I am trying to get full throttle on my new-to-me 71 BB car. There were some issues with slack in the cable, which I addressed with a cable holder setup. Now it appears the accelerator pedal rod may be bent, as it doesn't appear to have enough travel and is hitting the side console plastic.

• When the butterflies are open completely on your carbs, how much room before you hit the floor? I cannot open it all the way; it feels really wonky, so I pulled it all apart to see what was going on in there.
• Where does the accelerator pedal sit in relation to your brake pedal? Is it level? Is it 1 inch or 2 inches below the brake pedal? A pic would be good.

I'm including a couple of pics as to what my rod looks like if anyone else has a picture of theirs when they were doing work or restoring would be helpful to see how much I need to bend, if at all.

 

You have a non-original, aftermarket carb; non-original aftermarket throttle cable bracket; non-original aftermaket intake manifold, and you assume you can hook up and run the stock throttle rod without making a bunch of corrections to make all those non-original parts work..? You need to do some serious setup mods on all those custom parts you've installed to allow them to work properly.

The first thing you need to do is to remove the cable from the bracket and the carb. Pull the cable all the way forward so it's pulled as far out of its housing sleeve as it will go. This should raise your gas pedal off the floor as high as it will go. Make note of how much cable is out of the housing. Have someone slowly press the gas pedal to the floor and make note of how much cable travel you have. This is the maximum amount of travel you will have available at the throttle lever.

Then measure how much travel distance is required to move the throttle from idle to WOT at the various cable attach points. Whatever attach point requires a distance equal to or less travel than the cable travel distance you measured above is the attach point you need to use. This will usually be the lowest hole on the throttle lever.

Finally, you need to locate your cable attach bracket at a position that holds the cable in a rearward position that pulls the full length of available cable out of the housing with the carb and throttle lever at idle, when the cable is attached to the lever hole you have identified. This may required the fabrication of a custom cable bracket. It appears you have a bunch of rearward adjustment on your bracket - why have you not moved it and tightened it up?

Once done, you will achieve WOT, assuming your throttle rod and pedal bracket are not bent. If you need more gas pedal travel, remove your floor mat.

By the way... the amount of black reversion sooting in your venturis is indicative of engine timing problems - usually retarded timing. You might want to check and correct your total timing, initial timing, vacuum advance, and verify your timing curve. A well-running carb cannot compensate for badly set timing.

Lars

 

Thanks lars i got a long way to go on this ride! I wasnt able to take it for any real rides due to a busted (leaky) power brake booster which has been resolved that was a fiasco. This is a 496 stroker build and yes it needs some tune up work but I want to address the throttle linkage as the car seemed to lack power and I found the existing bracketry didnt get rid of the cable slack. With the cable pulled all the way towards the carb, the accelerator pedal itself felt low, and also as you pressed all the way down, the right side of the pedal hits the console and rubs to the floor. I like the idea of holding the throttles all the way open, then pull on cable to see how much the pedal needs to go and see if its hitting the floor. Its not stock and not a ideal setup but its what I have to work with.