Hey all. I'm still working on getting her back to road-worthiness after a long battle with an electrical issue (http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB69&Number=1254825&fpart=&PHPSESSID=) ending in a draw / workaround and issues secondary to sitting for so long. I've been venturing out around the neighborhood to keep her moving parts exercised.

Today (its cold) I had a hard time starting her, and was pumping the gas pedel when it just went limp. At the same time, the engine decided to fire. An important note is that my electrical problem workaround was to run alligator clips from battery to fuel pump check terminal. I still havent gotten around to installing a switch on the dash so I have to get out and disconnect the clip to cut the engine. So when the engine fired up it went full monty--pretty scary. It seemed like it took an eternity to get to that alligator clip.

Engine seems ok. But it appears that the problem is the (let me know if I'm using terms that are too highly technical here) "thingy" that pulls the cable back to neutral position isn't working. When I close the throttle by hand, the "decelerator?" cable that is supposed to be pulling it closed gets slack. The "thingy" seems to be more than a spring-loaded mechanism, as the cable "downstream" of the throttle linkage disappears into a housing that has what appears to be a black capacitor or transformer and various other mysterious components.

Never dealt with this problem before, and a search here suggests it isn't common as I couldn't find a single thread discussing it. Haynes manual is no help.

Any ideas? I don't want to end up inside the dining area of a Waffle House unless I'm on foot.

My 2 bits would be the cable is sticking the housing. Might need some lube in it. Their are various things for that. You can use a cable lube from the Motorbike shop. Some of those come with the spray can of lube and a "luber", a clamp that seals against the housing to allow the lube to penetrate the housing. Unhook the cable from the throttle body and see how free it moves. If it is stiff, might need to be lubed. Sometimes they need to cleaned before lubing. (Gee I like that word, LUBE!) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Do you have cruise control? Is this the module? Aftermarket?

LUBE! Thanks. Given its lack of usage and the temp your LUBE theory does make sense. However, pushing the cable back into the "thingy", there is little to no resistance. That has me worried that something has become detached. I'll check more closely though.

Oh yeah! I bet that is indeed what that box is. I do have cruise and the vehicle is all stock AFAIK. I don't really need cruise...

Well I put a little lube on the cable, charged the battery overnight, and made sure throttle was in the proper position and started her up today. No problems. I'm thinking that that module was indeed the cruise module, and for whatever reason it was stuck after sitting for a week and in the cold weather (9F). I played with the pedel and was not able to reproduce the symptom, so hopefully it was just an anomaly, maybe related to the way I have it rigged up electrically.

Thanks very much Heathdogg and PLH for your input! Will report back if anything further develops.

Hello MrRay, is there any way you could take a photo for us?

Sure thing Jay. Thanks for the interest! 1st pic is zoomed out. You can see the 2 cables coming from the TB to the module.

web page

2nd pic (next post) is the box I'm referring to.

web page

2nd pic

web page

Ok. So the file attachment feature apparently does not work. I'll upload these to Picasa and html link in the posts. Gonna take a minute...

UPDATE: See "web page" links within the posts. Disregard the attachments.