AU XR6 5sp "common" problem?

Hi Guys,
Anyone who's had an AU 5sp manual would've, most likely, had the clutch cable has pull thru the firewall (so I'm told). I made sure I'd never have that problem again when the firewall was repaired and re-enforced. Now with all flex removed from the f/wall, the spot welds on the bracket that the pedal box is bolted to have failed, leaving the clutch / brake pedals moving around upon application of pressure.
Has anyone seen or know of a complete, permanent fix to this very ordinary piece of ford engineering? (Please, one that doesn't involve fitting an auto, not that there's anything wrong with that )

I think part of the problem is the XR6 heavy duty clutch. Perhaps another issue is (either) the ratios or peoples' shifting habits. It means more shifts than is probably necessary to get the job done.

About four years ago, I removed a broken pedal box from such a car as you describe. It was clearly not the original, either! Brazed it all back up and has been fine since.

Thanks addo, being that the car is my wife's daily, I've certainly heard all about the HD clutch.
Think I've got it sorted for now. Pulled the RH wiper & cowling to expose the holes left by the spot welds. In hindsight, the complaints about torrents of water on her feet while driving in the rain would not have been grossly exaggerated.
Anyway, threw a piece of 5mm plate at it, a couple bolts down thru the whole lot and sealed the deal with a new cable.
I may even have enough brownie points left over to put some in the bank!

I suspect that whole area of these models is probably a bit light - I've seen the firewall area around the master cylinder on our AU Fairlane (auto) flexing when pushing the brakes hard.

Come to think of it, I think the 'cracking' problem happened on some X-series models too (I don't know this first hand, my cars are all autos).

Old post I know (I don't get on here often).

I had similar issues with my old XF wagon. Firewall cracked where the clutch cable went through, and the clutch pivot pin snapped off the pedal box. Seems that a decade later Ford hadn't learnt...

I was talking to a mate the other day about these problems ; he had an XE years ago that had the cracked firewall problem - he got a clutch cable bracket arrangement off a wrecked XD and fixed the problem with that.

Vaughano":20p4hij4 said:

Old post I know (I don't get on here often).

I had similar issues with my old XF wagon. Firewall cracked where the clutch cable went through, and the clutch pivot pin snapped off the pedal box. Seems that a decade later Ford hadn't learnt...

Click to expand...

Yeah, had a XF ute 5spd, all I want to say about that!

Pretty sure a mate's F6 Typhoon 6spd had a hydraulic setup. That would've been much nicer than decades of problematic cable systems. Maybe they finally worked it out?

The corty had a cable clutch, did they suffer from it? ATM it sounds like it's only been a problem in the newer, lighter, "thinner firewalled?" cars.