MIDNIGHT RIDER
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- Sep 29, 2005
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Typical for Kentucky, we always have a record-breaking monsoon of blowing rain for days ahead of any cold spell, saturating and flooding everything imaginable and then freezing it solid.
Locks, door-handles, gate-chains, anything that slides, opens, or pivots, you can count on it being frozen.
The humid air is so water-laden that even stuff under-roof is not immune.
Has anyone else had issues with their accelerator cable freezing solid ??
About three winters ago with temperatures in the single digits, I had a problem with mine freezing while driving along at speed, holding the engine at whatever RPM I was at when it decided to freeze.
During that spell, I was always able to raise the hood and free it by simply pulling a wee bit on the cable.
Of course, as soon as I could, I removed the cable, hung it behind the wood-stove, and let it cook all day.
Then I squirted oil down through it until it was freely dripping out the other end.
This cured any subsequent freezing episodes until a few days ago, when we had our first really cold day of the season with temperatures in the low teens.
This time, the pedal refused to move after sitting all night, frozen solid; it would have broken before it would have moved.
Like a dummy
, I warmed it up with a heat-gun, squirted some moisture displacer at it, and headed to the feed-mill.
I didn't go a mile before it froze solid again at about 1800-RPM and I had to complete my errands at that constant RPM.
I was unable to free it without resorting to the heat-gun.
Once back home, I removed the cable and brought it inside.
I was expecting maybe half-a-molecule of water trapped inside causing all the trouble.
Instead, once it thawed, what I found was about a table-spoon-ful of clear water came pouring out.
Once again, I let it hang behind the stove and dry thoroughly.
This time I started by squirting PB-Blaster down through it while black nasty-looking liquid dripped out the bottom.
After several ounces of that, I purged it with good old 3-in-1 oil until it was dripping out the bottom and the entire length was fully saturated.
The way the cable had always been routed, it had a very low sag along it's length, creating a reservoir where entrapped water could not escape.
I re-routed the cable, zip-tying it high and dry, with a definite upward arch in place of the deep sag.
Now, hopefully, any water that may find it's way inside will either drain back into the engine bay or into the cab, instead of ponding up in there to freeze.
The cable is very simple to remove; snap it off at the throttle-lever, slip the end free of the pedal mechanism, and remove the two 5/16-headed screws that retain it at the engine side of the firewall.
Locks, door-handles, gate-chains, anything that slides, opens, or pivots, you can count on it being frozen.
The humid air is so water-laden that even stuff under-roof is not immune.
Has anyone else had issues with their accelerator cable freezing solid ??
About three winters ago with temperatures in the single digits, I had a problem with mine freezing while driving along at speed, holding the engine at whatever RPM I was at when it decided to freeze.
During that spell, I was always able to raise the hood and free it by simply pulling a wee bit on the cable.
Of course, as soon as I could, I removed the cable, hung it behind the wood-stove, and let it cook all day.
Then I squirted oil down through it until it was freely dripping out the other end.
This cured any subsequent freezing episodes until a few days ago, when we had our first really cold day of the season with temperatures in the low teens.
This time, the pedal refused to move after sitting all night, frozen solid; it would have broken before it would have moved.
Like a dummy
, I warmed it up with a heat-gun, squirted some moisture displacer at it, and headed to the feed-mill.I didn't go a mile before it froze solid again at about 1800-RPM and I had to complete my errands at that constant RPM.
I was unable to free it without resorting to the heat-gun.
Once back home, I removed the cable and brought it inside.
I was expecting maybe half-a-molecule of water trapped inside causing all the trouble.
Instead, once it thawed, what I found was about a table-spoon-ful of clear water came pouring out.
Once again, I let it hang behind the stove and dry thoroughly.
This time I started by squirting PB-Blaster down through it while black nasty-looking liquid dripped out the bottom.
After several ounces of that, I purged it with good old 3-in-1 oil until it was dripping out the bottom and the entire length was fully saturated.
The way the cable had always been routed, it had a very low sag along it's length, creating a reservoir where entrapped water could not escape.
I re-routed the cable, zip-tying it high and dry, with a definite upward arch in place of the deep sag.
Now, hopefully, any water that may find it's way inside will either drain back into the engine bay or into the cab, instead of ponding up in there to freeze.
The cable is very simple to remove; snap it off at the throttle-lever, slip the end free of the pedal mechanism, and remove the two 5/16-headed screws that retain it at the engine side of the firewall.
