The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Pedal Arms

As I am well over 6 feet tall the cab in the 49 is very tight. Getting to the pedals requires me twisting my leg around the steering column jus to get to the brake. Somebody suggested that I might be able to shorten the pedal arms to make life easier. I notice the pedals stop about 4" from the toe board and thought it might work.
I know that there must be some sort of formula from the engineers as to why the arms are the length they are. Or is it just happenstance? If I could get 2-3" off the arms it would help but I do not want to screw up the pedal action geometry.

Sedge, the engineers had to design for “Everyman”, personally I would cut 1 inch out tack it in place and see how it works if you like it do the final weld. If not then cut another 1 inch. Pedal assemblies are not made of unobtainium so if it doesn’t work out find an original set and go back stock. Just my 2 cents. 🛠

Sounds good. Thanks.

An issue may arise one day where you will need ALL of the pedal travel for an emergency stop, such as if you were to have a partial failure in the master cylinder, or have a small leak in the system suddenly become a larger leak.
As far as the cutch pedal is concerned, you have a large range of adjustment available which you can work with if you shorten the pedal shaft. You may have to adjust your clutch travel adjuster more often since you have less travel length available with the shorter pedal shaft.
P.S. You bigguns were relegated to riding in the bed, back in the day.
Carl

I cut the brake pedal shaft down to the same position as the clutch on every truck I get. It makes it much more comfortable & safer too. I keep the brakes adjusted well. If I need that extra fraction of master cyl travel I'm already in deep do-do.
George

Thank you for all the replies. Just to clarify I am referring to the pedal arms in the cab which have the pedals attached. I think you all understood that but in case someone else comments they will understand.

I have shortened the pedal pad arm. Just like Martin describes. Cutting off the pedal pad, shortening arm and welding pad back on does not affect the geometry, but be aware of travel as Carl says. (pedal hitting the floor). Tilt wheel and moving seat back really helps also.

FYI: Because of the curvature of some pedal pad arms, you may have to change the angle of pad when welding it back on to the shortened arm, so as to get the same attitude.

If you ever have troubles with brakes, use your ebrake. Keep the trigger pulled all the time and use it like a hand foot brake. This goes for any vehicle, old or new. If ebrake has a pedal and a lever. Hold lever and use pedal as a brake pedal. In other words, keep the ratchet dog pulled so it does not lock the brakes. You can drive home like that. It works in an emergency as a (wait for it)....... emergency brake!. As opposed to parking brake mode.

Don't need no stinking master cylinder. Drive it like a stagecoach!

It would offset the pedal about 3/8" but you could cut it and drill a couple SMALL holes in arm and keep moving it down till you find the sweet spot then weld it up and even weld the small hole..........probably not the best but if you don't have a welder then do what you have to....folks have done worse things!!!

Hope i’m not too late for my 2 cents. So this is what I would attempt. Cut 3 or 4” out of the pedal stem 2” below the pad. Slide a pipe over the pedal side stem and weld it solid. The pipe should be some where around 6” long. Drill 1/4” holes in the pipe at 1” spaceings. Now also drill one set of holes in the lower pedal stem. Slide your new adjustable pedal system together and insert either a bolt or a roll pin. The pipe will need to have a slight curve in it to match the pedal stem. Have fun.

Good idea for adjustability but you would need to make sure the pipe sleeve doesn't hit the floorboard. The hole in the floorboard is sized for the pedal shaft.