A Story, Then a Question

[JFT]

This happened so long ago that I’d pretty much forgotten about it. But as I’ve been on the hunt for a nice ’02, it came back into my mind and I thought I might run it past the ’02 community for – I don’t know – comment, maybe?

This was probably 1971, ’72 or so. I was on my way home from work one afternoon in my ’68 1602, heading up Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance toward the northbound 405 – all this a bit south of downtown Los Angeles.

Light in front of me turned red. Traffic in front of me slowed, on its way to stopping. Me, too: I put my foot on the brake pedal. To my horror, the pedal box fell out the bottom of the car. It was held dangling there just by hydraulic tubes and connecting lines. I wasn’t going terribly fast, obviously, heavy afternoon traffic – and used the parking brake to get the thing stopped without any bent sheetmetal or crushed bumpers.

When the light turned green, I pussyfooted through the intersection, pulled into a gas station that with luck was there on the corner, and gave the guy there a couple of bucks to let me put the car up on the rack, have a look-see.

What I found was that all eight bolts that hold the pedal box to the floor had backed out of their threads. They were all still in place in the pedal box, but had magically all backed out of the threads in the floor. All were still present in the pedal box, standing proud by the same amount.

I always carried tools; still do. So I bolted the thing back in place with my handy-dandy quarter-inch socket set and drove on home, proud of myself for being able to fix what could have been a real mess. Thought the whole deal was mighty curious, but then went on with life and didn’t give the incident another thought, until, as mentioned, recently.

I’d had no work done on the car that would have involved removal of, or service to, the pedal box. That leaves – well, a really long shot of quirky bad luck, or something else.

Now, all these years later, I know what I think but it’s been bugging me – and so, here’s the question: What do you folks think? Ever heard of anything like this happening?

And yes, this is indeed a true story.

[skipsfcr]

I don't know who you pissed off but somebody with a knowledge of 2002's was trying to kill you!

[john_a]

What I found was that all eight bolts that hold the pedal box to the floor had backed out of their threads. They were all still in place in the pedal box, but had magically all backed out of the threads in the floor. All were still present in the pedal box, standing proud by the same amount.

>>>>>

I’d had no work done on the car that would have involved removal of, or service to, the pedal box. That leaves – well, a really long shot of quirky bad luck, or something else.

Now, all these years later, I know what I think but it’s been bugging me – and so, here’s the question: What do you folks think? Ever heard of anything like this happening?

Wow, that's an odd & scary experience !

Now what I don't get, is how you say the fasteners had only backed out, and in fact you refer to the threads in the floor. That is sounding like you found your pedal box bolts installed from the bottom. I've never seen any 02 like that, or should say I can't recall seeing even an early car that had pedal box bolts that screwed into the floor.

From my best recollection, all the 02 body style had the floor the same around the pedal box, but here is where I could be wrong if your story is accurate, I'm sure someone will recognize they can confirm the '68 1602 had a different floor setup.

The usual 02 pedal box has the bolts pass thru holes in the floor (around the perimeter of the large opening) and those bolts screw into weld nuts (IIRC) on the box itself. This would not allow the box to fall down further if the bolts did back out some, but not all the way.

Curious to see if there is confirmation the 1968 was really different.

How did it come loose? Either it was never installed properly at the plant, or there was a subsequent repair where it was not tightened properly. I've not ever seen an untouched pedal box assembly get loose, even the sealant used at the joint tends to jam the fasteners, and the cap screws themselves are the self-tapping type IIRC..

OK, I just looked at the ETK and it appears the 1968 may have used different fasteners, the pedal box appears to use sheet metal screws, but they look to be install from the inside, so I still think the floor just has clearance holes that the screw passes thru..

The more I type, the more I realize I don't know what the 1968 was like, so hopefully someone else can help.

[JFT]

Nope, on this car - and for obvious reasons, I remember this clearly - the pedal box was bolted in from the bottom, with the threaded nuts on the floor pan itself.

[john_a]

Nope, on this car - and for obvious reasons, I remember this clearly - the pedal box was bolted in from the bottom, with the threaded nuts on the floor pan itself.

Probably BMW had good reason to abandon that design, and the 02's then went to the more common "bolts, from the inside" strategy.

Yeah, the catalog shows sheet metal screws for the '68 (same as hold the coil bracket on the inner fender.) If they had sheet metal screws, they would have no real machine nuts welded, but that's not what you're describing.. wonder if there was more variations than what the catalog shows.

I've not owned an 1968 02 in such a long time, I can't say what my old car had.

[MrNvgtr]

A somewhat more common occurrence are all 5 or 6 (can't check right now) half shaft bolts loosening and causing a catastrophic separation. Not exactly simultaneously, as one of the bolts, in my case, tried to hold for a revolution or so. I thought this was kind of strange but its happened to a few others here. Lesson learned is to check them every once in a while. Seems to be isolated to half shafts that have been previously separated for maintenance work of some kind.

[SteveJ]

That only happens after you've been doing donuts in the parking lot over and over. Centrifical force causes the screws to unwind. The sollution is to just do an equal number of donuts in the opposite direction.

At least, this is what we tell our car clinic students after running the skidpad over and over in one direction.

[FunElan]

Wow! I know exactly where that is! What color was your 1602?

-Matt

[JFT]

Matt, that great old car was Sahara, with a saddle-tan interior. Wish to hell I knew if it survived, and, if so, where it is today.