VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Days Of Our Lives: Episode Three

Episode three begins: Tiny buys a beautiful, original throttle cable from Tims37 only to find it's too short by two inches. Tiny finds no way to re-route the cable to make up the difference. Tiny looks at where the wire part of the cable hooks to the knob/shaft & wonders about the best way to replace the wire with a longer one. It appears the wire was crimped into the shaft & Tiny wonders if the old wire can be cut at the base of the crimp, a new longer wire inserted into the shaft and the shaft re-crimped? Tiny ponders "Is this a good idea"??

I destroyed a 39' choke cable knob trying to extract the cable. If you can un-crimp it without destroying the plastic, crimping it should be easy.

I flash of utter brilliance this morning led to a solution to the problem.........er, OK I had an idea that worked. I went to the hardware store this morning and purchased a roll of 18 ga. steel wire and a wire crimp (not an electric crimp connector). I snipped a three inch piece of wire, stuck one end of the throttle cable into the crimp, the end of the piece I cut into the other end of the crimp so that the two wires bypass each other & crimped the do-do out of it. Now the cable is long enough & being mostly under the carb & air cleaner it's not real obvious that a repair was done. To quote Curly Fine "Poifect"!

Tiny glad it worked out for you. If I had known it was short I would have Informed you but did not know...How does she look with the correct knob maybe post a picture

I'd love to but our digital camera went to hell on us over the holidays & hasn't been replaced yet. A buddy of mine who makes custom shift (floor & column), turn signal & door lock knobs made me a vent knob that looks pretty good too. Of course it isn't original but it'll work until I get around to putting the correct knob on. As soon as I get a camera I'll post a pic or twelve.

While you're on the subject of the throttle cable, how does it connect at the carb end without binding up and interfering with the accelerator linkage? Mine was missing but have the bracket that mounts on the carb along with the choke.

One picture is worth a thousand words.I can't find a good picture of the throttle cable arangement so I will go the thousand word route.

A bracket bolts under the carburetor air horn screw.The screw to rear and towards engine.The bracket has two "arms" with loops on the end which clamp down on the outter casing of the choke and throttle cables.The choke cable goes thru the horizontal loop-this lines up with the set screw on the choke linkage.

The other loop extends to the rear of the carb.and the loop is verticle..The throttle outter cable is clamped into that loop with the inner wire facing down to the verticle accelerator linkage rod.Wire Extends a few inches beyond the outter casing.The accelerator rod has a hole in the top end.The throttle wire goes thru the hole and keeps the rod from falling out of the carb. lever (no-a cotter pin is not used there).The wire will extend past the hole in the rod about an inch or so.A throttle stop is clamped on to the wire about 1/8" below the carb, wire.This allows the lever which is connected to the rod to open and close the carb. -with the gas pedal independently of the hand throttle.When the hand throttle is pulled out it will raise the lever independently from the foot pedal.A throttle stop is a little brass block, usually round, has a hole for the wire to pass thru, and a set screw to lock it, the stop, unto the wire.Throttle stops can be purchased at small engine repair shops.
The complete thing requires adjustment so the throttle can open fully-dosen't hit the outter cable at wide open, and the stop must be slightly below the lever at idle so as to not hold the throttle open slightly.

And that was less than a thousand words.

Thanks, Chevgene, this is what I was thinking of doing, but better to check with someone who has seen the real thing.

Ahh, who's counting anyway. The generic throttle cable that was installed in the coupe wasn't connected correctly & I'm glad I just happened to pick the "correct" way when I re-did it. The only thing I did different was to put a small flat washer between the throttle lever and the wire stop to keep the wire stop from managing to wiggle through the hole. It may never have happened anyway but you know Murphy is still alive.