Sloppy Rear Brake Pedal and Slotted Clevis Fix - 2001 EC200
 

As I searched the forums, looking for answers to my sloppy rear brake pedal and I saw a lot of frustration and fabrication going on with the GG rear brake pedal. It seems like a lot of people fight sloppy pedals and dont like the slotted clevis pin. There are some good threads talking about modifying YX or KX pedals and a host of aftermarket, expensive clevises. I have stumbled on an insanely easy fix:

1. For the pedal slop, replace the stock brake pedal pivot bushing with the one from Checkpoint Offroad (http://checkpointoff-road.com/store.html) part number 5007, $23 bucks, arrived in 3 days. Besides being 303 stainless, the flange on the bushing is about 3mm compared to the stock 1mm. This translates into shifting the pedal out away from the case, which for me was huge! I used a stainless washer on the outside that fit perfectly over the bushing and allowed the pedal to snug up nicely. Upon torqueing the pedal pivot nut, there was ZERO slop. Just perfect linear travel. AWESOME!

2. Now the really good part. I hated the slotted clevis, and I know there must be a reason for this design, but I just dont like the feel. My 2002 KDX220 sitting right beside my EC has no slot in the clevis, and looked to be a perfect fit. The clevis was $40+ from the web, and the best I could find on e-bay was around $40 for the whole assembly. I also looked into all the trick aluminum clevises from Zeta, Fasst, Ride, Hammerhead, etc. Of course none for GG and again some comments on the forums about buying them and modifying them for fit. Frustrating. Now the epiphany! I was talking to my maintenance supervisor at work, and showed him the pedal, looking for ideas to take the slop out of the stock clevis. We were ready to weld washers on each side, when he asked me what size the brake rod was that goes into the clevis. Why M8 I told him. He smiled headed to the parts crib and came back with this little piece of heaven. It is Festo Part Number 3111, SGM8 Rod Clevis (http://www.festo.com/pnf/en-us_us/pr...ry=US&key=3111 ). We use it on hundreds of powerful, very high duty cycle (6000 strokes a day) Festo air cylinders in our assembly plant, AND IT COST $4!!! I saw one on e-bay sell for $2!!!. The damn thing threaded right on my brake rod, tightened up the jam nut, and viola, NO MORE SLOP. Super firm pedal, great transfer of power, and one very happy GG owner!!! It also comes with a pretty trick snap on clevis pin. I might replace this with a cotter pin type, but for now it looks and feels great! The part is available in galvanized steel or stainless (PN 13568). I have the galvanized one, so I will report back this summer on the durability. I am confident it will rock!

Attached are pics of the two clevises side by side, and the set up on my bike. I see several people have gone away from the frame mount return spring to the master cylinder rod mounted return spring kits. I will add this next, but for now the frame to pedal spring is working fine.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need more pics or info!

Happy Trails! Mike

Great post.

Is there a 6mm one for the newer bikes too?

Good post mlyle. That rear tyre still looks like it needs some dirt on it mate! :D

If I send you a fiver, will you send me a clevis? Also, I am a little concerned about the clip on style pin. I can see a little bit of brush getting tangled up in the pedal and flicking the safety, thereby allowing the pin to fall out. What are your thoughts on that? You work with that clevis, will that spring/friction pin holder last in the brush?

safety wire the clip - would stop all issues...

The checkpoint part is nice and a much tighter fit. As far as the clevis, the only way to eliminate wear/slop is to eliminate the steel pin/aluminum hole interface. This wears out very fast. I did this, has worked well. Pedal now has a hard steel shoulder bolt fixed to it, that rides in clevis slot that is now inboard. Steel on steel, almost no wear and feel stays the same:

Keg - There is a 6MM clevis as well. PN is 3110. That is the smallest, also available in Stainless. They get bigger from there, on up to extra bignormous!
Jakobi - Thanks! I plan on breaking the engine in today, so it will be a little dirty, farm field round and round stuff. Woods on Sunday :)
pscook - Wish I could "remarket" them, but inventory in my plant is pretty tight. You can set up an account at Festo, or just google SG-M8 Clevis and you will find all kinds of remarketers.
Stainless - I will safety wire the clip in. Great idea! I am also very irratated that I rebuilt this bike without stainless fasteners! What was I thinking! Plan to order a kit, sure would have save time from cleaning and wire brushing all the bolts!

Another quick note on the Festo clevis: The distance between the inside face of the clevis (where the pedal fits in) is just about perfect. Very little side to side slop. Much tighter than the OEM unit, but still enough movement to be far away from any binding.

Found one on ebay, looks right. Price is appropriate for a test. Thanks for the heads up!

could you post a link.. i could not find... thanks

This looks to be the same thing. Check the details in the posting, toward the bottom of the listing. Shows all the dimensions, so you can make sure it fits your bike. Apparetnly they use these with trailers, gus struts, air cyclinders etc.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gas-Spring-S...03b3c4&vxp=mtr

In ebay, I searched under M8 Clevis. If your hunting an M6, I found this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Festo-SG-M-6...item1c1dfbdde6

Lots of hits on google, using the same terms, but mostly industrial suppliers. Could be hard to set up an individual ordering account. Grainger, MSC, or Mcmaster-Carr, Festenal, may have something similar, although I know they do not carry any Festo parts.