Throttle cable and linkage

Driving home tonight my accelerator lost all resistance and jammed up. Looked under the hood and the plastic piece that rests inside the spring is broken, so it catches on the end of the tube instead of sliding inside of it. I'm guessing it's an easy fix (swap out the plastic bit) or will I need a new cable? What is the little black plastic thing that clips onto the outside of it? Didn't seem like it had much resistance either.

Hmm I'd probably play it safe and go for a new cable. I'm not certain but I don't think those plastic pieces are replaceable. Consider buying two and keep one under the seat as a spare. For whatever reason I've had nothing but problems with aftermarket throttle cables. Seems like there's only two brands available and I've had trouble with both in a short amount of time. Maybe get a new one throughout the dealer? The angle in which they route through the fire wall is completely stupid on Fords part.. Sorry for the rant the last one nearly stranded me in the middle of Utah's west desert

I broke all of that plastic out.

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I may look at breaking out the plastic and doing a good cable lube. Don't see a lot of added benefit from the plastic part anyway. On the other hand, I have a ton of slack at the pedal end, so a new cable could give me more throttle response and full throttle movement. I may try to find a set screw and take the slack out that way too. Not finding the right part on fordparts.com. Shouldn't be too uncommon I'd think.

In my searching for a fix, I found out the PO disabled the clutch switch, so I can start it without the clutch in. I'm hoping that's what is killing my cruise, however my horn is inop too, so could be the clockspring.

Clockspring is common.
I think some use a zip tie at the pedal around the cable to take the slack out.

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As Rot Box states above, get a Ford cable and not an after market one. When the original cable gave out in my truck, I bought a Dorman cable and it quickly developed about 1 inch of slack in it. No good! I bought a Ford cable and that has been fine but cost about $55 vs $25 for the Dorman cable. If you get a little slack in the cable, you can crimp on lead split shot sinkers near the pedal to take up some of that extra cable length.

79jasper said:

I broke all of that plastic out.

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Same here.

To take up the slack in my cable I just bent the throttle pedal arm back a bit. I know I know you can shoot me now.

I bought an aftermarket cable too and will agree with others in saying they are junk. Mine didn't stretch but pedal effort was too high because the cable just didn't slide well in the case (had similar problems with crappy E-brake cables...). After a couple years of this, I managed to repair the original cable with a steel sleeve instead of plastic. I made it by splitting a 2" length of hydraulic tube, sliding the cable in, and closing the split pipe in the vise. It actually slides better than new and I know it will never break again.

Are there any sources for a new OEM cable beside the dealer. I hate going to the dealer around here. No one around there has a clue.

Yeah I also just boke off all the red plastic at the end of the cable, lube it up good and run it. I like to keep a new aftermarket cable in the tool box just in case. But...I can't find one. There are two availible for 1984 and niether are correct. Have not tried the dealer yet.

Update

Figured I'd follow up to let you all know I got it fixed. Stealership wanted almost $100 and said they'd have to order it. I went down to a local pic-a-part and got lucky. Had one diesel and the right year to boot. Throttle body was gone, but they left the cable. I pulled it out, lubed it up and slapped it in. Talk about feeling like a new truck. I didn't know what I was missing until now! That and a cruise servo only cost me $13 out the gate.

I'm trying to troubleshoot the electrical now, but keep hitting dead ends. I've tried to bypass the clockspring to get the horn working without success. I did find a jenky jumper on the clutch switch



, so I put in an actual switch now. I start it with the switch on (clutch bypass) then flipped it off after start, got up past 30mph and still no cruise love. What else do you guys have for me?

I recall some members found a neat idea to remove the cable slack. They clamped some fishing split weights to the cable. Seemed to work well.

Get a good clutch switch. Remove the jumpers, and go from there.

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What did you do to lube up the cable? I need to try that with mine.

Sorry for the slow reply. Pregnant wife and other hobbies slow me down! All I did was spray some silicone lube in from both ends while I had the cable out. I'd pull tension on the cable to compress the spring, spray lube on the cable and work it in and out. Only took about 4-5 small sprays to notice it got much easier to move. It's great having full throttle!

My next project is to see where this dang oil is leaking from. I'm taking it to a buddies tonight to see if it's just a matter of tightening some bolts down. Fingers crossed. It looks like at some point it had a seal blow, because I cleaned about 2lbs of crude/sludge from the engine. Literally had to scrape it off with a scraper (see also, screwdriver) and my hand. Looks like it could be leaking around the rear passenger heads, closest to the firewall; The oil pan itself, which I can tighten with my current tools; or the oil filter, which had some on it too. Are there any common leaks on this model? Any help is much appreciated.