My gas pedal broke off.....wtf

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

Any of you guys have that at all?

I was running to town to do some errands and right after i got there on the edge of town i was having some brake issues, thats another story, i replaced both front brake hoses to diagnose a hanging brake issues, turns out its a caliper.

anyways i pulled off down a side road to let the brake cool down for a moment when i went to start moving again i pressed on the gas pedal and i heard a pop and the pedal just fell off and did nothing......wtf!

so instead of going into town i just turned around and went home.

I actually had a hand throttle

I was steering with my left hand while reaching down and pulling on the pedal to work the cable.

so i got home and took a look at it.

the bracket that holds the pivot bolt and pedal actually broke off the firewall.

its spot-welded in 3 spots and they all broke, leaving 3 holes in the firewall where the welds basically pulled through.

so i took the bracket off and drilled 3 holes were the spot welds were, drilled ou the holes in the firewall and bolted it back on.

so thats good to go. just really strange situation i've never had happen with any vehicle.

so tomorrow its calipers and hopefully its good to go for awhile.



has that happened to anyone else?

 

[BrooklynBay]

This is not the first time that this happened. I've read other threads about this, and I think that there might be a TSB about this issue. I've also seen threads about the shifter breaking off.

 

[drdoom]

Oh yeah...hate when that happens.

 

[BrooklynBay]

There are links to two related threads on the bottom of this page where it says similar threads.

 

[koda2000]

yep. fairly common.

 

[bobflood]

+1. Happened to mine a couple of years ago - and I was 250 miles from home with the back end full of antique furniture! Luckily, drive home was almost all interstate - so my cruise control became the throttle. There is a TSB; and I solved it the same way OP did - drilled out at the welds and put in some bolts. I used those lock nuts with the nylon in them to minimize the chance that the nuts would come off.

 

[Steeda90GT]

This happened to me last year. Same deal...the pedal completely broke off! I actually rigged up a clamp/cable thingy with a handle and controlled the throttle by hand for about a week before I got around to fixing it.

 

[TheGTkid]

can you say dangerous? terrifying?
Never had that experience but now I know how to fix it! haha

 

[hfergsak]

Gas pedal came off

Happened to me. Same scenario. Got home the same way. Going to do the same repair. Haha

 

[SoNic67]

I had a clutch pedal broke once (manual transm, different car) - right when I tried to start from a stop light.
Got the car stuck in 1st gear and had to crawl home, rolling a few stop signs and luckily the only stop light on the way was green.

 

[drdoom]

I use self drilling sheet metal screws, and recommend even putting a couple in if yours hasn't broken yet. It's easy using a cordless drill fitted with a 1/4" magnetic nut driver.

 

[Mikey Wrench]

I performed the Service Bulletin using the oversize washers and self-locking nuts. The washers since there is mention of potential firewall cracks so spread the load. The sel-locking (aka prevailing torque) nuts are because I don't want to have to address this ever again. I even managed to do it myself, although better to "bring a friend" to this party.

 

[410Fortune]

Don’t use self tapping screws!!!
Run a bolt with washers
I think I used stock fender bolts for this years ago when the pedal in my 96 showed signs of coming loose

 

[tinman_72]

This happened to me with my '93 Ranger about 20-22 years ago. I managed to coast into the parking lot of a hardware store. I fixed it on the spot and drove home.

 

[EB4X]

Just to add to the list....had this happen to my 94 Ranger.

 

[cober]

It's a common problem. Ford even has a official solution for this one. Drill 2 holes and bolt it down.