As you all probably know the focus lacks a little respect in the gas pedal region. for some reason ford designed a mount for the throttle cable about one half inch to far, which results in a gas pedal that does not even line up with the brake. Essentially this mod raises the gas pedal flush with the brake, but in doing this increases throttle response. I could not believe the difference when i drove it. I have driven on many auto-x's and alot of hard driving. I always felt that something was missing felt very sloppy in the pedal region. Clutch will fix the clutch pedal. Brembo brakes tighten brake pedal. If you have this issue here is the mod for you....



Time:15-20 mins

Skill Level: Beginner

Cost: $0.88-$2.00

Supplies:

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4392/frecq1.jpg (http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us)
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4392/frecq1.e7811f0f3d.jpg (http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fg.imageshack.us%2Fg.php%3Fh%3D516%26i%3Dfrecq1.jpg)

1. One Half inch piece of 3/8 inch plumbing or gas rubber hose. Yellow in picture

(This can be found at Local Hardware stores in the plumbing section. I got mine at lowes they only sell it by like 15 feet intervals so i asked the guy and he cut me off a piece. be nice and they should help [headbang] )

2. One 3/8 inch hose clamp. Red in picture

(These can be found in the same section. usually like 88 cents for a pack of two. If you buy an inch of tube you get an extra clamp so you can help a fellow focusfanatic at the next meet) [ffrocks] .


Tools:

1. Scissors
2. Screwdriver
3. Ruler


Instructions:

1. Start by taking your hose and measuring to make sure you have one half inch no more no less. Take the scissors and stick one blade in the hole of the hose and cut it straight down long ways. so you can fit a cable in it.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2313/123oa7.jpg (http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us)

2: Start by finding a good way to sit on the ground so you can fit your head under the steering wheel you need to see up under the gas pedal ( i have drawn a blue arrow at it in the above picture) Look there and you will see the spring that gives tension to your gas pedal. if you grab the spring looking thing and pull you will see the pedal go up and there will be cable between the plastic mount and the spring. This is where you slide the rubber hose on through the hole you cut in it. (as you can see it is already on in the picture there is an orange arrow pointing at it.)

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/7868/1000793nc0.jpg (http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us)


3. After you have the hose creating a space between the throttle spring and the mount then you get out your hose clamp. The hose clamp will ensure that the rubber piece will not fall out as it will be getting pressure when you hit the gas. Basically slide it so its covering the rubber hose and not over any of the spring. follow by tightening the clamp until it is at a good tightness not to much but snug.

4. Enjoy a much more responsive throttle pedal [cheers]


Comments: READ!!

The only thing i can not stress enough about this mod is when you do this don't get in the car and floor the pedal. This mod does add more pressure on the accelerator cable and could break if you hit the gas to hard. Feel it out and be gentle until you get a feel for how hard you can go down to hit wot.
Im not responsible for any damage that you may cause to your car by doing this mod


With that being said Enjoy fellow Fanatics [loveff]

Nice write-up...I guess I won't bother taking pics of this mod that I just did since you did a great job yourself!

thank you thank you thank you. I completely understand what ppl are talking about now. Will be doin this on mon or tuesday

Nice! I would also say that you can just use a few small zip ties. I did that and it seems to have worked just as well.

Great write up. Thanks for the pics as well. This drives me crazy it you try to heel-toe shift-brake especially if your a long in the legs like I am.

BTW, the word is PEDAL not petal [:)]

I have to try this. Good Job.

ehhh, i love the location of the PEDALS from the factory. it provides excellent heel-toe shifting. and you say that damage can occur if you smack the pedal to the floor too hard?
are you making sure that the throttle is actually opening and closing completely?

i'll sticky this for a while and see how many hits you get. if you get alot, ill ask Chad to add it to our archive. but if not and this mod is deemed faulty, i cant help ya.


ooh, and i fixed the petals

Interesting mod...

Spelling was never my strong point [clap]

To answer the questions what i was trying to say about damaging the car is i was worried some 16 year old with a heavy foot would slam the gas as hard as he could and snap the line. If you do the mod you can feel that it is not giving to much tension. For the right drivers this is very safe.

If it didn't close completely it would not idle like usual and it does, and the car felt a little bit faster at wot so its opening more than before i think. I am assuming the floor stopped the petal before. If you still wanna try it maybe try 1/4 inch instead just to feel it out. This mod is reallly worth trying i love it

and the car felt a little bit faster at wot so its opening more than before i think.

rubber tubing adds more horsepower than flame decals, haha, just messin :-P

as much as i doubt this mod opens the throttle significantly more than stock and makes the car faster, i still think this is a worthwhile mod to check out purely for heel-toe accessibility...although since the mod i am actually finding it more difficult, haha

hmm, I may have to try this. I will wait until summer when its a bit warmer out tho. Still, very nice write up!

oh i found that the easiest way to line up the clutch even with the brakes is to pull out the clutch return spring under teh dash.(found this in a tech thread when one guys's spring broke. i might try both now jsut to see whats up,lol. good saturday project.

I call this good. I'm gonna do the mod... maybe TONIGHT!

