What is the right way to install the brake and clutch pedals?
Checking free play, a picture from TM 9-803 shows the correct pedal orientation (rounded side to the outside). We all know that this is the correct way to install the pedals but check out the picture below…
Picture from the Winterization Field Kit instruction manual, shows the pedals with the rounded part oriented toward the inside. This clearly demonstrates the pedals isntalled “wrong”. Why would they do this? One person recently purchased my book, Winter and the Willys MB/Ford GPW just for this picture! It was evidence for him as to why his pedals were installed they way they were.
Consulting the Winterization Field Kit instruction manual, however, offers up no solutions. The pedals are not mentioned in the manual. But it is obvious that the pedals have been altered. How do you do this? Can it be as simple as installing the right pedal in the wrong hole? No, but you can take the pedal and drive a pin out that holds the pedal to the shaft and then rotate it and reinstall a pin. That’s according to Jim Gilmore.
Jim also says that this might have been done to help keep the drivers boots from slipping off the pedals. Anyone, have any clear evidence on this?
Picture Sources: TM 9-803 and Winterization Field Kit WKT100