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Gas pedal too low to heal-toe

5K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Bayareamk1 
#1 ·
Recently got my '85 running after original owner parked it 3 years ago. One of the first trips to the real world I swung by a Snake River SCCA autocross.
There were several fairly long straights that I envisioned topping out 2nd gear. Being cautious with the new car, I'd likely look for 3rd gear.
Problem: My gas pedal is way too low to give the gas a blip shifting down to 2nd while braking.
Is this a common problem, or just my car? What might be the fix? Cable may be a bit stretched as there is about 1/4" of pedal input before the cable moves. At WOT, the linkage in the back says that is all there is to give.
This forum is pretty silent but hope someone is listening.
First MR2, so I still have a lot to learn.
Thanks,
 
#3 · (Edited)
I only own a MKII, but I do want to share that I originally thought the gas pedal was wayy too low when I tried heeltoeing in my car the first few times. I even considered trying to modify the pedal to be higher since it felt miles away. Instead of doing that, I eventually just found a way to make it work with technique adjustment. My not-small feet and combat boots combined with the MKII's pedal spacing definitely played into it.

I stopped trying to pivot out from the ball of my foot to then blip the throttle with the underside of my foot/heel area, and I instead started to brake only with the left side of my foot and then roll my foot from the edge of the brake pedal to blip the throttle with the right side of my foot. This now works for me in this car whether I'm downshifting with blips to the redline and braking hard, or downshifting at lower rpms with gentle braking. I have enough precision to do it effortlessly without any lack of desired control over both braking modulation and throttle rev intensity. The pedal is obviously still just as far back as it ever had been before, but it now feels like it's right where it ought to be. This leads me to think that sometimes it can be a matter of personal adjustment, even when pedal placement seems unusable at first.

With all of that said, I don't know how much it'll apply here. Something may well be amiss, and the aforementioned cable adjustment even sounds like it could be the culprit. Either way, best of luck figuring it out.
 
#4 ·
My perceived desire to grab 3rd would be my reluctance to bring the engine to red line in 2nd. This perception come from one view of the course as laid out on that particular day.
If/when I get out there on the track and find myself desiring 3rd, a hard braking action and shift to 2nd with out the gas blip 'could' be a fairly hairy proposition. I know I want to be into the throttle (2nd) soon after finishing the braking and leaning into the turn.
Cable adjustment: Is this in the engine bay? I see the cable running through a bracket and a couple lock nuts. Some adjustment seems available with threads on both sides of the lock nuts.
 
#5 ·
Green Ghost: I agree, that a true 'heal' portion of Heal-Toe is not in the cards. I gave a 'side of foot-toe' braking a try and the gap down to the pedal is just to far away. Double E width shoes my get 'er done. Alas, I'm a D shoe.
I'll futz with the cable adjustment. Failing that, cold-torquing the pedal rod may get it done. But I'll need to mind the throttle stop. I don't want to pull the cable apart at a fitting.
 
#6 ·
Regarding the cable adjustment, you can adjust the nuts holding it to the throttle bracket to pick up some of the slack in the cable. I'm not saying there won't be courses that won't require 3rd, but most courses will be setup in such a way that you're better off just staying in 2nd. The stock car should top out ~55 mph when you hit the rev limiter, so don't be afraid to run up against that when on course. If you hit it 3+ times, it may be necessary to go to 3rd if there's enough additional straight to warrant it.
 
#7 ·
Make sure the throttle cable has minimal slack. After that you can lower the brake pedal, there is adjustment under the dash. I had to do this on my '87 and now it is quite easy to heal toe downshift. Check the BGB for specs and make sure you still have enough pedal reserve distance to be safe, and of course careful testing is in order after.

I also changed my master to a larger (15/16?, from sw20) bore, which helped even more by reducing the pedal travel required (and increasing pedal force)... not sure if that is allowed in your class, if not you can still make some drastic improvement by adjusting the pedal. I can't remember ever needing 3rd in an autocross around here, but once we had a corner tight enough that I saved time going down to first.
 
#10 ·
I know the Brake pedal is supposed to be higher on ATX cars, but not sure how close in parallel (height wise) the gas pedal is supposed to be in comparison to brake pedal on MTX cars.

Best thing to do would be to look up the FSM, check the tolerance/clearance of the pedals, establish a factory baseline, and then start to modify.

You want to make sure nobody else has already messed with the pedals.

I'm not sure if you have Cruise. But, Auto-Drive cables are less responsive and have more slack in them in comparison to Non-Auto cables. It's very common on 4AGE AE86's to ditch CC for this reason. May not apply to AW11's, but they are very similar chassis; especially in respect to motor/trans.

Thanks.
 
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