Some Interesting Gas Pedal Differences/Information, Pictures Inside Options

[Coomer]

Today I decided I'd fabricate a new gas pedal for my car to ease in heel-toe braking, so I pulled out the pedal from my parts '95 ST, which is an automatic, and worked on that.

When I finished the pedal and was about to actually put it in the Yelli Celi, I found that the two pedals arms are different, probably based on whether the car is an automatic or a five-speed.

The most visually-noticable difference is the weight at the top of the arm. The manual arm features a shorter cylinder with a larger diameter, while the automatic's is longer but a smaller diameter. The volume of the manual weight is .835 in^3, while the auto's volume is .932 in^3. This difference in weight (assuming both weights are made of the same material) is small, but there must be some reason for Toyota to use two identical pedal arms except for the different weights. Does anyone know why there are different weights?



My hybrid pedal using the automatic arm and weight is on the left. The manual arm and weight is on the right.

More importantly than the weight, the spring that forces the pedal out towards the driver is different between the two assemblies. The manual spring is golden in color and is much thicker metal, resulting in a more powerful spring and a stiffer pedal. Initially, I didn't notice this difference until I put the auto pedal assembly in my car and the pedal wouldn't stay off the floor without the throttle cable attached. Once I put the manual spring into the auto pedal assembly, the pedal would stay off the floor.

Seeing how I like my pedals stiff, I much prefer the manual spring. For those of you with automatics or automatics swapped to manuals, I highly recommend the manual spring.

I actually kind of wish my gas pedal was a bit stiffer, but that would require a new spring or putting the straight end of the spring outside of the hole where it's supposed to go in the pedal assembly, which caused the spring to rotate excessively and might wear it out or make the pedal feel funny.



The automatic spring is on the left. The manual is on the right.

I'm wondering if anyone has any comments. Also, if a few of you could look at your spring (nothing has to be removed to do so) and tell me which you have, and if your car is an auto or manual. I want to make sure that this difference is an issue of auto vs. manual.

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[playr158]

that really is an interesting find coomer...

i'll be able to tell you wat spring my 96 manual has...
along with a st205 spring too

[creis]

odd that they would use diff parts for something as simple as the peddel, are you sure thoes are from the same year, that the only diff between them is the mt/at my guess is that mabey they used a "fancy" peddel cover or something in like the performance package or something that they needed to little weight diff to balance it, and a stronger spring to hold the incress on both ends, but idk just a random guess to justify that kinda diff. I'll check mine and let ya know what it is when I get home from work today.

if its just an mt/at diff then it may be just to make the manual stiffer like you said, little heavyer and harder to push so its easyer to push slowly and accuratly alowing you to drop the cluch into it better, giving your cluch an easyer/longer life maybe

This post has been edited by creis: Jul 31, 2006 - 2:37 PM

[Batman722]

hahaha I was just looking up this stuff last week or so Coomer.

Stef's pedal is so much softer than mine so we looked up why in the EPC and found out just what you did. At fiirst I thought my spring was rusted and hers was just in better condition, but then we looked it all up and were puzzled by the results.

good stuff

[hurley97]

I like my soft pedal, to me it makes the car feel lighter

[BloodyStupidDave...]

I found that the two pedals arms are different, probably based on whether the car is an automatic or a five-speed.

The most visually-noticable difference is the weight at the top of the arm. The manual arm features a shorter cylinder with a larger diameter, while the automatic's is longer but a smaller diameter. The volume of the manual weight is .835 in^3, while the auto's volume is .932 in^3. This difference in weight (assuming both weights are made of the same material) is small, but there must be some reason for Toyota to use two identical pedal arms except for the different weights

Well I have a manual UK GT (RHD). As my pedal is currently sitting in the driver's footwell (I'm in the process of installing cruise control), I went out across the street in the rain to take a look. It didn't look like my memory of either of your pictures, so I came back to check, then spent 5 minutes searching the house for a ruler.

After a second trip to the car in the rain, I can tell you that the weight is approximately 23mm wide by 28mm diameter (0.91" x 1.10") give or take a couple of mil (it is quite hard to measure accurately when upside down in the driver's footwell). It doesn't look like either of the weights in your picture. The spring is golden-coloured but with only four windings rather than the 5 of the golden one and 6 of the black one in your photos.

Does this mean I have a different type again?

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: May 28, 2007 - 9:03 AM