e36 M3 Clutch Pedal Rebuild — 2 types of spring, experience with ECS-assembled kit

[35nhma]

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would start a new thread for this because the many others I have found are a little old. Maybe a moderator can chime in about best practices.

First of all: There are two kinds of clutch springs. If you have the kind with two closed pivots, you will be able to avoid the arduous task of pre-compressing the spring. On earlier models you will need to use zip ties. In these cases it would probably be helpful if people, rather than making general statements that could be misleading, instead wrote: "on my car ... [etc]." For example, if you don't pre-compress the old style of spring, it will end up snapping into the wrong place and it will probably break when you drive the car. Others have reported thus. I know personally I banged up my fingers pretty bad trying to hold the spring in the right place w/o pre-compressing it. It was only at this point that I understood what was going on, why there was a discrepancy between accounts of installation.

Long story short there were many minor changes made to the e36 over its production run. Note how my 10/95 build M3 has the dual pivot spring type is grayed out on the realoem diagram.





I made a video discussing the ECS rebuild kit, and my experience installing it. Video link.




TLDW — a couple of things worth noting. First of all, totally worth it! Feels so much better.

• About the ECS kit:
• Unless your car is missing the entire pedal assembly, you probably don't need the whole kit.
• Especially if you have an old type of spring, this is just a wasted $20.
• The parts you definitely want are the pedal arm and the bushings.
• Even after rebuild there is still some slop in the system, but it is much improved from before.

• About the old-style spring:
• As others have noted, you can put the old style spring in the wrong place.
• You will probably drop the spring and not realize where it came from.
• This is ok, just look for wear marks on the bracket. There was a metal clip grinding away on the bracket for 20 years, it will leave a mark.
• My recommendation for the zip ties is to use two very large ones, so that you can remove them more easily once the pedal is installed.
• They will be trapped beneath the spring and the seat of the spring, and the more sturdy they are, the easier it will be to yank them out.
• I was able to compress the spring enough just by standing on it, and then I moved to channel locks.

• The difficult part is access:
• Many refer to this as a "PITA Project"
• I think this really depends on how easily you can contort your body.
• If you don't take the seat out you will have to lie with your back on the door sill with your head by the pedals, it's not terrible. Pad the sill with a towel.
• It also depends on how well you can work by feel.
• It is dark and you will not be able to see well or get both hands up there.
• The actual tasks you need to accomplish however, are few, and simple.

• Actual tasks are simple:
• Remove three "circlips" from pins
• Remove one bolt (blind, go by feel)
• Pre-compress spring (if you have the unlucky type!)
• Press in new bushings (may need a bearing press or DIY type)
• Put it all back (easy right?)

• About "circlips":
• These come off easily with no force, just a small amount of pressure applied in the right place.
• They go back on easily, with a satisfying "snap."
• If you are worried about circlip removal, buy a $1 part when you buy your bushings so you can see what you're up against.
• If you get the kit these will be included.

G'luck! Don't hurt yourself!
Hank

.... why this thing wasn't built with proper bearings on the main pivot, and a bushing at the master cylinder pivot ....

[bluptgm3]

.... why this thing wasn't built with proper bearings on the main pivot, and a bushing at the master cylinder pivot ....

BMW did not plan on us daily driving these cars ~ 30 years later....


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[35nhma]

BMW did not plan on us daily driving these cars ~ 30 years later....


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in ... con ... ceivable.

[tiMASTER]

Good video!

I should rebuild mine but I'm wondering if I could find tighter fitting bushings (or bearings) as well as lubricant impregnated washers to take up that slop. I'm thinking two plastic washers and one wave washer from McMaster could make a good kit for the master plunger attachment point.

and what if we used a shoulder bolt up top with a fender washer and a nyloc? I think we could "dial in" the slop up top though the e0clip would be deleted.

Thoughts?

[35nhma]

Really I think the whole thing is kind of a mess. It needs so many things to be improved. For one, there seems to be a lot of flex in the pedal arm itself, and no improvements of pivots would solve this.

There are three attachment points:

The circlip attaches to the main pivot directly, which is cast into the pedal bracket (on my car at least) so there is no bolt that can easily be swapped. I'm not sure what your plan is here ...

As for the master cylinder pivot, this one actually fits well, but it wears out and requires replacing the whole pedal arm.

As for the spring pivot, this is the most egregious. That said, I'm not convinced improving this really would help to tighten the hole thing up, since there is flex in the spring regardless.

Had I known the design of the pedal was so bad I would have investigated something like this aftermarket clutch/brake kit. It's only $250.

(Tilton Dual Pedal Assy, 5 - 6.2 Ratio, Firewall Mt, Aluminum)

EH. nevermind, requires fabrication. If there was an aluminum arm with bearings that slipped onto the stock main pivot I would totally buy it though.

Do tell.

[35nhma]

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...h-Pedal-Review

https://www.masonengineering.net/pro...php?bmw_id=e36


This might be the ticket. I really wish I hadn't spent $100 on the rebuild kit. Also, the e30 has a metal clutch pedal? Like all e30's or just the M3? Hm.

[tiMASTER]

That metal pedal does look nice... I may have to grab one.

[JamesL71]

Subbed for later. Have the Mason Eng pedal + all the ancillaries from the ECS kit sitting in a box ready to go on my E36.