the 5p's left me slightly short of the pedal - I then used the wire trick to ease the last bit onto the clutch pedal

Once again thanks team - cost me £5 instead of £240!

[Tbirdiv]

Hi all, I had to do this recently and after getting nowhere scrabbling around upside down under the pedals I decided to remove the lower steering column cowling to enable me to see the small hole on the chassis to hook the end of the spring into. I had already removed the lower panel to the right hand side of the dash.I think it was a total of four screws( two on each panel and a few clips). The radio controller stalk needs to be pulled out of the steering cover to enable it to drop down. This let me get my head just a little bit further to the left and low and behold- there it was... a small hole about 2mm dia. at the bottom of a V shaped panel above the master cylinder. You can just see it by looking through the gap below the steering column. By putting my arm through this gap I was able to hook the smaller hook in to the hole from the top (i.e. hook pointing downwards). Once this is done pull the long end of the spring (which I had packed with washers between the coils to pre-stretch it) over the hook on the top end of the pedal itself. I had to pull it the last few mm's with a piece of cord and hey presto! job done without having to hang upside down like a bat. Once it is hooked on depress the pedal to enable the washers to fall out. Some might need pulled out bout they come out fairly easily.

[ferretfloozy]

is this the offending item? best pic i could take without breaking my wrist

[soulman123]

That sounds like a horrific job.

I know this will fail on mine at some point and will end up trying miserably to fix this. At least I have learned some good tips here thanks to all for sharing.

[clarky100]

I managed to fix mine yesterday. Bit of a nightmare, but this is how i did it. I managed to use the coin trick only, but I used 5Ps instead of 1Ps.

Outside of the car, I got one end of the spring attached to something sturdy so it hangs down. Can be anything as long as it doesn't move as you will need to pull the spring down.

Then i got a spring puller and attached this to the other end and pulled the spring firmly down. With it being pulled, I then inserted 5p pieces on each side of each coil. so there were about 25 or so. You need to make sure you have coins either side of each coil on every coil. This i found stretched the spring long enough.

I then inserted the shorter end of the spring to the bulk head, and with the spring stretched the longer bit went in nicely on the pedal hole. Dont get me wrong, its a sod to get to and access is tight but if you get a decent torch so you can see where the 2 holes are you can manage it.

Now, i was expecting the coins to drop out when the pedal was pressed, but this didn't happen, so I had to remove the coins with a pair of long nose pliers. you need to give them a bit of a yank, but they do come out, and then the spring is in nicely and the pedal no longer has play in it.

When I first did this I took the advice of an earlier post of using just 15 5Ps and seeing if this would be enough, so this took a bit of time. I would say if you start with every coil with a 5P in each side, it shouldn't take long at all to do.

Hope it helps.

[jonboy01]

Oh great ,sounds like a job that I will have to do this weekend,hurt my back last week so not looking forward to it at all....

Thanks to all who have posted so far and I now have a good idea of where to start.my local dealer has had to order this spring in as it broke this morning and I had a horrible moment when I thought my clutch had gone south..

No matter what breaks on my car they always have to order it in for me, must be the demand..

Will let you know how I get on :-)

[Mr_Spock]

Did this on my MKII last year. I used the old spring, just used pliers to bend a new "hook" on the end that broke.

Having read this thread, I used coins - and got very lucky, fixed it in just 10 minutes :)

[jonboy01]

Well done the spring...awkward to get the old one out from behind the clutch pushrod mechanism or what?...had to split the pedal assembly in the end...not a job I would recommend .

The old spring sat in a slot behind the pedal that I just couldn't get access to.the good news was that the new one went in sweet as a nut with the pedal separated and didn't have to Faf around with coins

So should be all good for the next 10yrs...;-)

Happy days.

[Alec J]

My clutch seems to have 2 minds of its own. Normally at first it feels quite stiff but after some use it loosens up and feels more up. Could this be the spring sticking?

Alec

[ST170Bun]

Just got a nice 2003 ST170 with a good engine and body work but lots of other niggles. Cheap as chips for the car it will be.

