VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Throttle and choke cables

Hello Gang,
The jacket (twisty metal bit) of my choke cable is broken. That means, I can apply choke, I just can't take it off from the cockpit. Is there some kind of clamp that I might use to repair this cable. I would rather not replace any of the original bits on this car if I can help it. All advice appreciated... Rick

What about soldering it??

Solder doesn't hold up well to tentional stress and that's what we've got. I was hoping for a dual-clamp sort of affair. I could make something I guess but first I should stroll the autoparts store and perhaps the lawn mower shops. :-\ Rick

How about shrink tube like we use for wireing ? some tube is quite stiff when shrunk on wireing it ought to hold your choke wire and not look out of place.

"How about shrink tube like we use for wiring?" Excellent suggestion! Perhaps even 2 or 3 layers of it shrunk independently. I had been trying to think of a solution that used epoxy in a tube or similar but the chances of some of it seeping through to the inner wire was a hitch. The shrink tube stuff would never do that and as you say, is strong. Well done! And as an added bonus, it is not permanent. I have a philosophy regarding classic, exotic or antique cars; "Make no irreversible changes." I try to follow this right down to the stupid level. However, I was the ONLY one at a recent discussion, who had the original '73 SAAB 97 oil pan bolts (stored away in a baggie) that were needed to make a restoration a 100-point car! (Not my car. I just still had the bolts...)

Best Wednesday! Rick

Hi Rick!
I made a crimping fixture to replace all of my cables and retain the original knobs and mounting hardware. If you're interested in replacing just the cable part I could help you out with that. I didn't like the repo cables since nothing indexes the location of the knob, and the lettering on the knob seems to end up every direction but horizontal.