...it's 1 am...


Maybe TONIGHT! =D

LOL!!!
If it didn't close completely it would not idle like usual and it does, and the car felt a little bit faster at wot so its opening more than before i think. I am assuming the floor stopped the petal before. If you still wanna try it maybe try 1/4 inch instead just to feel it out. This mod is really worth trying i love it
open the throttle more than before? how the heck can you do that? it stops once the butterfly is perpendicular to the TB. if you were to "open" the throttle more than that, you would essentially be closing it back up. but this isnt able to be done due to the stopper that is on the TB bracketry.
this mod will NOT make your car faster at WOT.

peDal[thumb]

Thanks to those of you who supported this idea and tried it out for themselves.

scrammer: LOL!!!! You are wrong! You really need to think before you type. After time the spring on the throttle cable will weaken just the nature of the beast. Putting less resistance on the throttle cable could cause the cable to not allow the TB to hit WOT. This spacer ensures the cable is being pulled tight. If you wanna try the mod do it. If not why are you even posting in the thread?? Being that your a moderator I would expect you would be supportive of new ideas, and try something before shooting you mouth off and making yourself look silly and ignorant. Btw if there is a stopper in the TB that does not allow it to over open then you proved me right thanks

This was a mod that a lot of people wanted a How To made on, so for those people good luck with it pm with questions if anyone has any.

-chad


PEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDAL

cool

i love new ideas.
i just believe that yours isnt as executed as well as others. thats all. good effort though[thumb]

i not once shot off my mouth. you sir, are calling me out. in which makes you look silly and ignorant.
why am i posting in this thread? im the only moderator in this forum. its my job to keep tabs on new how-to's as well as many other issues that arise.

this thread is not to argue with other members. it is to discuss your mod.
so please, keep this thread on topic[thumb]

so what this does is pinch the trottle cable before the spring, so that the spring is not doing anything anynore?

ehhh, i love the location of the PEDALS from the factory. it provides excellent heel-toe shifting
probably because yours is an SVT, so the gas pedal is already positioned differently from a zx3

Did this mod today. No cash spent, pretty pleased with the results.

It does give a false sense of "responsiveness" and I'm sure it would make more of a difference for folks with stretched cables, but I just like the way the pedal feels now... much more natural, being level with the other three. There's no telling if flooring it previously put it at WOT, but it feels a bit easier to get there now, and I can tell for sure when I'm there.

Definitely an Interior Mods deal though, no real performance gains... just a neat cheap little thing to do to give your Fofo a new feel.

This spirited driver likes where his pedals are located as well...though I do see the point of at least checking that "flooring" the gas pedal is actually giving you WOT at the business end of the cable (i.e, the throttle body). If nothing else, looking into doing this modification will ensure your car is doing what it's supposed to be doing.

Would you all say this would be pretty lame to do on an ATX? But like stated, what if my cable is stretched and doesn't obtain full WOT? Maybe I'll try it when in the shop this weekend.





go ku

I think if i do this im going to hold the pedal to the floor and cut the hose to just long enough to fill the gap in the cable when the pedal is touching the carpet. hopefully its an even trade-off with better pedal feel and not being able to snap the cable.

so what this does is pinch the trottle cable before the spring, so that the spring is not doing anything anynore?


no it works more like a spacer between the bracket and the spring don't tighten it to much still needs to move in there.

probably because yours is an SVT, so the gas pedal is already positioned differently from a zx3

not everyone is blessed with an svt [?|]

no it works more like a spacer between the bracket and the spring don't tighten it to much still needs to move in there.
ok, cool. i would disagree with this if it took the spring out of the equation, but now i might try it
not everyone is blessed with an svt [?|]
my point exactly

LOL!!!

open the throttle more than before? how the heck can you do that? it stops once the butterfly is perpendicular to the TB. if you were to "open" the throttle more than that, you would essentially be closing it back up. but this isnt able to be done due to the stopper that is on the TB bracketry.
this mod will NOT make your car faster at WOT.

peDal[thumb]

Is there a stopper on the stock SVT TB? I'll have to take a look at mine when I get home. I know the CFM one doesn't have one and it is possible to turn the plate past WOT.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is true or not so someone will have to confirm, I think there is already a way to adjust the throttle cable to adjust the slack that this mod removes.

CaysE, i had my upper intake off as well as the TB this weekend. the CFM TB does in fact pass WOT. buuuut when it is installed to the manifold, the bracketry of the throttle cables acts as a stopper for the TB.
get under the hood and move the TB as far as it will go. notice that the tb bracket hits the brack on the manifold. this is the stopper.
i had my boy sit in the car with the pedal to as far as it will go. the brackets hit each other and the TB was at WOT.

i dont know if this concept of design is used on the normal zetex

in the pic above, you can see where the 2 have made love a few times.
in the pic i am holding the TB bracket almost WOT, you can see where the bracket on the manifold is scratched from being hit at WOT.

Ahh, ok cool. Good pic. [:)]

eek, maybe not a good idea to do this mod...i was plagues with sticking throttle body syndrome today...related? not positive, but seems likely

^^no comment[nono]