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Maybe I meant the Beetle parts rather than system, but it's difficult to compare without being familiar with both sets of pedal clusters. I'm very much in agreement - I can't quite understand why the LHD components are the shape they are, when the RHD looks fine to me. ;-) Didn't the Model T Ford have a funny pedal arrangement? Yes, I'm sure we Brits could have managed odd arrangements of pedals no problem. ;-) OTOH, I do recall sitting in the National car garage at Newark NJ trying to work out why I could start the car but not shift it into anything. I had the parking brake on, but wasn't holding the foot brake down. D'oh! Then when we drove off, the lights came on automatically, so it took another minute or so to work out you can't turn them off anyway! I guess you guys know that sort of thing from the cradle. However when it came to 'rotaries', no problem for me, as we have loads of them. Shame everyone seems to be putting traffic lights on them to ruin the free-flowing traffic they allow. I guess too many people just can't cope with judging relative speeds and rights of way. The 4-way stop seems to be particularly curious, in light of Brian's question as to who goes first if a Police car, an ambulance, a Post Office van and you arrive simultaneously at a 4-way stop. I hope he passed the Oregon driving test OK. Dave. UK VW Type 3 & 4 Club http://www.hallvw.clara.co.uk/ ------ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Adney" <jadney@vwtype3.org> To: <type3@vwtype3.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 2:51 AM Subject: Re: [T3] Clutch cable > On 12 Oct 2004 at 9:49, Dave Hall wrote: > > > I hadn't realised just how different the LHD and RHD pedal assemblies are until > > I looked at the exploded pictures. I assumed we had broadly similar mechanisms > > but maybe different spacing due to using the same sequence of pedals on opposite > > sides of the tunnel. In reality, the RHD clutch cable hook is on the single > > piece of tube the pedal is also welded to, while the LHD pedal detaches from the > > end of the much thinner operating shaft. Very surprising. It almost looks as > > if they went to great lengths to retain the Beetle system for LHD. From '72 > > models they even went back to an earlier Beetle clutch pedal shaft with a 111 > > number. Very curious! > > Sounds like this is very much a matter of perspective. To me at least, the LHD > version looks simple and straightforward. The RHD version looks complex and > cobbled, and I have a hard time figuring out what they are doing with some of > those parts. > > It is certainly harder that these parts aren't just mirror images of each > other. One wonders why this is so. I'm sure that you Brits could have grown up > working the gas pedal with your left foot just as easily, as long as that was > the way it had always been over there. > > > I suspect the 111 shaft came back in when they went back to longer arms on the > pedal shaft and the throwout bearing shaft. Early beetles must have used longer > arms there, too, so they just recycled the part. It gives me a lot of respect > for the engineers there, since it's generally much easier for the engineer to > just design a new part, rather than bother to dig thru old designs to see if an > appropriate design already exists. > > -- > ******************************* > Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org > Madison, Wisconsin, USA > ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~