Affordable and Readily Available Clutch Safety Switch Alternative

[Dmod1974]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one in this boat - but I couldn't see myself spending several hundred dollars on a failure prone and hard to find factory clutch switch nor did I want to not have one at all.

Hopefully this helps some people out.  The aftermarket switch I am using is Keep it Clean 11107 ($20 on Amazon with Prime shipping no less!)  It's listed as a brake position switch.  It's normally closed and has two pins; one will be run to ground, and the other to the factory clutch switch wiring or ground side of the starter relay.  Technically, you could run power through it instead if you needed to as well.  It comes with 2 bullet connectors and has a fully adjustable linkage for length, angle, and pivot point.

I mounted this off of a factory hole that I believe is used for the speedometer cable clip on some cars.  I'm not running a mechanical speedo, but if you are you'll have to reroute it or use a zip tie to secure it elsewhere.

Here are the parts you'll need:

1/4" bolt (has to be long enough to fit the pedal bracket, switch bracket, ground eyelet, and 2 nuts)
2 1/4" nuts
some 18ga or bigger wire
wire eyelet
an 1/8" thick fender shim
some scrap steel or an angle bracket from a hardware store
the clutch switch



Crimp the eyelet onto the wire and insert it through the 1/4" bolt.  Put the bolt through the pedal bracket with the threads facing toward the clutch pedal.





Grab one of the nuts and tighten down the bolt/nut combo.



Fab up a mounting bracket.  My ugly but functional bracket is shown and took me all of 5 minutes to make with a fender shim bent 90 degrees and a cut angle bracket from the hardware store, including time to weld.  The predrilled bracket holes worked just fine.  I drilled out the small hole on the fender washer to fit the 1/4" bolt.







Now the fun part.  Mount the clutch switch onto the exposed stud and tighten down the remaining nut enough to allow you to clock the switch and adjust the switching point in the pedal throw.  Take note that you can get the right amount of travel by adjusting the switch linkage length, fulcrum hole, and pedal contact point.  This takes some time since you want the switch to only allow starting close to the floor, but also have enough travel to not bottom out before the pedal contacts the rubber bumper.  Use a meter set to diode check so you can listen to the beep as the switch toggles.

Pedal depressed - switch CLOSED


Pedal fully released - switch OPEN


Final assembled product with the remaining ground wire cut and crimped.  Make sure to route it so it won't hit either the pedal or switch linkage.


Hopefully this helps!