Hey guys, I'm a new member to the board and appreciate all of your expertise! I am working on a 1953 Belair with an inline six and aftermarket true dual exhaust manifold and a Clifford intake manifold which supports a Holley carburetor. The car was dropped off to me because the throttle pedal is very hard to press and often stays in position. After looking closely at it I've realized the po used an aftermarket stainless cable to attach to the carb and then attached a fabricated bracket to the manifold bolt which reaches about 6" below the manifold to allow the other end of the cable to attach. The cable then attaches to one side of the bell crank that is secured to the firewall. There's also another bell crank located on the engine with a spring and one rod ( these are not being used for the accel linkage). At the end of the day, I'm just looking for the quickest solution to get the accelerator components to work correctly. I will attach pictures in my next post. Thanks for all your help!!
It looks like he used a Lokar cable which is a good piece but why he went through all the other stuff I have no idea. We usually use a Ford cable which has a built in return spring and weld a tab on the throttle arm opposite the factory arm to reverse direction. The factory accelerator rod pushes the throttle arm up and a cable can't push so a tab has to be added so it can pull. Here is a picture of a factory set up but it is partially obscured. Maybe someone has a better shot. The grey rod just under the intake that changes size from 1/4 to 1/2 is the rod from the pedal through the toe board. It is supposed to be crooked. It runs to the bell crank on the pivot pin on the side of the block and then a second rod runs from the other arm of the bell crank up to the throttle arm on the carb. There is a tab on the bell crank for a spring that goes down to the pan.
OK, another stab at it. This photo is of a Stromberg carb on a 37 Buick. A piece of 3/16 brake line tubing was routed from the pedal to the carb--can have lots of bends, even sharp ones. a bracket is made to hold the tube in line with the throttle arm on the carb and a length of hood release cable is run through the 3/16 tubing and attached to the pedal at one end and throttle lever at the other. A half ounce of pull will move the cable in the tubing, so no binding. Hood release cables are extremely strong and flexible and this set up has been on my Buick for over 30 years trouble free. The upper wire on the throttle arm goes to the throttle knob on the dash; poor mans cruise control. Flare both end of the tube to give a tapered entrance and exit to prevent gouging the cable.
What a great idea! But you left out a detail Evan. How do you make the cable "pull" at the pedal end? I'm guessing that "attached to the pedal" must involve a mechanism to convert push to pull.
Well, Bill, You got me to wondering because after 30 minutes, let alone 30 years, I sure couldn't remember. Seems as though I made a bell crank on the under side of the toe board to reverse the direction of pull. Pretty simple bracket for a pretty simple guy but it works good. Rod from foot feed pushes inside arm (of bell crank) forward and outside arm pulls cable back.
