The Mechanic features some technical
talk every issue and welcomes member
submissions.
This issue, The Mechanic takes a look at a very
common problem for the T4 Transporter and
how to fix or prevent it from occurring.

A common
problem that
T4’s and their
owners’ suffer
from is the clutch
pedal mounting
bracket cracking.
This in turn then
causes the clutch
master cylinder
to become loose
and move. This may not be a huge problem
in the beginning, but it will eventually break
away completely, leaving you without a
working clutch in your T4 van. As well as the
damaged pedal, it can also damage the master
cylinder beyond repair and/or crack the pipe
work, covering your foot well and footwear in
corrosive brake/clutch fluid.

There is a quick
and affordable
repair/prevention
method by fitting
an additional
angled bracket
that strengthens
the existing pedal bracket. The kits are readily
available online and can be found with a quick
search. The kits contain an angled bracket, three
M8 bolts (one longer than the other two), an M8
nyloc nut and four washers (one larger than the
other three).
Fitting Guide
1 Start off under the bonnet and locate your
brake servo unit. It is the big round unit below
the brake master cylinder and brake fluid
reservoir.
2 Remove the M8 bolt (13mm head) from
the lower right side of your brake servo and
replace it with the longest of the three M8
bolts supplied in the kit, along with the largest
M8 washer.
3 Now move inside the car and into the driver’s
foot well. Locate your clutch master cylinder,
located between the clutch and brake pedals
and remove the two M8 mounting bolts
(13mm heads).
4 Place the new clutch pedal support bracket
into position, ensuring that it goes over the
protruding bulkhead bolt you first fitted. Now
loosely fit the bracket to the clutch master
cylinder using the two remaining M8 bolts
and small M8 washers supplied in the kit with
your support bracket.
5 Now fit the other small M8 washer and M8
nyloc nut to the longer bulkhead bolt you
fitted earlier and tighten.
6 Now tighten the two clutch master cylinder
bolts you fitted loosely earlier.
7 Job complete. Enjoy a strong clutch pedal
and relax knowing that this failure has been
repaired or prevented