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jhorton3

jhorton3

Jedi Warrior
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I had an interesting commute home this evening. About 5 miles from the office and my throttle cable broke. I had a new one, but didn't have the right wrench that would undo the screw holding the broken piece of cable. Cop car slowed down, saw I was working on the car and then sped off. That ticked me off.

Luckily I had a small flat blade screwdriver with me. I ran the idle screws up so it was running about 3,500 RPM. This was in the hilly part of town. Don't think I hit 30 mph. Managed to make it to a parts store where I had to buy needle nose pliers and 1/4" wrench. That's now part of my tool bag. Got it put together and arrived home an hour later than I wanted to. At least I didn't have to have her towed back home.
 
"To Serve & Protect"
 
Again, the simplicity of design of our LBC's (and all other pre-computer autos) wins out. Couldn't have done that with the "drive-by-wire" (or whatever the call the new-fangled designs).

On one of my trips to Honduras, we made a side visit to the Mayan ruins at Copan. The tour van (a Hyundai) suffered a broken accelerator cable in the middle of nowhere. One of us had a paper clip that I used to put us back together and we made it back to town!

Mickey
 
"drive by wire" -- that's what my Bugeye has.

Isn't a cable a wire? Is that not what they meant?
grin.gif
 
Mickey Richaud said:
Again, the simplicity of design of our LBC's (and all other pre-computer autos) wins out. Couldn't have done that with the "drive-by-wire" (or whatever the call the new-fangled designs).

On one of my trips to Honduras, we made a side visit to the Mayan ruins at Copan. The tour van (a Hyundai) suffered a broken accelerator cable in the middle of nowhere. One of us had a paper clip that I used to put us back together and we made it back to town!

Mickey
Click to expand...
Glad that wasn't my trip to Copan...we had a nice, new, air conditioned Mercedes van...hehehehe
 
tony barnhill said:
Mickey Richaud said:
Again, the simplicity of design of our LBC's (and all other pre-computer autos) wins out. Couldn't have done that with the "drive-by-wire" (or whatever the call the new-fangled designs).

On one of my trips to Honduras, we made a side visit to the Mayan ruins at Copan. The tour van (a Hyundai) suffered a broken accelerator cable in the middle of nowhere. One of us had a paper clip that I used to put us back together and we made it back to town!

Mickey
Click to expand...
Glad that wasn't my trip to Copan...we had a nice, new, air conditioned Mercedes van...hehehehe
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you missed the true third-world "experience"! :wink:
 
I had my throttle cable snap once, I took the cable from the choke and connected it up and used that as my throttle control. It got me home!
 
That was pretty good thinking. I just pulled it enough to thread it back into the pedal rod and clamped it off. Idled around 2K but got me home. I like the choke cable trick. That would be a new one for me. Something I would have expected Jack to come up with.
JC
 
Tullamore said:
I took the cable from the choke and connected it up and used that as my throttle control. It got me home!
Click to expand...

Brilliant!

[Mental note made]
grin.gif
 
Oh, that's the choke. I thought that was the spare throttle.
 
When I installed the new cable in the parking lot last night I didn't check the travel of the gas pedal. On the way home I realized I was only able to get 1/2 thottle with the pedal to the floor. Opps! Tonight I got it routed and cinched up while managing to perform some minor surgery on my finger (thanks stray cable wire!).

Took her out for a spin this evening and was really impressed...for a while. She was running pretty well then I felt the blasted cable slip. Pedal all the way to the floor I managed to barely pull off the side of the road 2 miles from home. With horse trailers zooming past my behind sticking out in the road I realized I couldn't work on it there. I took a zip tie, cinched it to the gas pedal side of the cable and pulled the cable by hand enough to rev and get going. Stayed in 2nd gear the entire way home. That was a rough trip!

Just tightened the cable back up. I've got another cable piece I think I'm going to put on the bottom as a safety until I get back from Dillard.
 
My turn. Cable broke near throttle linkage. I cobbled it enough to get home. Was looking at this. My old cable had a barrel end that sat recessed in the pedal linkage this looks like a crosswise barrel, I'm sure it would "work" but if it's only close I might as well have a bike shop make me a close one for $5, right? Moss and VB seem to list just one cable from '61-'74. I'm halfway though making one from spare cable but this is an very inconvenient and recurring issue, should probably get something decent in there.
 
general consensus is bike shops are very helpful.
 
Mickey Richaud said:
Again, the simplicity of design of our LBC's (and all other pre-computer autos) wins out. Couldn't have done that with the "drive-by-wire" (or whatever the call the new-fangled designs).

On one of my trips to Honduras, we made a side visit to the Mayan ruins at Copan. The tour van (a Hyundai) suffered a broken accelerator cable in the middle of nowhere. One of us had a paper clip that I used to put us back together and we made it back to town!

Mickey
Click to expand...

Last Saturday evening Shirley and I went out for dinner with our car club. When we went to drive away the headlights did not work. I thought for a minute about what I had done recently and remembered that I had replaced the speedometer cable. So, probably pulled a wire off the switch which is next to the speedometer. In the dark I reached behind the dash and pushed the switch out. Then found the wire and pushed it through the dash after the switch. Reconnected it and we had lights! The whole thing took less than five minutes.
 
I almost like it when things go wrong and you get the challenge of how creative and fast you can fix things up again. So far so good, never yet stranded by my Midget, only ever delayed a little bit. Knock on wood.
 
:iagree: My friends have taken to referring to me as McGuiver! I think I really do enjoy the challenge of cobbling something up hence my true love for these little cars...I always have something to McGuiver!! I have used the choke cable trick when faced with a broken accelerator cable (until I got wise enough to carry a spare cable!) I have also repaired the cable at the pedal linkage end with a nut, bolt and a couple of washers when the stop broke off!
 
Always carry a piece of baler twine. A multitude of uses. Throttle cable; attach one end to carb, out through the top of the bonnet (hood), over the screen & hold other end in teeth. Lean back for more power.
Can also be used to tie down engine if mounts fail. Or even hold up your trousers (pants). :spam:
 
Got a $3 cable at bike shop, reused old sleeve, all good.
 
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