So one of the "issues" the previous owner had was finding a broken spring in the drivers foot well. Eventually he found out what it was but never bothered to replace it. The car came with a new replacement clutch pedal return spring.   Not really causing me any issues I never bothered to fit it. However with the hot weather I noticed that the drivers door side air vent wasn't working with no blown air reaching it.  So I took off the trim panel under the steering wheel, burning finger on the hot foot well bulb... and re attached the air hose to the inside of the vent, it had also come off the blower end as well.

Then I remembered the spring I had sitting in the can holder by the foot well and went on line and found this string on how to refit it.

I gave up on the fitting a penny between each coil to stretch the spring as I could only think of sticking one end in a vice and pulling the other with pliers to open the gap and thought that too much of a hard job. besides there is not enough space to relocate the spring with pennies sticking out of it.

So I used my bodge master experience and without taking the driver seat out or removing the pedal basket nuts, or stripping down the pedal box I slid the spring down behind the top of the clutch pedal and moved the smaller bottom hook end against the plate where the location slot is, rotating so the end of the hook to face where the slot is and gently moved it up and down until it located and hooked into the slot.

I then found it would stay in position with the bottom hook in the slot.

I then moved back to think what to do next and I could just see the top of the longer spring hook over the top of the clutch pedal shaft where it sits on the pedal axle.

I then poked a long narrow screwdriver on top of the axle-shaft where the top of the pedal rotates around, just wide enough for the screw driver shaft and it then rests against the bracket that holds the pedal axle. I then just stuck the end of the screw driver in the top long spring hook and levered it up then right to hook over the notch/recess in the top of the pedal. 

I thought from this string that it should go into a hole at the top of the pedal but I couldn't find that so I just sat it over the notch in the top of the clutch pedal that looks made for the job.  

It works..the pedal sits up, it's not too hard to be uncomfortable and works perfectly despite some rough/quick/sharp peddle pressing/stamping without the spring falling off or sliding off. 

Whole job took 2-3 mins of fiddling to locate the bottom of the spring in the slot and then less than a min to lever the top spring hook over the slot at the top of the pedal.

It took me longer to refit the air duct to the drivers door air vent than fit the spring.

Have I done it all wrong? Will my car burst into flames and drive over a cliff? Will my clutch shatter into a thousand bits ?

Or will the worst that will happen is that the spring falls off or snaps just like the factory fitted one did?

I have an idea for a tool.

The screwdriver I used was an old Stanley 62-386 5mm x 150mm chrome alloy flat blade screwdriver.

I did bend it slightly in the process but that just made it fit better.

To make raising the spring to clip over the top of the clutch pedal in the existing shaped recess the screwdriver could do with a slightly bigger bend in it and a gentle slot hack-sawed or ground on one side of the flat blade to locate the top spring hook as it might otherwise slide off as you prise it up.

Maybe I was just lucky.

1st photo look to the left of the top of the clutch pedal and you can see the bolt shaft it rotates around, I rested the screwdriver on that to prise up the top spring hook over the top of the brake pedal. Only down side is that because I had not grove in the end of the screw driver I had to stick it too far into the hook and the end caught the sound deadening material and tore it. A slight ground or sawn slot in the end of the side of the screw driver would have held the hook near the end and it would have missed the material. I'll know next time 😉 

 

 

[Roy the boy]

My clutch pedal spring broke recently and I decided to do it myself. I looked on this forum and found it very helpful but I decided to offer my method.

The first thing to do is to remove the lower steering column cowling, the radio control stalk and the lower panel to the right hand side. This allows access to the top of the pedal. The next thing to remove is the drivers seat allowing access under the dash. I found posted by someone on the forum showing the position of the hole for the spring just above the master cylinder which is difficult to find. I tried putting washers in between some of the coils of the spring but found that it did not stretch the spring sufficiently. I drilled a hole in my bench and put a bolt in for one end of the spring and drilled holes to enable me to stretch the spring and insert  1 penny coin in each gap, 15 coins in all, allowing the spring to locate on the pedal after inserting the other end in the hole above the master cylinder.

[Kevin#95]

Looking at the spring around the end of the clutch pedal, it looks like a good place to fix it.

I can see a V groove at the end of the pedal. Another method that might work (un tested) is to fit the lower part of the spring in the hole and bend some thin cycle brake wire in half and put it on the top hook of the spring then put the cable in the groove and pull the cable hard. The cable should pull the spring up and over the hooked end of the pedal. It might work.