The Dude Abides Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Ok so its been a bit cold here lately but not that cold, so i go out the car yesterday. Give it my usual tap on the gas and it froze. I pump it once and sticks to the floor. As predicted, start it up and throttle is wide open. I was able to kinda work it lose so it drove to work fine. After work, did the same thing. I ended up getting under the hood and moving the piviot point on the throttle body so it didnt idle so high but it was stuck in that position until i was able to work that free. So, is this something i can just lube up or is something potentially broken. It doesn stick after its been warmed up and the cable and mechanism work fine. Just seems like when its super cold out it will do this. Any ideas. Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudduck Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Grease up your linkages, and replace the throttle cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilDead Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Not sure if this is related, but when it's super cold here in the mountains, my throttle cable sticks a bit. But when the cars warms up a bit, it's fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 Why would i replace the cable, it seems fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Why would i replace the cable, it seems fine. Cable could be damaged or kinked somewhere. Maybe remove the cable, check it out degrease and relube. Also maybe try a sturdier spring on the throttle linkage. Last I had this problem I sprayed heaps of lube into the cable housing and removed a few coils from the spring. A bit agricultural but it worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Going thru the same thing with my '85 BRAT. Swapped in a new cable a couple months ago as the old one broke. Worked fine for a couple months, now it's wanting to hang up. Thought it might have been due to the new shoes I recently bought. Slight heel on them, and thought maybe heel was getting caught under the pedal and basically jamming it when I lifted my foot. I tested that theory by placing the shoe on the pedal, and it is possible. I made consious effort to re-position my foot while driving after that. But,, I have had it hang a few more times, and totally moved my foot away from the pedal, and it still did the "high rev" thing. ???? I have removed the cable from the carb, and it moves freely in the housing with no resistance felt at all. With the cable attached to the carb, it runs straight from the mount bracket to the carb. No strange angles or anything like that. So now, I'm thinking either weak return spring, or the throttleshaft is hanging up in the carb base. I need to look into that later today. Just may swap the intake and Weber over to it from the '86... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 (edited) Why would i replace the cable, it seems fine. ...Maybe remove the cable, check it out degrease and relube. Also maybe try a sturdier spring on the throttle linkage. might be something worth trying before actually buying a replacement cable. seems to me, if it is fine once things warm up it is getting "moisture" inside the cable housing that is freezing up, thereby causing the sticking. Once the engine warms up enough it would melt the ice and everything would be fine... OR... lube inside the cable is too heavy and/or dirty - needing to warm up/soften to move freely... i'm just a "Mickey Mouse Mechanic", so don't take my word for it, but makes sense to me.... Edited December 6, 2009 by heartless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87glsubie Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 mine has done that before but it wasnt a sticking cable it was the throttle shaft getting stuck against the little coolant hose on the drivers side of the carb h Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robm Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Mine did that a few times. 7500 RPM freezer cold! (like -15 Celcius.) I found that pumping the throttle a bit before starting the car would free it up. Make sure the throttle is closed all the way before turning the key. It stopped doing it finally. I don't know why. Lubrication can't hurt. Try WD40 or similar water-displacing spritz lube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank B Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 next time disconnect the cable from the carb/throttle body and see if it moves freely then, it may not be the cable. Or, Remove the cable from the car, and spray inside it with a good brake/carb cleaner to remove all the funk. Then let it hang or whip it around to get all that out. Then use motorcycle cable lube to lube it up. If it is just ice, it shouldn't happen again. Also check the routing to make sure it isn't kinked, or has a dip to hold water. Also clean the throttle body/carb very well inside and out then lube the linkages with WD40 or the like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted December 7, 2009 Author Share Posted December 7, 2009 It still keeps hanging up. Its not the cable, its the linkage on the throttle body. So i sprayed some lube on it today and well see if that works. If not its back to the drawing board. Like i said, after the car warms upa bit it works fine. Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I wonder if the float valve is sticking? Seriously, how cold is it where you are? Ive never heard of engine parts freezing. Least of all a carb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 No sorry if i didnt clarify. I have fuel injection. But i sprayed some lub on the linkage and alittle on the cable and didnt freeze up tonight. The real test will be tomorrow before work. It will have sat 19 hours and its suspost to get super cold with lots of snow. It gets pretty cold here sometimes but lately its only been in the 20s 30s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank B Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Remove the air intake hose from the thottle body and clean the inside of it with thottle body, or brake cleaner. It will most likely be black and gummy in there so you may have to scrub it with a rag too. If you feel confident enough, open up the thottle and stuff a rag in behind it to catch all the solvent and gunk so it doesn't go into the engine, just remeber to fish it out before you start the car!! Or if you have time, get a new thottle body gasket and remove it from the engine so you can give it a proper cleaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 (edited) Ok so it still froze up. Yesterday i tried to spray alittle lube on the butterfly shaft in the throttle body and it still hangs up. Its not the cable, its the rod that goes through the throttle body. Any ideas. Agian this is baffleing ot me, i dont think its getting hung up because if it was it would do it all the time wouldnt. Ive got it kinda figured out where i press the peddle and start it up. It idles high for about 7 minutes before it warms up enough to go to normal idle. Im about to ask my parts lady for a new upper throttle body and go that route. Edited December 15, 2009 by The Dude Abides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 I am just going to throw this out there, so take it for what it is... On my turbo, I have been having a similar problem. It's been getting SUPER cold for around here, 7 at night!, and my car was idling very high (high enough to shutdown my remote start with an overrev shutdown tigger), so I thought something was wrong. When I would start it, it would idle really high, and then I would "blurp" the throttle, and it would drop down to "normal" but then immediately go back up to the high RPM's. After about 10 min, this behavior would go away and the RPM's would drop to normal. In the last 2 days the temps have warmed up to above freezing, and the problem has not occurred since. Kinda sounds like what is going on with you, maybe? But this seems like's its normal behavior with the FI soobs, at least in my case. This is just my experience with a 1990 turbo loyale, so ya. The other thing to check is maybe cleaning out your IAC? It controls the high idle and such. It might help! Edit: I just read about your pedal physically sticking... Mine doesn't do that, but the symptoms seem the same... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bheinen74 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 (edited) No sorry if i didnt clarify. I have fuel injection. But i sprayed some lub on the linkage and alittle on the cable and didnt freeze up tonight. The real test will be tomorrow before work. It will have sat 19 hours and its suspost to get super cold with lots of snow. It gets pretty cold here sometimes but lately its only been in the 20s 30s "Remove the air intake hose from the thottle body and clean the inside of it with thottle body, or brake cleaner. It will most likely be black and gummy in there so you may have to scrub it with a rag too. If you feel confident enough, open up the thottle and stuff a rag in behind it to catch all the solvent and gunk so it doesn't go into the engine, just remeber to fish it out before you start the car!! Or if you have time, get a new thottle body gasket and remove it from the engine so you can give it a proper cleaning." Ben. DO NOT be spraying lube on it. It needs free of any residuals, its needs cleaned of any lube you put on it. Spray it good with Brake cleaner, choke cleaner, etc, NO LUBE. Never lube anything on the throttle body linkages except using light machine oil is okay. Edited December 15, 2009 by bheinen74 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricearu Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 aluminum contracts much more than steel. Might just be creating a tight tolerance between the shaft and bore. Maybe, just a thought. Yeah only use a light oil or silicone spray. Heavy lube will attract crap which will cause more wear than if you hadn't oiled it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 Yea ive been useing a light lube. It was fine last year during this time. I have cleaned out the IAC and the Throttle Body thourghly with Throttle Body cleaner this spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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