Throttle cable broken - which way to thread replacement?

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Shag - 20 May 2008 00:54 GMT

Was driving home today and made it about halfway here (31miles from my
house to work). Was in traffic, had to downshift to 3rd, then hit the
gas to accelerate and the pedal dropped to the floor. I've had this
happen before in another Beetle and also in a Ford Fiesta so I knew
immediately what had happened. I was able to coast into the left lane
and then the middle turning lane and into the parking lot of a Pizza
Inn. Called my wife and she brought the truck and tow bar and made it
home without incident. Ordered a replacement cable from JC Whip-Me.
(Yes, I know aircooled.net has a really heavy duty cable but I'm going
with JC Whip-Me's "heavy duty" cable. It's supposed to be beefier
than stock and a stock cable lasts a long time so I think I'll be ok
for a while. I forget what way is easiest to thread the new cable
in. From pedal to carb or from carb to pedal? I'm thinking from
pedal to carb since I'll be cutting the carb end of the cable off and
it would be easier to thread the cable alone through rather than the
cable and the pedal-end fitting through. Hopefully I'll get the cable
by the weekend so I can fix this thing up. I'm really admiring the
gas mileage I'm getting the Beetle vs the gas mileage I get with the
truck. By the way, the cable broke RIGHT AT the pedal-end fitting. I
think I could probably rig it up to work somehow with the existing
cable but want to go ahead and do it right. Funny thing... when I
bought this Beetle I immediately ordered a few spare parts for it
including a spare cable. Unfortunately it's a clutch cable. Dangit.
Should have ordered a throttle cable while I was at it.

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Jan - 20 May 2008 01:22 GMT

> Was driving home today and made it about halfway here (31miles from my
> house to work). Was in traffic, had to downshift to 3rd, then hit the
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> including a spare cable. Unfortunately it's a clutch cable. Dangit.
> Should have ordered a throttle cable while I was at it.

pull the old one either way, if you pull it from the pedal end and leave
the carb end tip in place, it would help clean the pipe the cable runs
through. If there's a lot of crud in there though, it might get stuck.
You could also intentionally fray and unwind the end of the cable from
either end, and then pull it through so it would clean things out. It
would be more flexible.

Feed new cable in from the pedal end.

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P.J.Berg - 20 May 2008 01:29 GMT

The cable only goes in one way unless you have something different all
togheter.
It has either a loop or a zigzag sort of thing at the pedal end.
I have seen both multi-strain cable, and single solid steel tread(?)

J.

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dave AKA vwdoc1 - 20 May 2008 02:47 GMT

Yes install the cable from the Pedal area to the Carb.
Wheel Bearing Grease on the cable as you feed the cable through helps
protect it.
Also make sure that the rigid steel tube, by the carb, fits in that flexible
tube, over the transmission, firmly after you get that cable through. I
have seen some accelerator cables bind and break at the front of the engine.
Straighten out, by bending with some pliers, the pedal lever after you clean
around the pedal area. Usually I find that the pedal lever starts to bend
to the left side.

Signature

later,
dave
(One out of many daves)

snip

> The cable only goes in one way unless you have something different all
> togheter.
> It has either a loop or a zigzag sort of thing at the pedal end.
> I have seen both multi-strain cable, and single solid steel tread(?)
>
> J.

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