Urq Clutch/Firewall Repair by Wolff Bloss

Look at the photos below. Can you spot the difference between the left photo and the right? If you can see the clutch master cylinder poking out and down about an inch, then you see it. This is a really bad thing. 20 years of stiff clutch finally cracked the firewall all the way around the MC. Being somewhat lazy as far as automobile repair goes, I wanted a repair that was easy to implement. I'll take some slight credit for the design since I wanted to repair it from the engine side so I wouldn't have to stand on my head under the dash to do it. The steering rack mount looked like a solid place to brace against so I asked Jeff if he thought it would work. Jeff took it from there and did some mock ups followed by a prototype that went on to his car and then last Saturday he came over with a "final" version for my car. Heck, he even installed it for me. What a bro! The installation was very easy. We took off the cruise pump for access, then unbolted the MC, but left it hanging. We took out the steering rack mount bolts which is super easy. No need to even take the wheel off, although jacking up the driver's side a bit helped to reach the rack bolts. As I recall the rack bolts were long enough to reuse, but the MC bolts had to be a touch longer. The bracket was simply bolted between the firewall and the MC and the inner fender and the rack. The clutch needed no bleeding since the hoses weren't disconnected. The only thing I had to do under the dash was to pull the clutch pedal back up past the over-center spring after the MC was loosened. The bracket works great. I can't imagine that it will ever fail again in my lifetime.

Jeff intends to produce the brackets so others can enjoy the benefit of this easy solution to a tough problem. Thanks again Jeff and can I get another bracket for my 4kq for use as a preventative measure _before_ the firewall cracks?

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Below is the trick bracket Jeff made for me.	Jeff's '82 is the backdrop for this shot.
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Bottom/rack side of bracket barely visible here.	It's hard to see but the bracket is in.
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Check out the trick aluminum Audi script and quattro script that Jeff made. I hope he starts selling these.
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