Sticky Accelerator Peddle

[Tikvah]

My accelerator has become very sticky, to the point that I need to pull it up.
I've lubricated everything I can think of.... but I really don't know where it is sticking.

Any suggestions?

Dave

[bevans6]

Is it a cable type system?  Or electronic...

Brian

[Tikvah]

It is a cable system.
Would love a air throttle, but probably out of my price range.

Dave

[bevans6]

I am in the process of changing my cable, so I have a little recent experience.  What i would do first is examine the ends of the cable closely.  Mine looked perfect, but when I peeled back the rubber boot I found that both ends had frayed badly and had many cable ends sticking out from the frayed part.  That wasn't good.  After that, I would disconnect the cable from the engine end, since that is easiest, and see if it is still sticky.  Then, bite the bullet and disconnect it at the front end to make sure that the accelerator pedal assembly itself isn't the problem.  My system had a return spring at both ends, so letting up on the pedal both pushed and pulled the cable back.  i would check that both springs are still there. 

I don't think that lubricating the actual cable is very achievable, it's too long to spray lube through.  If you have to go to the trouble of removing it, I'd replace it.  It's probably a Morse cable (out of business) with a 1/8th" stranded core, 1/4" fine thread ends.  Many places can make one up.

Brian

[pabusnut]

I am having the same will be pulling the cable out of my 4905 tomorrow, so I will let you know how it goes!

I have heard that this is the only way to properly lube it.

Steve Toomey

[pabusnut]

Well, tomorrow took a few days!  I finally got the throttle out.  I had a bout 25 ft of it out and it got stuck hard, so I lubed it up a little and pushed it back in a bit.  I yanked it hard and it came out, and I was able to remove the rest of it.  I used a vice grip on the cable to pull it out--no forklift required, but when it was stuck, I was seriously considering hooking it to the hitch on the jeep!

The cable was in mostly good condition, but was very rusty and stiff at spots.  I used rotary wire brush in the drill press, and slowly cleaned the whole thing.  I then lubed it with Liquid Wrench with teflon, and worked it until I was satisfied I could put it back in (vs replacing it).  I made sure that it was all about the same flexibility.

Putting it back in, I lubed it with a moisture displacing grease used for boat trailer bearings.  At first I was able to push it in with my supergreasy hands, but when I had it about half way in, it got too hard to do with slippery hands and I had to switch to the vice grips again.  I could only push it an inch or two at a time, because the swivel at the back moved around too much(I did it from back to front--much easier to get to it in the engine compartment) I had trouble again about a foot from the end, and I had to go up to the front and unhook the swivel at the front from the cable housing, and then push it through, and then re-attach with the cable through that point.

Having to push the cable this hard to get it in removed all my optimism that I would be successful.

I hooked everything up, and when I fired it up, it was better than when I first bought it!

Hope this helps!

Steve Toomey
PAbusnut

[Len Silva]

It should not have been that difficult to replace.  Did you flush out the tube?

When I had a similar problem with my 4104, I flushed out the tube with lacquer thinner and compressed air multiple times.  Replacing the cable was very easy after that.

[Fred Mc]

When I had the problem in my PD4106 it was the cable housing that had broken.

Regards

Fred Mc

[Tikvah]

I was lucky, at least for now.  I took apart both ends, sprayed everything and put it back together.  I think a lot of the problem was the peddle itself.  Both the brake and accelerator were sticky and now work freely.

Someday I'll do air... but for now it's working!

Dave

[pabusnut]

Yes, I know it shouldn't have been that difficult.  I forgot about using air, but did flush some liquid wrench through it.  I had a significant amount of rust on the cable.  I am thinking that the next time it starts sticking, I am probably going to have to replace the housing.  I tried to find some kind of "bore cleaner" to use, but didn't want to risk a Rube Goldberg setup getting stuck somewhere in the middle.

End result is it works very well with fast throttle response both ways!

Steve Toomey
PAbusnut