Throttle cable went...

[nomead]

I was driving today without problems, up until I decided to play with the car as I had done so many times before. I floored the accelerator pedal but all I heard was this snap and the car slowly stopped moving. Oh snap. Naturally I knew right away what had broken but the car was in a non-parking zone in a slightly awkward position... Luckily a passer by offered his help in pushing the car out of the way, and he actually offered to drive me to the nearest parts shop (Motonet was only 1 km away). Hmm, throttle cables? Nope, not available for the 340... So I bought a generic replacement, couldn't be arsed to fiddle with it yet, we'll see tomorrow.

I also bought some heavy duty cable ties and I ended up doing a quick fix: took the snapped cable out from inside the sheath, tied a knot on the end and fixed a cable tie loop onto that. Then another tie, then another, ... so this "rope" made from cable ties stuck out from under the bonnet and came in through the window - hey presto, I got an accelerator rope

I'll try to take some pics tomorrow just for the comedy/shock value.

[jtbo]

Emergency cable repair set:


Good idea to keep one at glove box for emergency situations.

It is very annoying when cable snaps, luckily there was some friendly person, hard to find those these days

Your creative fix is very good addition to 'million uses of cable ties' -book

[volvosneverdie]

I had a field bike wih the same acceleration managment system.
A bit of cable you yank with one hand, and try and hang on with the other one.

Falling off became a chore, so we burned it.

er, on my own private land, with all the neccisary permits.

N.B. No laws were broken during this story.

[kds19]

the very same thing happened to me but i drove it at 30 mph using the choke to the nearest psrts shop and bought a bycycle brake cable and some snips
and it worked no problem
and cos i bought a 2 meter cable i have more than enough incase it happens agen

[trabitom99]

I checked my parts stash earlier, could have sworn I had a late B14 throttle cable spare. Turned out it was for a 400

Tom

[Chris_C]

I've still got the one I had advertised, but it's RHD so I'd imagine less than helpful. Good luck fixing it mate

[classicswede]

Had he throttle cable go on the 240 a few weeks ago. To get home I tied a knot in the end of the inner cable and used a spare peice of wire to extend it. Could not get full throttle but was enough to get home. 5 mins of going through the parts bin I found a nice condition replacment Its great having scrapped around 100 240's and kept most of teh parts

[nomead]

OK, here's a dose of MacGyver for the day:

Here's a pic of me holding the "throttle"

cable1.jpg (54.22 KiB) Viewed 10082 times

And here's the other end in all its glory.

cable2.jpg (52.19 KiB) Viewed 10082 times

The generic (well, several Renault models - Ricambiflex set for "R5 Supercinque - R9 - R11 - R18 - R19 - R21 - R25 - Fuego - Espace - Clio - Trafic - Express) cable fit well enough. I used the old fitting at the pedal end because the Renault one wouldn't fit (the hole on the pedal was too small). But then, the ball on the end of the new cable was a bit small, it's only about 1 mm larger than the hole on the old fitting. This is probably going to be a problem, but at least it works for now.

[volvosneverdie]

ha ha ha!
Legendary antics.

Koudos to he throttle through the window, one-handed pioneers.

[OapEM]

Awesome bodge my friend

Large cable ties must live in 300 engine bays lol. I have one ATM looped through the dipstick and through a pair of mini mole grips which in turn is clamping my choke cable onto the bracket on the carb (clip snapped) The cable tie is there purely on the basis I don't want to lose my 5 quid tools lol

[MJ]

Yup, our 340 had a cable snap last year, but I wasn't driving at the time Having a choke proved useful to get it to a nearby lay-by. (Which the council have - due to their imaginative ingenuity - now halved in size and turned into a bus stop. Which no buses stop at. Presumably to make it 'safer' as a few people have driven straight off into a tree beside it - due to intoxication or medical problems, both of which can be cured by yellow bus stop paint)

Anyway, the old one was repaired, and I now have a NOS one from ebay in the garage ready for next time

[nomead]

Yeah I tried driving with choke too, but got nowhere - the vario needs more RPM than just the choke can provide, unfortunately.