One of the minor ongoing annoyances I haven't ironed out yet in my 55 is the throttle linkage. I have the original setup with the rods and whatnot, but I replaced the rod that goes to the carb with an adjustable piece with spherical rod ends, and replaced all the stock bushings and grommets in the past couple years. Works great, except I can't quite get full throttle out of it. It's probably close enough as to make no difference, but it annoys me just knowing. It seems no matter what I do I can't get it dialed in quite right. The problem is the elbow of the rod that contacts the pedal hits the floor before I get WOT. I did notice the plastic pad on the back of my pedal that the rod makes contact with is long gone, so I have a new factory style gas pedal coming. What the hell am I doing wrong here? So I had a flash of almost intelligence and thought what if I heated that rod that contacts the pedal and bent it forward toward the pedal a little, that might get me the extra travel to get WOT. The pedal and rod have enough slop that I can bring that rod forward probably a good inch or so, and it would make my pedal travel a little longer. As it is now, there isn't much travel at all from idle to as wide open as I can get it. Hell for all I know all the smashing I've done on the gas pedal over the years has bent that rod. You know how you do when you're mad at the car. Before you say it, the Lokar style setups will look totally out of place in my interior. Can't do it.
Perhaps you could post a picture of the linkage from the firewall to the carb, a side view. Then we can see how the angles look, etc. Usually the solution is to put the joint on the carb, a little closer to the throttle shaft. This moves the throttle shaft a greater angle, for the same amount of movement of the linkage rod.
I would just move the carb connection down to the lower hole, that should clear it up. You'll have to shorten the linkage a little, of course.
I tried that. Because of the angle it creates in relation to the upright rod that the carb rod attaches to, it binds up. There’s got to be a specific length that carb rod has to be to work right. When I bought this car it had the original V8 carb rod that had been cut down and welded to work with the engine setback. It got hacked during my aborted EFI attempt and I never thought to measure it first. Problem there is every car is going to be a little different with engine location, carb height, etc. It’s probably going to come down to buying a case of beer and getting a buddy to work the gas pedal until I find the right length. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Is the throttle lever slipping on the shaft that goes through the firewall? Loose bolt there, possibly wollered out, making it out of phase?
The rod inside the car is tight, no side to side slop. The upright rod at the firewall will move all over the place when not connected to the carb rod. Even when it is connected, I can move it laterally a little. It’s always been like that though, so I figured that’s how they were. The bolted connections between the rods are tight with the correct rubber grommets and Teflon sleeves. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The lever should be tight on the shaft, you shouldn't be able to rotate the lever independently. A little bit of movement there, multiplied by the length of the lever, could be the problem. Might be just enough to give you fit's!
So if I’m understanding right, the connection at the bottom of the upright lever to the rod on the inside of the car is out of whack? No idea how I’m going to get to that. I’ll have to see if I can get my meathooks down there. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
If you have Ham-Hand's like me, it's a real pain in the ass! 2 long combination wrench's are your best bet, and it still sucks! LOL!
Yeah, there’s gonna be cussing hahahaha! Googled what that lever end looks like. I bet it’s missing that nut and bolt. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Why does it bind? Is it because there needs to be a sideways offset on the rod? I'd get rid of the linkage rod you have, and make one that is the correct shape, with only one threaded end. That's what I had on my 55, it worked fine.
Can't believe no mention of cutting some of the carpet underlayment under the foot feed. I didn't want to be "that guy" either.
427: thanks for that! Squirrel: I have a feeling the floppy lever is causing the bind. Turns out it’s not supposed to flop all over! When I tried that bottom hole it would start to open, then basically just stop. It’s bad enough that it will stick open. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
I did cut the backing off the carpet behind the lever which improved it, but didn’t totally cure it. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
You need to start off at full throttle position get somebody to push the gas pedal to the floor, and you hold the carb "wide open". Then adjust the rod length to that. This moves the gas pedal further out from the floor [inside] with no throttle applied With everything connected release the gas pedal and see if the carb returns to the idle stops. [without the lever/arm touching the intake manifold] At idle on my Chevy the centre pivot of the lever/arm is 4-3/16" from the firewall and there is plenty of room for more. The factory arm and rod is "doglegged" to get a straight pull on the rod pivot the the carb pivot [without binding] If you are using a straight rod, the turn the rear joint 180 deg and bolt it in from the Dist side
I had the same problem. I solved it by turning the bellcrank (lever) around. As I recall, the nut was hitting the firewall. It's a little hard to remove and install but you can do it.
Ended up removing the carb rod and cutting down one of the threaded adjustment rods so I could shorten the overall length. That did the trick, and I’ve got a higher pedal now. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
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