350i Throttle cabe ...

[Jack Valiant]

Well the long awaited job of replacing the throttle cable has arrived. Mine has now reached a point where it is sticking open occasionally. Liberal lubrication of the cable does not seem to be helping and the adjustment at the plenum end seems to be at maximum. Cable seems to be hanging at the pedal end after depression the cable loops and has to be pulled back from the other end. Before I attempt this job any pearls of wisdom so I do not try to reinvent the wheel would be appreciated!

Some general pics below:

Thanks

Chris

[E Ponym]

Twenty years ago I replaced mine with a "universal" cable for a small motorbike/moped. Nylon lined makes it nice and smooth.

Russ

[Wedg1e]

Just remember NOT to oil a nylon-lined cable as it makes the nylon swell and jams the cable - as quite a few bikers have found out the hard way!

[Lesliehedley]

It might be worth taking the throttle pedal off and checking it is not sticking. I thought I had a sticking throttle cable but when I came to replace it the end of the cable at the pedal end had a larger 'ball' on it and wouldn't fit into the pedal slot. So I took the pedal off so that I could file the ball to fit. When I got the pedal off I realised that it was sticking and wasn't free on its bearing and it was the pedal causing the sticking, not the cable. A few drops of oil and a bit of working the pedal on the bearing freed it all off nicely.

[Jack Valiant]

Many thanks for the tips ... I am having problems identifying the correct cable so may have to remove first anyway so will have a good look before I go too far. to get the pedal off is it just the bolt on the pedal swivel thingy?

[rev-erend]

I just sent mine to speedy cable .. just just rebuild it as is..

simples.

[hallsie]

I might have a spare new one mate, Ill have a look the weekend

Stu

[adam quantrill]

When this happened on mine I found this:



and after cleaning-up, re-braiding the cable, and re-soldering the nipple it looked like this:



The problem was caused by a sharp edge in the pedal lever where the cable/nipple sat, that ate away at the cable, so I filed it down a bit.

Four years later it's still all working perfectly so it's perfectly OK to repair it yourself. You will need caustic flux (like for plumbing) to re-solder the nipple.

[Lesliehedley]

To remove the pedal I undid the two bolts holding the bracket to the bulkhead. The nuts are captive so it's straightforward.