Last night the little bent rod that connects the accelerator pedal to
the lever that resides in the box beneath the floor apparently broke at
the bottom end. Is that possible, from wear? I know from having snapped
it back on the plastic pedal many times that it is L-shaped at the upper
end. Is it supposed to be L-shaped ad the lower end too? Mine is not ...
not any more at least.

 

a)          Should I try to repair what's left, as suggested in the
archives? (See what I reprinted below.)

b)        Or buy a new part? If so, who would have one. Ken?

 

Thanks,

 

Woody

83.5 V'gon

Haverhill, MA

 

My linkage came loose too.  There's a 6mm bent steel rod that snaps into

the bottom of the plastic gas pedal and then fits through a hole in a
lever

bolted to the frame that the throttle cable attaches to (after it goes

through the hole in the floor).  It's in a little plastic box that you
can

get to when you take the spare tire out.  My repair was over kill.  It

probably only came out of the lever because it was already out of the
gas

pedal.  I probably could have just snapped the thing together again.  I
did

the repair outdoors in the ice and snow and I wanted to make sure I
never

had to do it again.  I ground off the little bent end of the rod that
goes

through the lever, welded on a 10 mm steel nut ( the bolt hole size is
6mm

like the bent steel rod), and ran a 6mm bolt through the hole in the
lever

into the nut I welded onto the bent rod, and added a second lock nut and

lot's of lock-tite. Now if the linkage pops of the gas pedal, I can deal

with it from inside the car instead of removing the spare tire and
crawling

through ice-water to get to it.  A chain always breaks at its weakest
link,

so now it has to break somewhere harder to get at and more expensive to

fix. I would suggest that you fix yours the easy way.

 

----------

> From: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>

> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> Subject: Re: Throttle cable

> Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 11:00 AM

> 

> Possibly nothing is broken.  Look under your gas pedal and see if the

> linkage has come loose.  Mine did in the same situation.

> 

> Karl Wolz

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "John Schaper" <JSchaper@SCHSA.ORG>

> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>

> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 8:49 AM

> Subject: Throttle cable

> 

> 

> > I did something stupid that broke my throttle cable.  With the rpm's
at

> 2000

> > at a stop light I used my toe to try to bring the accelerator pedal

back

> to

> > reduce the rpm's.  (I know it is probably the throttle switch).

Anyway,

> it

> > broke, but since it was dark and I couldn't investigate further, I

don't

> > know what broke.  Has anybody done anything similarly stupid?  What

broke,

> > what do I need to replace--my guess is after looking at Bentley is
the

> > "relay lever", "pin", or clamping bold.  I looked at the engine

> accelerator

> > cable and it is OK, the cable is still attached.  Any help would be

> > appreciated.