Throttle Cable Slack

[dmitri]

If you look on top of the throttle body youll see 2 nuts that you can adjust that will tighten or loosen the throttle cable. I noticed i had some lag when i revved up my engine to downshift so i checked this. I had some slack. You should tighten it while the car is running, because you dont want to turn it on and itll rev up by itself too high. I got it just right...my car idles a little higher now too, around 1k rpm. its set like that because i didnt like it almost dying sometimes when it idled too low.

[NovaResource]

WARNING! That is not the correct way to increase the idle speed! That cable length is set to give full throttle body opening when the pedal is to the floor. Shortining the cable too much could cause a binding condition where the throttle body is fully open but there is still some travel with the pedal. This could cause damage to the throttle body, the cable, brackets or the pedal itself. Check the length again with the engine off and the throttle wiide open.

[ragingfish]

I knew something didn't sound right with what he was doing...seemed like too easy an adjustment...

[dmitri]

no it didnt really increase my idle speed...Is it ok to shorten that a little just to get rid of the extra slack??? Its not pulling the throttle its just a little bit tighter

[dmitri]

if im checking it with the throttle open, and i push the pedal etc, it wont flood the cylenders will it?

[joatmon]

I agree with Scott. The risk of damage in the adjustment that you proposed is too high. Better to put up with slack at the "no gas" end of the throttle. You should be able to adjust the position of the end of the throttle cable sleeve as you said, as long as you don't make it worse. It's obviously designed to be adjustable.I looked at mine, and it would be easiest to do with 2 people, one working under the hood and one in the driver's seat. On mine, when the pedal is in the rest position, there's some slack in the cable. When the pedal is pressed hard to the floor, the cable is tight and the throttle itself is open all the way, won't open any more, not a millimeter. The throttle cable has no slack, but it's not "guitar string" tight. Seems like if I adjusted the cable sleeve end to take up some of the slack at idle, then pressing the gas pedal all the way to the floor would try to pull the throttle open past it's functional range, and that would make it too tight. Since it's easy to really stomp on the gas and put a lot of force on the cable, pedal, throttle, you need to be sure that doing so doesn't try to pull any part past it's limits.Since the throttle cable is a fixed length and attaches to the gas pedal in a fixed location, the cable will move a fixed amount when the gas pedal is moved from no pedal pressure (idle) to floored. The only ways to remove the slack from the cable without risking breaking the cable or the throttle would be to move the point where the cable attaches to the gas pedal a little bit towards the pedal pivot point so that the full movement of the gas pedal would move the throttle cable a smaller amount, or reduce the distance that the gas pedal moves from no pressure to floored. either, combined with a careful throttle cable sleeve position adjustment. I haven't checked, but I don't think that the gas pedal is adjustable that way, and you'd really need to be greatly inconvenienced with the slack before it would be worth trying to hack in a gas pedal modification.So, if I were going to adjust the throttle cable sleeve end position, (which I'm not, because it already looks dead on perfect), the procedure I would use would be engine off! loosen the two nuts that lock the sleeve end positiion. press and hold the gas pedal to the floor. (remotely,with a weight, or have someone else do it) adjust the one sleeve position nut so that it pulls the throttle to full open position (verify by trying to open the throttle by hand) back off the nut some small amount, to be sure that the throttle wasn't against the open stop too hard and there's not too much tension on the throttle cable tighten the other nut to lock the sleeve end in the correct position.If this results in a slack cable at idle, then that's the way it is.Also,( I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong) it seems that on a fuel injected car, moving the throttle isn't going to pump lots of gas into the cylinders. You can flood a car with a carbuerator that way, but I dont think that's a risk on FI.

[NovaResource]

quote:if im checking it with the throttle open, and i push the pedal etc, it wont flood the cylenders will it?quote:Also,( I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong) it seems that on a fuel injected car, moving the throttle isn't going to pump lots of gas into the cylinders. You can flood a car with a carbuerator that way, but I dont think that's a risk on FI.Opening the throttle on fuel injected cars that are not running does not send fuel into the engine. All it does is open the throttle butterfly, nothing else. Doing the same on an engine with a carb will shoot fuel into the intake. This is the accelerator circuit and it operates like a pump. Every move open of the throttle squirts a small amount of fuel into the engine.

[joatmon]

Cool, I was right. thought so, but wasn't sure.

[dmitri]

yea i just wanted to make sure...on my iroc i can flood the TPI 305 if you pump it when its off

[dmitri]

TPI = Tuned Port Injection

[dmitri]

yea i removed CAI and opened throttle body etc...when i got done it still had less slack then when i started, and had better acceleration, and response.

[joatmon]

Do you think that before you adjusted it, pushing the pedal to the floor didn't fully open the throttle?

[dmitri]

it definitely didnt open all the way before...i still dont think it does just i didnt want to adjust it too much

[MadBill]

quote:it definitely didnt open all the way before...i still dont think it does just i didnt want to adjust it too muchIt's pretty easy to check. Just have someone tromp the pedal to the floor and see if the the throttle blade linkage is up against it's stop. If you use extra floor mats in the winter, check with them in place.

[dmitri]

did that

[AKLGT]

I added MOMO pedals to my GT and now I have to stomp the clutch to the floor to get it to start. I may have my mechanic take a look at adjusting that. keep us posted on how your GT runs.

[MadBill]

I used a bit of rubber glued to the tab on the clutch pedal that contacts the interupt switch to ensure that I didn't have to drive the pedal through the floor to get a start.

[Sub-Vibe-R]

quote:I used a bit of rubber glued to the tab on the clutch pedal that contacts the interupt switch to ensure that I didn't have to drive the pedal through the floor to get a start.I did the same with mine

[AKLGT]

what part are you referencing to? inside the car or in the engine compartment. I think i know what you're talking about, but can you give me a little more detail. it would be nice to not stand up on the pedal to start it.

[MadBill]

If you follow the clutch pedal arm up towards its pivot, you will see a little tab sticking out to the left. It contacts a white button on the cowl-mounted switch. If you glue an about 1/4" thick piece of rubber, wood, etc. to the back of the tab, it will close the cranking circuit with the pedal a little further off the floor, but still safely close to fully depressed.

[AKLGT]

thanks. I'll try that.

[satur9]

heres a question for nova? with my pedals and thicker floormats my pedal to the floor is not wot can i use this method of adjusting the cable. to make it go wot. seeing as how the pedal position is not stock it shouldnt be any extra force on it.