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Anatomy of a Murder [of a throttle cable]

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
Offline
I'm finally cleaning up my mess from the unattached ground cable and I thought I'd share what happens that you can't see when that puff of smoke curls out the hood vents and the car starts revving away or just dies.

I did get a new throttle cable from Woody, but first I removed the starter just to be sure no damage was done. Brad at Yankee Auto Electric pulled it apart and just cleaned everything up. No problems there, so the alternator was probably fine. That's easy enough to check when it's running, so I decided to wait.

I also felt this was a good time to run the new #4 gauge wire from the alternator to the starter, so while Brad had the starter, I did the wire on the bench and had it ready to slide in the insulated loom that Mickey had installed a few years ago.

The pictures below show the original throttle cable, which was yellow and the new which is red (thank you Woody!) The plastic fitting that locks into the hole in the firewall was where the melting took place and that is why the throttle jammed at 3/4 open. You can see the melted blue lock section and the inner steel cable where it melted through the inner jacket.

Not very pretty to see, but it could have been a lot worse. Let my pictures (and stupidity) make you aware of what can happen if you're not careful.

Just for the record, the throttle cable out housing with a Holley 4bbl is 12.5" long and the cable from the alternator to the starter is 25" long before the ends go on.
 

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Hondo,

Yes, it is in the basement shop, not the garage. Leftover from moving into a furnished home after living in a furnished home. Lot's of doubles.

I have one side of the wall for car projects and the other for wood and house projects. They're kind of messy in these, but that was during the Miata seat project and I was making wiring and stripping the frames for painting.
 

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Brosky said:
Hondo,

Yes, it is in the basement shop, not the garage. Leftover from moving into a furnished home after living in a furnished home. Lot's of doubles.

I have one side of the wall for car projects and the other for wood and house projects. They're kind of messy in these, but that was during the Miata seat project and I was making wiring and stripping the frames for painting.

Umm....that's "<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">kind of messy</span></span>"......?????? :shocked:

<quickly BURNS ANY and ALL pics of MY garage and basement!!> "Move along - there's NOTHING to see here!!
 
indeed. I am invariably reduced to using the 6 square inches of bench that are directly in front of me and praying the stuff I piled up to give me that doesn't topple over onto my project.
 
71MKIV said:
indeed. I am invariably reduced to using the 6 square inches of bench that are directly in front of me and praying the stuff I piled up to give me that doesn't topple over onto my project.

You and me brother!
 
tdskip said:
71MKIV said:
indeed. I am invariably reduced to using the 6 square inches of bench that are directly in front of me and praying the stuff I piled up to give me that doesn't topple over onto my project.

You and me brother!

Benches! You guys have it good. Perhaps one day I will experience such extravagance.
Scott
 
ScottD said:
Benches! You guys have it good. Perhaps one day I will experience such extravagance.
Scott

my garage is so full, i work in the driveway
my bench is lid of our trash bin!
 
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