I have spent the past few weeks coming up with a plan to reduce the 'friction' in my throttle cable. I have always had a stiff pedal, mainly due to changing the factory linkage setup to a flexible Lokar cable. Nothing bad about Lokar, as I am still running their parts, and have no reason to blame them for my issues.
The problem was that when I first got my truck, the throttle connection between the pedal and the carb was a mish-mash of Shade-tree welding and parts cobbled up from OE and Junkyard parts. The throttle response had enough lag to brew up some coffee before any action took place in the carb throats.
So my painter and I changed all this tomfoolery out for a Lokar cable. Problem was that I had to get at least two full 180-degree bends or tight curves into that cable. The cable I used was the longest you could buy - only to give me as much of a chance as possible to ease the angles. I ended up buying the 96-inch cable, which is now no longer available.
Problems started immediately as directly under the new Lokar foot pedal I had to turn a sharp and tight 180 degrees to start the journey back to the engine. Along the way there were a few obstacles to stay away from - radiator frame, exhaust and engine mounts to name a few. Managed to get up to the rear of the intake manifold with another tightish 180-degree curve, and secure onto the Holley supplied bracketry.
All of this was fine, except the pedal was always a bit stiffer than I would have liked. The final straw came along when my Transmission guy was not keen to drive the truck for fear of damaging it with a stiff accelerator pedal. And of top of that, he wasn't sure he could get the fine-tuning on the kick-down where it needed to be.
That is when I decided I had to go and get some parts organised.
After a few weeks of scouring, I found a Bell Crank that would work, and while I waited patiently for that to arrive, I worked up some ideas for a bracket to attach to the underfloor of the cab. Eventually the Bell Crank arrived, and then I set about bolting it in place and keeping clear of all the other obstacles.
Fast-forward to last Monday when I was able to get a measurement for a linkage to join the new bracket to the pedal - I ordered two sets - both different lengths just in case, plus some extra ball attachments for good measure. Never know when they will come in handy. I ordered the parts on Monday afternoon and was able to collect them on Friday afternoon.....not a bad service from Australia. I was even given a decent discount on the parts.
Had my younger son screw in the bolts up top while I was underneath holding the pedal assembly and the new bracket. Later on I fitted the linkage and had a play with the adjustments. So far, I am very happy with where it is at. Getting ready to drop the truck onto the floor later on so I can fit the new Lokay cable bracket to the Sniper and set up the adjustments for the kick-down cable and throttle.
Now while this may all look a bit hokey, if it works my plan is to get something made in steel.....or maybe I might just leave it as it is.
All those words above deserve a few pics of progress......
This is the new Lokar bracket - accommodates the kick-down and throttle cables and provides superior strength to the standard Holley angle brackets - less flex in the arm when the loud pedal is mashed.
Managed to downsize to a 72-inch throttle cable now.....