One Saturday arfternoon 3 weeks ago my sisters Polo crapped itself.
I get the phone call...
"I cant change gears, I think my clutch is gone!"
"Im stuck in a turning lane and all these people behind me a yelling and tooting!"
I laughed!

"The pedal is not working properly and I cannot put it into gear.'
So can you push the clutch in or is it stuck half way and will not move.
"It was hard to push it to the ground and then there was a loud bang and now is kind of soft and hard I don't know I cannot put it into gear as it grinds. SHUT UP I CANNOT MOVE YOU STUPID WOMAN! CAN'T YOU SEE MY HAZZARDS YOU STUP>D B>TCH!"
I laughed!

Told her I was on my way and will be there in 30 min.
Anyway good news was she was only 200m from home and a bloke that was at the local pub pulled over managed to get the car into 1st and crawl the car home.
She rang me back and said it is not urgent and come and have a look on Sunday.

So I arrive Sunday afternoon about 12:30pm after a 90 minutes Bunnings Binge!

Not knowing how the clutch worked in this car, I looked and it seemed the cable cover was moving through the firewall as the pedal was pushed... argh... my broken clutch cable from my Mk1 Days were creeping back (yep the broken rubber firewall stopper and cracked firewall).

Well it was not the same... The pedal was moving the cable but not so good.
It was not moving the same way with each push and there was too much movement at the busy end - I could not see but could feel it.

After closer inspection I found the support bracket that hold the clutch cable sheath was moving - not a good sign. After few more test - Yep the bracket that holds the clutch cable in place is moving each time you press the pedal. This Bracket is not part of the Peadl Box - It is spot welded to the side and the Spot Welds had failed and this is whay the Clutch was not working!
Stupid Stupid Design!

Well Long story short... the whole pedal assembly need to come out.
To get to the Pedal Box... You have to pull the whole steering column out!

Things you need to do:
Disconnect Battery
Remove the drivers seat
Remove the glove box
Remove the under dash tray that hides the pedals and wiring
Undo bolts that hold the fuse box in place

Remove Steering Wheel Air Bag
Remove Steering Wheel
Remove plastic cover (clam shell) behind the steering wheel
Unclip all electrical sockets from Steering column
Undo Steering column height adjustment locking bolts/brackets
Undo Steering column main bolt (part of the heigh adjustment) and slide it out to the left.
Remove the Steering cover plate at the base of the column hiding the steering knuckle
Temp put wheel on and turn the wheel so you can see the bolt to undo the Steering column knuckle - Remove the bolt as it locks onto the shaft and only goes on 1 way.

Steering column will now move freely up and down but not be released from the retaining box brackets that give it Max and Min height. You now have to wiggle with great force in and out while trying to pull the colum down (temp put the Steering wheel back) and the column fill unhook itself from what looks like a sealed locking system - You push it in and the back of the Box will not let the PIN drop from the internal locking tab, same when you pull it out - You will get what I mean when you try it - it looks imposible to wiggle it out because the tab stops the pin from falling free 3mm from each end. But it will free itself. You do NOT have to undo the security round head bolts that hold the whole column thingy to the bulhhead.

Remove Steering column from car

Now there is no real order to undoing the Pedals.
The hardest part is taking the brake pedal off the plunger. The plunger has a ball end that is stuck into the back of the brake pedal with a plastic socket that is press fit with locking tabs. I got a small flat head screw driver and stuck it up the back of the pedal to try and bend the locking tabs out of the way whilke I yanked the brake pedal up... Yep I broke the Tabs and the plunger now just pops in and out There is NO way to avoid this!
Remove the Main Bolt that hold clutch and brake to the pedal box
Remove the Accellerator Pedal
Undo bolts that hold the pedal box to firewall.
Remove Pedal Box and inspect the Damage.

The Clutch Bracket is spot welded 3 times to the Pedal Box and there also a tack weld at the back.
It is such a poor design with even poorer manufacturing!
Each spot weld is about 4mm diameter and less than 1/4 of this had weld penetration.
The Weld Tack at the back of the bracket was also just as bad with next to no weld penetration for the size of the weld tack bead!

So How to fix:
File Clean spot and welded areas so bracket sits flush with Pedal Box.
Drill out the spot welds with 6mm holes and put in M6 High Tensile Bolts from Bunnings. Make sure the bolts sit flush as there is are bulges in the brackets that can get in the way.

<Insert Pics of the Pedal Box Befaore and After at later date>

Putting it all back together is a lot easier than not knowing how to pull it all apart!

To re-attach the Clutch clable you 1st have to undo the clutch cable in the engine bay
Remove the battery
Undo the Clutch bacle 10mm and 13mm nuts
Get back under the dash and hook up the clutch cable to the clutch pedal
Go into the engine bay and put the nuts back onto the clutch cable and tighten back to original position.

So the Things that went sideways:
Removing the Steering Column - Tip mentioned above.
Putting Clutch cable back on - undo it all 1st! [Thanks Bug_Racer]
Brake pedal switch adjustment - on some switchs you can pull the plunger out (pull hard) and the plunger clicks out to adjust - some you cannot - I was lucky. [Thanks Bug_Racer]
Air Bag cable PUCK at the back of Steering wheel fell apart - To put it back together wind up the 10m of conductive tape, and then you have to push the front PIN in and then clip the back cover UNDER the brass tab that the PIN pokes out the back. Then Unwind the puck 3 to 3.5 times. The frees up the airbag conductive tape to allows for Tuning the Sterring Wheel Lock to Lock without over tightening it inside the puck. If you don't work out the PIN and TAB thing, your horn will honk every time you try and turn the wheel - Very funny at Midnight!

Notes:
I was told that the Clutch bracket is spot welded as a Safety measure as a break away pedal assembly - it will not break away with High Tensile bolts.
I was also told it is only a matter of time when the spot weld fail!

What you need to read last:
The Whole Job is a PITA.
Fixed the car with a packet of $5 bolts!
It took me 12 hours to fix! (took many breaks, head scratching, trip to Bunnings for Bolts, Dinner etc) - If you know what you are doing maybe 8 hours
This is not an easy job and will cost you over $1200 at a mechanic!
Oh and the Pedal Box is much $$$$$

For Fixing her car, My Sister bought me a Platimum Ticket to Top Gear Show In February

Disclaimer:
You do all this at you own risk!
I am not resposible for bloody knuckles, profound language, or any other resulting damage caused by what you do when you cannot do it or if you do it wrong.