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Oh noes, runaway car!


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Ok, not really. That was a stab at the people who were driving the Toyotas and claimed it started to accelerate on them, and they couldn't do anything about it and crashed(I was very ready to kill the ignition if it was going to get out of control).

 

I didn't crash, but I did have my car get stuck at 6k rpm tonight. While climbing I70, I crested a hill and let off the throttle, but the throttle didn't let off. Driving in the mountains, up and down, while the engine tries to hit 6k isn't so much fun. There was a lot of braking involved, because I wasn't about to pull over at 9pm on a Sunday night, in the cold and dark, on the side of a mountainous road. Made it to the gas station, and killed it there.

 

Not having any tools or a flashlight, I was kind of SOL for a bit, until I had a friend come up to give me a hand. After some liberal use of carb cleaner, managed to get the engine to idle back around 2k. A little more, and I had normal idle again. Drove it home, and seems ok.

 

Is there anything that's known for getting stuck? It seemed like the main butterfly was sticking, but I'm not positive. I could see a butterfly down on the rear side of the carb, about 5 inches down. It didn't seem to want to move very freely, but I'm not sure if that's the primary or not. Thoughts?

 

edit: Forgot to mention, '87 Brat with stock Hitachi carb. And I checked all the vacuum lines, couldn't find anything wrong there.

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Very possible that the throttleshaft area of the carb base is worn.

See if you can detect any free-play in the shaft by wiggling it. If it's worn, you can replace just the base of the carb. If,, you can find one that's not worn.

 

A worn throttle cable can cause sticking.

Had to replace the cable on both the '85 and '86 BRATs due to that.

 

Carb icing will cause a stuck throttle also.

The Weber on the '86 did that alot last winter until I fashioned a shield around it using some aluminum roof flashing.

On your stock setup, make sure the heatriser tube is in place, the flapper door in the intake snorkel of the filter can operates, and the valve for it in the filter can is working.

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Very possible that the throttleshaft area of the carb base is worn.

See if you can detect any free-play in the shaft by wiggling it. If it's worn, you can replace just the base of the carb. If,, you can find one that's not worn.

 

A worn throttle cable can cause sticking.

Had to replace the cable on both the '85 and '86 BRATs due to that.

 

Carb icing will cause a stuck throttle also.

The Weber on the '86 did that alot last winter until I fashioned a shield around it using some aluminum roof flashing.

On your stock setup, make sure the heatriser tube is in place, the flapper door in the intake snorkel of the filter can operates, and the valve for it in the filter can is working.

 

The heatriser tube was MIA when I got the car. Still has everything else in place though. I haven't verified if the flapper works, because there hasn't been a tube there. But I don't believe it was icing(though I can't say for certain).

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My 84 Brat did this religiosly until I unhooked the secondary on the Hitachi. I could get it to stick if I rompped on the gas for acceleration and get it to unstick if I slowwed the car down and really loaded up the enginer in high gear.

 

I tried a few things but went ahead and performed the mod where you attach the linkage form the primary with the secondary and disconnect the vacuum actuator. There are a few reference to this mod in this forum.

 

Good luck! Post what you find out please.

 

D

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There is a rubber dust boot on the end of the throttle cable that keeps dust from getting in and the lube from getting out. On my DL it fell apart and worked its way in between the cam and the throttle cable holding the throttle at about 25%, which unloaded means it got to red line pretty quick. :eek:

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