First breakdown

[Tyre Tread]

Well, today I suffered my first failure to proceed in 15 years of ownership.

Fortunately it was only a throttle cable.

Fortunately I had a spare cable in the boot.

Unfortunately I didn't have the right tools to be able to fit it.

Unfortunately I was in the middle of nowhere (Epynt ranges in the Brecon beacons)

Fortunately I had a phone signal.

Fortunately I had my RAC membership.

Unfortunately it took them almost 4 hours to reach me

Fortunately it was warm, dry and there were skylarks to keep me entertained.

Fortunately my buddy was there in his Porsche and went and brought back burgers and coffee. So we had a picnic.

Fortunately I'm now back home with a cup of tea and a working Chimaera.

[Aussie John]

A good end to a nice drive out

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Glad you are home. In the old days I had the throttle cable snap. Back then you could wedge the carb at about 3,000 rpm and get home. (You did look a bit of a tit sat still in traffic though )

[Sir Paolo]

Glad you got it sorted!

It begs the question, and I’d be interested to know what other owners keep by way of spares and tools in their Chims.

I mean, you have to draw a sensible line somewhere.
Personally, I also have a throttle cable and rotor arm, plus fuses etc.
Not forgetting RAC membership AND a charging cable for my iPhone!

[Tyre Tread]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Glad you are home. In the old days I had the throttle cable snap. Back then you could wedge the carb at about 3,000 rpm and get home. (You did look a bit of a tit sat still in traffic though )

Thanks. I did consider the old "wedge the throttle open" trick and even the "use a piece of string as a hand throttle" dodge but as I was 50 miles from home I decided the best bet was a proper repair.

[Classic Chim]

Tyre Tread said:

Thanks. I did consider the old "wedge the throttle open" trick and even the "use a piece of string as a hand throttle" dodge but as I was 50 miles from home I decided the best bet was a proper repair.

I can’t believe you of all people would let your maintenance schedule slack to the point you snap a throttle cable Al.
I had a new cable that had a ruddy kink in it so stiff to use, Luckily the garage owner felt sorry for me and got one of his lads to whip a new one on lol.

Did the RAC man fix it... well worth a 4 hr wait if he did

[Steve_D]

Now you have your tools to hand it is worth making sure the cable is set at the right length. We see this so often we now have an adjustment check as a tick box on our service schedule.

Steve

[Classic Chim]

Steve_D said:

Now you have your tools to hand it is worth making sure the cable is set at the right length. We see this so often we now have an adjustment check as a tick box on our service schedule.

Steve

Does this include a bit of slack in the cable so when its shut off it’s fully shut off.
The throttle pot spindle springs do a good job of holding butterfly shut so I always leave a touch of slack as per fitted.

[Steve_D]

Classic Chim said:

Steve_D said:

Now you have your tools to hand it is worth making sure the cable is set at the right length. We see this so often we now have an adjustment check as a tick box on our service schedule.

Steve

Does this include a bit of slack in the cable so when its shut off it’s fully shut off.
The throttle pot spindle springs do a good job of holding butterfly shut so I always leave a touch of slack as per fitted.

There will always be slack at closed throttle as the pedal just hangs on the cable end. If you pulled on the cable the pedal would just get higher and higher.
You want to adjust the cable length at the throttle body to get the pedal to sit where you want it in relation to the brake pedal.
Then adjust the pedal stop such that with the pedal hard to the stop you can just open the throttle a few degrees more by hand.

If you don't adjust the last step properly you could be stretching and potentially breaking the cable if the throttle is wide open before the pedal reaches the stop. This is the one we are mainly looking for but we have had one where 'pedal to metal' was only giving 3/4 throttle so an instant power gain for the customer.

Steve

[Tyre Tread]

Good point Steve. Will have a look later this week/weekend. Thank you for mentioning.

Alun, yeah, I know, I know! Bloody daft of me. It was on the "to do" list but like a lot of things they slip down the list particularly as the Rover has been getting some love recently.

[Classic Chim]

Tyre Tread said:

Good point Steve. Will have a look later this week/weekend. Thank you for mentioning.

Alun, yeah, I know, I know! Bloody daft of me. It was on the "to do" list but like a lot of things they slip down the list particularly as the Rover has been getting some love recently.

That’s ok then. I was looking at a Coupe just the other day. Glorious cars.

[Tyre Tread]

Classic Chim said:

Did the RAC man fix it... well worth a 4 hr wait if he did

Very nice local contractor turned up and said " They've told me I HAVE to fix this one as we don't have a low loader it'll go on" at which point I whipped out the spare cable and said "Lucky I have one of these then"

[Steve_D]

Tyre Tread said:

........... "Lucky I have one of these then"

Had similar at a campsite at LeMans.
Ultima owners alternator failed. Local garage tried a temporary fix but it only lasted a few miles but got him back to the campsite. I stood at the back of the 'discussion group' gathered around the open engine bay. I waited a while before suggesting he fit a brand new one. Silence rained and all eyes were on me so I produced said new alternator from behind my back. I didn't buy any beer that evening.

