Another 46 to 47 project!

[GavinT]

If one looks closely one can see the clutch cable running along Serge's very rusty frame in the same way mine does. Only the cable is exposed forward of the seat not the reinforced sheath. The cable is exposed from the attachment point on the pedal assembly to the bodywork enclosing the chassis as it runs through the passenger cab.

Yes, that's the point.

Your first pic in Reply #151 shows a lot of black sheathing forward of the seat so my assumption was that the abutment location must be quite close to the clutch pedal.
My WAG is that someone replaced the cable previously and perhaps couldn't find the forward 'hidden' abutment. They then proceeded to install another abutment close to the pedals?

Let's do this the easy way.
Get some light on the subject. Trace the cable/sheath back from the pedal linkage and show us where the abutment is (or isn't) as per your previous pic.

If that is in fact the abutment bracket then it seems I will have to cut the seat in order to get to it and THAT is something is was hoping to avoid, but if I can't even see the bracket then I can't establish whether or not its the broken component...

Yeah . . I'd fall foul of the 'originality' crowd but I'd install a new abutment in a similar location as the S2.

[jbcollier]

Here's the thing.  Serge's photo shows a big hacked hole BUT the outer part is smooth and formed.  There is supposed to be a hole in the seat base floor for this very reason as there are other access holes for the seat belts, etc.  On mine it was covered with an aluminium plate.  Is your seat base floor covered with anything?

The bracket is originally welded on.  This is a very common failure due to its low location and the classic S1 chassis corrosion.  You have examined your chassis carefully for corrosion?  Especially up front?  I reach in the front large access hole and start stabbing with an ice pick.  Make sure you have a large box of kleenex and crisis counsellor close to hand!

[DreamsOfA47]

Alright let me try and reply to everything: JB the seat is completely smooth and there isn't any kind of access panel so I'm going to have to cut a hole to gain any kind of access. There are 2 access holes cut into the tunnel further back where I can see the cable sheathing but there's no access to the bracket through those. The frame diagram you posted earlier has the abutment bracket located near the shifter relative fore and aft along the frame. I'll swing by the Home Depot and get a piece of sheetmetal and some u-nuts to make a removable panel. I'll also grab an L-bracket while I'm there and some bolts to fab a new abutment if it's indeed broken. As you instructed me too earlier in the thread when I got the car I took a large screw driver went stab-happy on all I could access and it all seems to be pretty solid though there are some places of considerable surface rust. In short no rot I could find and definitely not rotted the way your frame was!!

Gavin I see what your trying to illustrate but I don't think that's the method for cable tensioning in this particular application. The bracket you highlighted is the assembly that's holding the cable to the pedal and it seems the abutment is behind the interior bodywork. I'll get some well-lit pics here shortly. I'm not worried about originality so much as I am usability. Interestingly the trans isn't the original. It's a gearbox out of an S2. The location of my reverse (all the way right and back) is different from the S1 gearbox (all the way left and back) so i wonder if the cable has been changed before, but probably not. I don't see a reason to change the cable just because the gearbox is being swapped.

Richard I agree with you this was a design oversight for sure! I understand that bracket was welded on the frame and wasn't meant to brake in the car's usable lifetime and not last 55 years but that makes it extremely frustrating to repair!! 
I'll have to see if I can borrow a bore scope, but at this point I'm pretty well resigned to the fact that I'll be cutting an access panel either way. I'm going to have to fit a drill into the access hole and make holes for a new bracket if the abutment is, in fact, broken...

[jbcollier]

Don't cut a vertical hole in the side of the "tunnel".  Cut one in the floor under the seat base.  Simple alu sheet and four small screws to hold it in place are all you need for a cover.

To figure out where to cut, shove a ruler inside the tunnel covering and between the clutch cable and chassis.  If anything remains of the abutment, it will hit it.  Now you know where to cut your hole.

One reason the abutment breaks is because it flexes slightly every time you use the clutch.  I would weld in a triangulating support to brace it, basically make a triangle out of the "L" bracket.

[DreamsOfA47]

Here are some better pics

[DreamsOfA47]

Don't cut a vertical hole in the side of the "tunnel".  Cut one in the floor under the seat base.  Simple alu sheet and four small screws to hold it in place are all you need for a cover.

To figure out where to cut, shove a ruler inside the tunnel covering and between the clutch cable and chassis.  If anything remains of the abutment, it will hit it.  Now you know where to cut your hole.

