Bugger - Throttle Cable :(

[Shmern]

First track day of the season, Got my discs and pads changed to something more useful for the track and I was good to go.

Did the warmup slow laps, everything going great.

Then out again for the first proper run, building speed up nicely, 3rd lap in and on main straight, SNAP !

Throttle cable .... Now I realise why everyone suggests carrying a spare !

Managed to get the existing one sorta fixed to get me home (With lots of help from some Westfield fellas, Cheers guys). By shorting the sleeve to get enough length on the cable to get back through the pedal and clamped. Sorted, but just to get me home....

And BOY there isn't much room in the drivers side footwell !, I found myself wishing I had 3 arms, and ones that could bend in about 10 different places !

I was so fed up I went home early....

Anyway, on to my question, I've trawled through the search facility to find out a definate answer, but it's still unclear... Does anyone have a part number for the V8s throttle cable ?

There was some threads eluding to the fact it may be a standard Land rover part ?

I'll probably ring tvrcarparts.com on tuesday tho to be sure.

*sigh*

Shmern

>>> Edited by Shmern on Monday 2nd May 16:26

[Hoover33]

I know they aint cheap..... circa £60 - £80 IIRC

[GreenV8S]

I assume it broke at the pedal end, mine always did.

There are various faults that can make the cable fail prematurely, but if this is the first time it's gone you may not have any particular problems. I used to go through cables every 10k miles or so until I sorted all the problems out. Current one has been on for 120k+ miles.

New cables aren't cheap. The good news is that you have an opportunity to make your scavenged cable better than a new one. The trick is to take off the ferule at the pedal end, and open it out to form a bellmouth shape. This can be done easily by drilling it out with a range of drill sizes. This allows the cable to curve rather than kink at full throttle. Also consider fitting a throttle stop at the pedal end, this will stop you over-stretching the cable.

[Shmern]

GreenV8S said:

I assume it broke at the pedal end, mine always did.

Yup you guessed it

GreenV8S said:

There are various faults that can make the cable fail prematurely, but if this is the first time it's gone you may not have any particular problems. I used to go through cables every 10k miles or so until I sorted all the problems out. Current one has been on for 120k+ miles.

Yup this is the first time, however I have only done circa 5K in it so far !

GreenV8S said:

New cables aren't cheap. The good news is that you have an opportunity to make your scavenged cable better than a new one.

So are you suggesting i use the cable that was made up, this was temp fixed by pulling the inner cable out and removing about 3 inches of the outer sleeve (around the middle) then threading the inner back through the shortened outer, and gaffa tape up the outer join. This allowed enough length on the cable to pull through the pedal and clamp with a non-solder end.

But im worried about the sleeve join and the possibility of the metal in the sleeve fouling on the inner cabling and jamming it (worse case full throttle !!)

GreenV8S said:

The trick is to take off the ferule at the pedal end, and open it out to form a bellmouth shape. This can be done easily by drilling it out with a range of drill sizes. This allows the cable to curve rather than kink at full throttle. Also consider fitting a throttle stop at the pedal end, this will stop you over-stretching the cable.

I take it the 'ferule' is the tubular shaped metal insert on the pedal top, which the cable goes through ?

So if it is do you mean widen the hole at the back so it allows a degree of angle on full throttle ?

And yeah, Im gonna try to make up a throttle stop now any suggestion as to the best method ?

But in light of the way the existing cable was modified today, should I really purchase a new one ?

Thanks for your help so far

Shmern

>> Edited by Shmern on Monday 2nd May 20:00

[GreenV8S]

The cut the outer in the middle? Erm ... yuk. Why on earth would anyone do that, rather than just cutting a few inches off the end? God only knows what it's like inside the join, but I'd be concerned about rough edges and/or kinking wearing the inner and making it snag there. IMO that's OK as a get-you-home repair but nothing more, and you will need to buy a new cable. Depending how carefully the bodged one was cut, and how carefully the two parts are aligned, you might be OK with it for thousands of miles if it is supported properly. Not sure I'd want to chance it though.

For next time, the bodge I recommend is to cut 6" or so off the end of the outer, very carefully so as not to damage the inner. Then use a screw on cable nipple. There's a suitable one on the heater control cable right there by the throttle assembly, or you can use a high current electrical terminal with the cable looped round a washer or similar and back through the connector to double the grip.

The idea of the ferule modification is to allow the cable to follow a curve at the pedal rather than kinking. You also need to ensure the cable is aligned correctly with the pedal otherwise you will get a kink at the bulkhead.

The throttle stop I made was the easiest design I could come up with, it took about 30 minutes to make and fit, and about £5 in parts. It's based on a modular curtain rail system that uses a tube sticking straight out of the wall. The end fittings are a sort of 'top hat' flanged fitting that slides onto the end of a 1" tube, with three or four holes to screw it to the wall. I got two end fittings plus a length of 1" tube from my local DIY shop for a few quid. One end fitting is bolted through the bottom of the footwell under the pedal, there's a 3" section of tube and then the other end fitting just provides a flat surface for the pedal to land on. The pretty chromed screws provided to clamp the end fittings to the tube were thrown away and replaced by bolts to let me clamp the hole thing up really tight at arms length. This is a very easy DIY fix. On mine it reduced the throttle pedal travel by about an inch, that's how far the cable was stretching when I was 'pressing on'.

