If any of you guys are considering a TPI swap one of the stumbling blocks is to figure out what to do with the throttle cable. The stock carburator cable will be too short.

If you decide to go ahead and use a stock Camaro/Firebird cable you'll notice that

1. The cable is actually too long

2. The clip that mount's into the firewall is larger than the stock cable.

You can either modify the end and use a screw or modify the hole so that the cable will fit.

The problem I had was that the cable throw was so long my gas pedal had a lot of play in it. Lets face it the cable wasn't made for a C3.

So............

I purchased this universal throttle cable kit made by spectre, it's design to work in several applications and you can trim to fit to match the length you need. Plus the cable end that attaches to the throttle body is adjustable so you can take all the slack out of the gas pedal and it'll be nice and tight.



I think you can still buy these from chain store auto parts store but I got mine off ebay from here.

Spectre. Part #2430


Start off by removing your access plate under the steering column and the drivers air duct. Once you do that you'll have plenty of room to get to the pedal linkage.

I also replaced the firewall plate with a piece I cut out of aluminum, since I enlarged the stock piece trying to make a camaro cable work. I drilled a hole that allows the universal cable to slide through since it's round and not square. You can still use your stock plate with NO cutting, this cable will work just fine in a smaller square opening.



Here's the modified plate riveted and attached to the firewall







Here's the universal cable attached to the firewall



And here's the end that attaches to the throttle body linkage....you just trim the metal cable to the correct length and attach this piece with a set screw. All you have to do is get it close and then you can fine tune the tightness.


All done! I used a clamp to hold the cable down a little tighter against the plenum. My gas pedal is all the way out and the linkage works through it's complete motions like it's supposed to do! Very nice and tight and feels "factory"

All done in less than an hour and less than $20.....you can't beat that!

 

That looks great man. Good job.

 

When I put TPO in my Jaguar XJ6, I used a an adaptor similar to the adjustor on the C3 hood cable on the throttle body end of the jag cable. It worked. but every time I put the throttle to the floor, I would pull the cable out of the adaptor. This was eventually resolved by reducingthe ratio of pedal movement to movement at the throttle body, which was a time consuming PITA.

To avpid this on my C3, I purchased a generic Lokar knock-off from ebay ($26) and used the inside cable from a 91 Camaro TPI throttle. The knock-off is threaded at both ends , which gives adjustability at the plenum bracket and, with a large stainless fender washer and some RTV on either side of the firewall, gives a tight, secure sealed mounting through the firewall. The stock end of the Camaro cable connects securely to the throttle body. The pedal end of the cable is secured by adapting one of the cable attachments (with 2 very well placed set screws) and modifying the upper end pedal linkage rod to allow the spherical of tha cable stop to bear on a matching concavity in the linkage rod. It gives me WOT, no noticible take-up in the throttle cable, a VERY smooth light feel at the pedal and seems secure and durable.

 

That kit is realy good. I wish I had known about it when I did my TPI install.
It looks like your project is coming along nicely.
Thanks for the write up.

 

Is this your stock engine? What do you do computer wise to run the TPI? Stock or what or any at all?

 

I'd known of that when doing the last adaptation, I would have just bought it, but instead I found a T cable in a junkyard that fit really nicely...just a bit of filing to the firewall fitting and it plugged in with stock length and worked fine...I noted there were two available lengths to the swage fittings inside...I cut the longer one off....about all I can remember....donar was a GM product...Lumina?? I forget...

 

It's a stock 82 crossfire engine with the intake up swapped out to TPI, all the sensors are for a 350 TPI.

I scrapped my stock 82 computer and part of the factory harness when I did a carb swap.

I bought a custom 90-92 TPI speed density harness, chip and ECM from www.TPIparts.net

The chip has the settings for the 90-92 5.7 TPI F-body w/ cast iron heads. All the uneeded extras like EGR, smog, VATS have been deleted.

Since I already had a 700r4 I swapped the stock cable driven speedo gear for a electric cable driven speed sensor / gear from the 90-92 Caprice....bolted right and and plugged directly to my harness.

All in All this was a very easy swap