Accelerator pedal hard to press

Saloons
1

I have a 1967 Mk 2 and it seems to me that the accelerator pedal is hard to press and get a smooth take off(manual car). Any ideas it almost seems like it has a strong return spring, but I can’t see one. Thanks

2

A hard-to-depress accelerator pedal may be due to a number of possible failure points. (BTW there are many variants that Jaguar used for accelerator pedals, so try and get a diagram of the one relevant to your year.)

  1. the pedal bottom pivots on a pin bolt that passes through a bracket on the floor pan and this could be rusted or stuck in some way
  2. the top of the pedal is attached to an L-shaped shaft lever that passes through the sheet metal of the transmission tunnel and this could be stuck; bearings on this shaft may be damaged/rusted/etc
  3. the control rod linkage to the carbs could be stuck in some way

There is a return spring but it is affixed to the carb housing and should not be causing a stiff pedal action.

As a start, I suggest disconnecting the pedal from the top L-shaped lever shaft and see if the shaft can be easily moved. If it can be, then work back to the pedal itself. If the shaft doesn’t move freely, then investigate “upstream” towards the carbs.

The system uses rather simple mechanical linkages, so you can diagnose the issue by looking at sub-segments of the entire assembly.

3

As a start I would try WD40 on all the joints on the mechanism .
Have you had the car long ?
Someone may have put the wrong return spring on , or in the wrong place , you could unhook it and see how much diffrence it makes ,

4

I have had the Mk 2 since October. I had thought of spraying WD40 over the linkages and pivot points, so will go ahead with this to start with. I can’t find a return spring on the linkage. I was of the understanding that it did not have a seperate return spring to the carburettors, could be wrong

5

Most set up’s have a return spring , anchor point is bolted to the oil filter housing , if it has not been removed 76 in the diagram 75 is the return spring , if the 74 spring is wrong that could make a diffrence too !

20200120_040514
20200120_040514826×465 72.3 KB

6

Thanks for the information. I’ll check it out

7

Thanks for your help with this. Both springs(74 & 75) were wrong, the pedal is a lot lighter now and I have more feel in the accelerator , it’s great

1 Like