[Shmern]

GreenV8S said:

The cut the outer in the middle? Erm ... yuk. Why on earth would anyone do that, rather than just cutting a few inches off the end? God only knows what it's like inside the join, but I'd be concerned about rough edges and/or kinking wearing the inner and making it snag there. IMO that's OK as a get-you-home repair but nothing more, and you will need to buy a new cable. Depending how carefully the bodged one was cut, and how carefully the two parts are aligned, you might be OK with it for thousands of miles if it is supported properly. Not sure I'd want to chance it though.

That was exactly my feeling, this was purely a 'get you home fix', I certainly wasn't going to go out on the track again

It was cut in the middle as the throttle end is ended in that threaded bit and as for the bulkhead bit, I wasn't sure how it fitted through ? so the decision was to do a temporary job in the middle as a quick fix to get me home.

GreenV8S said:

For next time, the bodge I recommend is to cut 6" or so off the end of the outer, very carefully so as not to damage the inner. Then use a screw on cable nipple. There's a suitable one on the heater control cable right there by the throttle assembly, or you can use a high current electrical terminal with the cable looped round a washer or similar and back through the connector to double the grip.

I'll know better next time

And boy is it TIGHT in the footwell !!!!

GreenV8S said:

The idea of the ferule modification is to allow the cable to follow a curve at the pedal rather than kinking. You also need to ensure the cable is aligned correctly with the pedal otherwise you will get a kink at the bulkhead. The throttle stop I made was the easiest design I could come up with, it took about 30 minutes to make and fit, and about £5 in parts. It's based on a modular curtain rail system that uses a tube sticking straight out of the wall. The end fittings are a sort of 'top hat' flanged fitting that slides onto the end of a 1" tube, with three or four holes to screw it to the wall. I got two end fittings plus a length of 1" tube from my local DIY shop for a few quid. One end fitting is bolted through the bottom of the footwell under the pedal, there's a 3" section of tube and then the other end fitting just provides a flat surface for the pedal to land on. The pretty chromed screws provided to clamp the end fittings to the tube were thrown away and replaced by bolts to let me clamp the hole thing up really tight at arms length. This is a very easy DIY fix. On mine it reduced the throttle pedal travel by about an inch, that's how far the cable was stretching when I was 'pressing on'.

Sounds good, I'll look into it.

Excellent advice, thanks again !

Shmern

[Shmern]

Anyone got an answer to the question is the land rover throttle cable ok to use on the V8s ?

Thanks

Shmern

[Big Ian]

Ford dealer will be able to get you one.
S-series Web site (alternative parts list) has the right part number. Get the two retaining clips whilst you are there, saves you a trip back when you find you need one, which you invariably will.
Best of all, mine came to £18!!!!

[Shmern]

Big Ian said:

Ford dealer will be able to get you one. S-series Web site (alternative parts list) has the right part number. Get the two retaining clips whilst you are there, saves you a trip back when you find you need one, which you invariably will. Best of all, mine came to £18!!!!

Aha ! Thats the cable for the 2.9 V6 which is nice and cheap ! mine is the V8, which is different and a LOT more expensive it appears. £48 + the dreaded vat !

Neil from tvrcarparts is getting me one as we speak

The land rover question is just for the future/emergency

Shmern

>> Edited by Shmern on Tuesday 3rd May 09:14

[NicBowman]

Hi, I am with Green V8s on this, the S is missing a throttle stop, if you floor the throttle hard you will break the cable. Fit one in the footwell, bolted to the hardboard on the right, take a few minutes and an angle bracket (B&Q?). Then you can have some full throttle fun with no worries.

Nic

[Shmern]

NicBowman said:

Hi, I am with Green V8s on this, the S is missing a throttle stop, if you floor the throttle hard you will break the cable. Fit one in the footwell, bolted to the hardboard on the right, take a few minutes and an angle bracket (B&Q?). Then you can have some full throttle fun with no worries. Nic

Yup I agree, a stop will be installed before the next track day.

Shmern

[GreenV8S]

Not all cars have that panel to the right of the throttle pedal. My V8S has a fiberglass panel bonded in which isn't really stiff enough to act as a throttle stop, and my S2 had nothing at all. I reckon the simplest throttle stop is simply a spacer screwed through the bottom of the footwell underneath the pedal. As I said before, I made my adjustable one from a bit of curtain rail, but it could just as easily have been a block of wood if I could have found something exactly the right size.

[keithyboy]

V8S replacement throttle cable £50.29 (inc VAT) TVR Part# E0052 - least it was when I bought my last 2!!

[rnd]

Yes Darren, The shoes you were wearing look very good hanging out of the side of the car. On the bright side (for me) I diden't have to make excuses every time you would pass me (always blame the extra weight of "her in doors" beside me).Keep in mind the Track skills on sun The 15th May.

ray

[shmern]

rnd said:

Yes Darren, The shoes you were wearing look very good hanging out of the side of the car. On the bright side (for me) I diden't have to make excuses every time you would pass me (always blame the extra weight of "her in doors" beside me).Keep in mind the Track skills on sun The 15th May. ray

Heh !

some evil person took a picture of me while fighting with the Throttle cable


Not very flattering !

Might make it to 15th May track then, Im getting withdrawl symptoms !!

Do I need to just turn up on the day or contact someone ?

Shmern

[rnd]

Just off the phone with them. it is on!!!!!!
£75 per car, I have put your name down (but you are not commited)9-30 for briefing first car out 10-15

HAPPY DAYS

[Colin L]

Yes nice shoes and is that RND just standing in the back ground not helping!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Colin L

Glad you got sorted.

[rnd]

Himmmmmm Did not think there was enough room in the footwell for another pair of shoes. But I was talking to our No1 mechanic David.