This could be very dangerous: throttle cable

[w261w261]

I posted this as part of another thread, but thought that I would start a new one, as this could have been pretty bad.

My son's '92 tried to run away from him, and the reason was the throttle cable had been compromised. What had happened was this: the cable comes out of the firewall, makes a turn to starboard, and then turns again to head straight in to the throttle. It is clipped to the cruise control throttle cable with a figure-8 plastic thingy. Over time, the throttle cable had moved such that it did not head straight into the "winder," but came in at an angle. It gradually developed a sort of kink in some of the individual wires. This kink, which manifested as a bump of sorts in the cable (reminded me of a ply separation), eventually got big enough so that it caught the flange of the "winder" when the throttle was released. Bingo, and a real puckering experience.

When I looked at it, I also noticed that the cable was about to fail right behind the adjusting nuts, but the failure was hidden by the cover. When I installed the new cable, I made sure that the final turn was a nice sweeper, and the figure-8 clip held the throttle cable below the cruise cable. It seemed happy that way.

Install of the new cable was tedious but straightforward, as I'm 6'3 with big hands and need reading glasses. You order the new cable ($48), disconnect it from the throttle body, take out 4 bolts that hold the accelerator pedal to the firewall, push in the ears on the square black plug that holds the cable to the pedal, and pull the whole thing through into the cabin. Now take the new cable and attach it to the pedal (it's loose at this point) by pushing in the square plug. Feed the engine end of the cable through the hole in the firewall, go around to the front and pull it some so the firewall plug seats, go back inside and rebolt the pedal. Attach at the throttle body, adjust and you're good to go. The worst thing is the cramped quarters.

Needless to say, something like this could end up as a real bad experience. I'd suggest that you all take a minute and look at the throttle cable, and make sure that it sweeps in straight to the winder.