Deformed center tunnel on 850 spider

[BarKoNY]

Hi, everyone. New member here. Wondering if anyone has had to deal with the forward end of the 850 spider center tunnel when it gets deformed from overly aggressive foot action on the clutch pedal when the bushings in the pedal axle or cable bell crank wear out. My car's clutch actuation was severely compromised when I bought it, and looking under the console revealed a lot of bent sheet metal. I have a parts car that has smooth actuation and shows how things got bent and moved around by earlier owner(s), so it can act as a pattern. Check out the big threaded rod that someone tried to shore things up with, and I started to use the "coupler/threaded rod/washers/nut repair" on the bell crank, but the tool access hole on the right is buggered up. Note the length of heater hose someone added, which also takes up space down there.

Does anyone think it would be reasonable to cut the front of the tunnel out of my parts car and weld it in place of the bent one? It's nice and straight, and the original heater tube is intact.

 

[kmead]

This is not unusual. A couple of members recently actually went through fixing there’s.

It may not be necessary to actually change what you have but to actually fix what is there and prevent it from happening again.

The previous repair shown in your PDF didn’t include a spacer to keep the elements properly spaced apart and lower down to transfer the load of the bell crank to the opposite side.

I will try to find the references to the recent repairs here on the forum.

 

[kmead]

L

Hi, everyone. New member here. Wondering if anyone has had to deal with the forward end of the 850 spider center tunnel when it gets deformed from overly aggressive foot action on the clutch pedal when the bushings in the pedal axle or cable bell crank wear out. My car's clutch actuation was severely compromised when I bought it, and looking under the console revealed a lot of bent sheet metal. I have a parts car that has smooth actuation and shows how things got bent and moved around by earlier owner(s), so it can act as a pattern. Check out the big threaded rod that someone tried to shore things up with, and I started to use the "coupler/threaded rod/washers/nut repair" on the bell crank, but the tool access hole on the right is buggered up. Note the length of heater hose someone added, which also takes up space down there.

Does anyone think it would be reasonable to cut the front of the tunnel out of my parts car and weld it in place of the bent one? It's nice and straight, and the original heater tube is intact.

Looks like Frank found you in the other thread. There is another forum post that goes a little further into it than Frank’s initial response.