My alternator failed 3 days before the trip and I did not hold out much hope for Ultima to get a new one to me in time. So I removed mine and took it apart only to find a simple and permanent fix. New one arrived late afternoon of the day we left but despite being very confident with my repair I decided to take it anyway.

Steve

[Classic Chim]

Tyre Tread said:

Very nice local contractor turned up and said " They've told me I HAVE to fix this one as we don't have a low loader it'll go on" at which point I whipped out the spare cable and said "Lucky I have one of these then"

I knew you’d have one
Proper result

[Classic Chim]

Steve_D said:

Had similar at a campsite at LeMans.
Ultima owners alternator failed. Local garage tried a temporary fix but it only lasted a few miles but got him back to the campsite. I stood at the back of the 'discussion group' gathered around the open engine bay. I waited a while before suggesting he fit a brand new one. Silence rained and all eyes were on me so I produced said new alternator from behind my back. I didn't buy any beer that evening.

My alternator failed 3 days before the trip and I did not hold out much hope for Ultima to get a new one to me in time. So I removed mine and took it apart only to find a simple and permanent fix. New one arrived late afternoon of the day we left but despite being very confident with my repair I decided to take it anyway.

Steve

I became very popular with one or two drivers in the Mazda championship a few years ago at Zolder. My mate carried all sorts in his belly lockers and Russ Lindsey bent a drive shaft. We decided he was not going to threaten our drivers position so I proclaimed he could use ours to a huge cheer as it’s a long way to go to not race over a driveshaft.
One year again at Zolder a team went off to a scrapyard to get an engine which they then won with,,, Tom Roche is a magic driver.

[SLB]

My throttle cable broke last year and I thought I carried a spare amongst the general tools and bits I carry, but unfortunately I couldn't find it. So only being a mile and a half from home I rigged up a hand throttle using the remains of the old cable and some cable ties. Worked ok and luckily there wasn't much traffic. Reminds me I must clear out the boot at some point.

[Tyre Tread]

Sir Paolo said:

Glad you got it sorted!

It begs the question, and I’d be interested to know what other owners keep by way of spares and tools in their Chims.

I mean, you have to draw a sensible line somewhere.
Personally, I also have a throttle cable and rotor arm, plus fuses etc.
Not forgetting RAC membership AND a charging cable for my iPhone!

I tend to carry a spare throttle cable (Well, I did and I'll order another to stick in the boot) fuses (Inc spare 100A and 80A), spare aux belt, the last ignition components I took of when I did the last service (got me out of a scrape in Germany when the new dizzy cap and leads started playing up) plus a new ignition amp module.

I usually carry a set of tools too but had cleared out the boot during lockdown.

[Classic Chim]

The more mods I’ve done the less spares I carry.
Going abroad I carried more weight in tools than luggage.
Other than basic hand tools at least within EU and without a tonne of spares I realised most of those tools would be useless.
I think I”d rather rely on decent recovery / finding a decent garage that can assist me fix whatever breaks.
The basics of carrying liquids etc but if yourTvr is good what’s the point.
I still don’t really get why these cables snap.
I have an old motorbike with drum brakes,,,, the front brake cable is constantly pulled with all my force or you won’t stop
I often worry it could snap as I’m sure it’s at least 20 years old but it works smoothly. I cable oil them on bikes but still it’s good.
Maybe that’s the key. The throttle cable is in a very hot dry engine bay, should add it to your service items to take it off at the butterfly end, elevate it and run light oil through it.
Rarely do we do that including myself?

[Steve_D]

Classic Chim said:

......I still don’t really get why these cables snap...................

At the throttle end the cable joins the throttle arm attached with a clevis pin which is free to swivel as the angle at which it meets the arm changes as the throttle goes through its travel.

At the pedal the cable is trapped in the worst piece of engineering you are likely to see. A hole and a slot hacked into the end of the lever. To make matters worse TVR crimp the slot closed removing all possibility of the cable relieving the kink that forms.

Steve

[Classic Chim]

Steve_D said:

At the throttle end the cable joins the throttle arm attached with a clevis pin which is free to swivel as the angle at which it meets the arm changes as the throttle goes through its travel.

At the pedal the cable is trapped in the worst piece of engineering you are likely to see. A hole and a slot hacked into the end of the lever. To make matters worse TVR crimp the slot closed removing all possibility of the cable relieving the kink that forms.

Steve

Thank you, I understand now. Yes it’s not pretty down there.
Half the community will be taking a look now you see, including me