One reason the abutment breaks is because it flexes slightly every time you use the clutch.  I would weld in a triangulating support to brace it, basically make a triangle out of the "L" bracket.

I was planning on cutting as you describe, likely somewhere close to the center where one's thighs would go in the seat base, and your idea of knowing about where to cut with a ruler is great! I'll save the cut-out incase I ever need it and I'll use a small piece of aluminum as a cover. I understand its flexing is an issue and if possible ill get a pretty heavy duty L-bracket to replace the one that' potentially gone as I don't have easy access to a welder right now. If I make an access panel I can always weld a better designed bracket in later.

[DreamsOfA47]

The ruler shows the bracket is about 5.5 inches back from the point at which the cable snakes under the bodywork so I have a decent idea where I need to cut my access hole to reach. Also, RD Enterprises sells a nice abutment bracket that may be simpler for me to buy than to make. I probably won't do any work until Sunday but we'll see how it all goes.

[GavinT]

Here are some better pics

Alrighty . . my only question is this:
Is the cable I've highlighted the outer sheath or the inner cable?

I ask because it looks to be very thick for an inner cable.
If it's the outer sheath, I'm going to guess there's no abutment action happening.

Maybe my eyes are playing tricks.
Please put me out of my misery. 

[Kendo]

Gavin, I wondered about that too. But if you look at the photo in reply 161, you can see the fat visible cable, and the even fatter outer sheath under the seat cutout. So I think what you boxed is the inner cable. As diagnosed from the internet….

[DreamsOfA47]

Gavin what you highlighted is the inner cable and kendo yes the cable viewed through the cut out is the outer sheathing

[Richard48Y]

So if you disconnect the cable at the pedal end does the assembly then flop around when you lift the outer sheath through the access hole in the seat?
If you depress the pedal as it is now, do you see the outer sheath move with the inner cable?
That should reveal if the abutment is broken even before cutting any holes.

[DreamsOfA47]

I don’t need to disconnect the cable from the pedal to flap it up and down through the access holes. It has several inches of vertical movement and moves very little effort if I grab it so I’m pretty certain the bracket is broken. I don’t see the Outer sheath moving when I had to press the pedal but it definitely seems to be free-floating currently

[DreamsOfA47]

Alright, lads I come bearing news, but the tl;dr is I'm now very perplexed...

So today I cut an access hole into the seat to examine the abutment. The good news is it wasn't broken and the cable somehow had jumped out of its track (the attached picture) rather than the cable having snapped or bent the abutment. Slotting the cable back in to the abutment made no difference at all. Now I'm trying to determine what to troubleshoot next. After reseating the cable instead of the pedal coming back to the top of its throw quickly and smoothly it creeps black at a glacial pace but eventually it will engage and the car will move in gear. Pushing the clutch pedal back down repeats the process; the clutch will engage and the car can be shifted into 2nd, but the glacial pace of the pedal means the car is almost at a stop before the car can be moving in gear again. Another interesting occurrence is that now my brake pedal doesn't return to the top of its throw either, and before all of this it did, for sure. The last interesting detail is that the clutch pedal didn't return until I sprayed the pedal assembly and the clutch arm throughly with dry lube WD-40 with PTFE. I'm now wondering if I need to remove the pedal assembly and ensure its clean, lubed and operating appropriately as new I'm worried that may be a contributing problem if not the whole problem. If something mechanical had prevented the pedal from returning perhaps that allowed the cable to jump from its track but that doesn't seem to make much sense given that the cable is tight when the pedal is depressed...

 At this point if its related to the clutch mechanism I'm thinking it has to be related to the release bearing or something wrong with the fork or shaft.

Once again, gents I'm completely stumped 

[TurboFource]

I think I would try lubricating the cable and pedal assembly, the pedal assemblies are prone to rust issues if any water has sat in the car from a leaking windshield etc…. The bracket etc was completely missing on mine…. just a pile of rust.

[Richard48Y]

Does the clutch pedal move freely by hand after disconnecting the cable?
Yep, slow return could let the cable pop out.
From your description it is either the pedal being rusty inside, or the TO bearing being sticky on the guide.
If you have 336 trans like my S2 there is an external return spring on the clutch arm.
If that broke or slipped out of place it would no longer pull the release bearing back.
The 336 has a small hole on each side of the bell-housing that might let you squirt some lubricant onto the TO bearing guide.
I cannot imagine the contortions to DO that, but it may be possible.