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All,

 
I went to install a vendor-sourced throttle cable the other night and ran into a problem. I have talked to the vendor and he told me he made his assembly longer (about two inches) than the stock assembly and said this was done due to the tight radius problem. ??? To me that doesn’t seem to offer much of a solution as the curve the cable takes is still more or less the same. 
 
If he had lengthened the housing AND the inner cable, I don’t think there would be a problem. But he only lengthened the housing and the cable remains the same length.
 
So with the carburetor/return spring end of the cable sitting at rest, spring uncompressed, the free cable (what extends outside of the housing) at the throttle pedal end is 2 inches shorter. 
 
Thus, when the cable assembly ....housing...  is mounted to the center tunnel bracket, the ...cable... does not reach the gas pedal fitting. 
 
I can pull out the ...cable to reach the gas pedal fitting but in doing so I am compressing the carburetor return spring and that opens the carburetor throttle plates. 
 
Of course the vendor told me he has sold 3 million of these cables, or thereabouts, and no one has ever had a problem. I am left wondering if I somehow received an incorrectly manufactured cable, or despite all my head scratching, there is something obvious that I am missing.

If anyone has a similar experience and/or can add any wisdom that I may be missing, it would be greatly appreciated.

Larry
 
New at top- 
 
image1.jpeg
 

Sent from me using a magic, handheld electronic gizmo. 

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First of all I do not have first hand experience with this cable. I did make a custom bracket to mount mine on the intake manifold side. If you were to some how extend the bracket, move it or make a new one that was 2" closer to the carburetor that would solve the issue if I understand the problem. It would also get the sharp radius bend away from the cable end which would probably make the cable operate smoother. My thoughts...

Here is the best picture I could find of the one I made. It was cut from a piece of extruded aluminum channel. It is set in a near stock position but I think I adjusted the height of the mount to better line up with the throttle body. Looking at the picture I can see that it is set back towards the cabin. Can your bracket be flipped around 180° to position the mount closer to the carburetor?

IMG_1218 [Medium)

 

Steve

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Last edited by tsolo

Larry - 

I don’t know about your specific cable, but John Taphorn has a design to reduce the bend radius on the intake manifold mounting point.

It’s very simple, just a bent piece of stock that guides the cable housing.....  The bent stock is welded to the existing mounting bracket. I’ll try and find a picture.

i don’t think John’s mod would help in your case...  I agree with you - it SEEMS LIKE the cable must be extended approx the same length as the housing for it to work properly. 

 

Last edited by rocky

Rocky -  I am aware of John’s modification. Thanks but no photos needed.

 Thanks for the feedback, guys.  Only good news so far is that none of you have pointed out how blind I am to have missed some pertinent explanation of my problem.

The bottom line is WHY is a part that is universal to all Panteras, successfully manufactured by Ford by the thousands, something a Pantera vendor seems to be unable to correctly reproduce? 

 Modifying the carburetor bracket would not solve the problem; there simply isn’t enough “free” cable at the pedal end of the assembly. Carburetor end of the cable is just fine. Modifying the center tunnel bracket would work, and using some coupler nuts would work.  

 But what doesn’t work is buying a reproduction part, only to find out it flat out will not work.

 If I wanted a cable that doesn’t work I could buy one a lot cheaper at pick N pull.

 Come Monday I will be calling other vendors to buy two or three more cables and see if one of them has actually figured out how to correctly reproduce a throttle cable. 

Once I figure this out I will re-post;  hopefully I will find at least one vendor that I can recommend to other owners. 

 Right now I have one that I certainly wouldn’t recommend. 

Larry

 

 

 

Larry, you jogged my memory about a throttle cable installation that I did on my Pushbutton less than a year back.  I ended up moving the bracket near the gas pedal to make it work.  It looks you and I are two out 3 million that encountered this problem.  Practically speaking, I only needed to drill a new hole for the screw that secures the bracket.  But I was scratching my head as well as to why the cable did not fit out of the bag.  

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