1943 Dodge WC51 Starter Pedal Repair

This truck has a unique starting system. You don't just turn the key to the start position and have the starter motor happily crank away. Oh, no. You push on a long rod or pedal with the tip of your right foot, press down firmly, and then the starter motor comes to life. With your foot on the pedal, it will take some coordination to use the heel of your foot to apply some throttle from the gas pedal while still  pressing the starter pedal. It takes a bit of practice. The truck is supposed to have a manual throttle cable in the cab so as to allow application of some throttle without having to get your foot onto the gas pedal, but mine is missing. It's only $35 (!) to get a new throttle cable. Someday.

The above depiction shows a rudimentary layout of the starter pedal, starter motor and switch, gas pedal, and starter gear engagement lever. The red starter pedal is pressed with the right foot, which operates the green engagement lever. Once the starter pedal is pressed far enough, the engagement lever presses the starter switch down, which powers up the starter.

The problem I had with my setup is that the cast iron mounting plate that the starter rod goes through on the firewall is what they technically call, "wallered out." This affliction caused the end of the starter rod to sit very high up under the dash, so much so that I couldn't get my big clod-hopper toe on the end button. Something had to be done. This photo below shows the starter pedal in its extended state. It's right up next to the dash brace.

I pulled the starter pedal down with a piece of wire to show where it should reside. There's not a lot of difference, but even an inch or so down would make it easier to get part of my shoe onto the button.

I pulled the starter rod and mounting plate out of the truck. These next two photos below show the wallered-out-ness of the through hole in the mounting plate.

My solution would be to get a piece of pipe, cut it down the center, then chuck it in the lathe and turn down the outside and inside to make a split bushing to take up the slop in the mounting plate.

This next photo below shows the bushing chucked up in the lathe and the outside turned down. Next will be a 7/16" hole through the center, then a few clean-up cuts using an itty bitty boring bar.

I slid the two halves of the bushing into the mounting plate and tapped them in with a drift and hammer.

It's tricky to reinstall the starter pedal because the pedal installs from inside the cab but the mounting bolts go in from the engine side of the firewall. The hard part was to keep the pedal in position while trying to fish the bolts (blue arrows) through the firewall and into the mounting plate. I finally got them though. The red, green and yellow depictions show the relation of the starter pedal, engagement lever and starter switch.

The finished product is below. It took some tweaking to get the starter pedal to move freely over its entire range of motion because I made the bushing tolerance a little too tight. If you look back to the top image, it shows that the hole in the engagement lever that accepts the starter pedal rod end swings in an arc (blue arcing arrow), so the starter pedal rod must have some amount of up/down play in the bushing so it can move a bit to allow for that arc. I actually had to shim up the bottom of the mounting plate so things would work smoothly. Before I came up with that brilliant kluge, I was thinking I'd have to take the entire mess back apart and turn a larger ID into the bushing halves.

 I can actually get my foot on the pedal now.