[Amps] Amps Digest, Vol 74, Issue 32

[John Lyles]

Carl
That sounds familiar. About 10 years ago, I was driving on a street in Albuquerque, on the 'rough' side of town, in my 1982 Vanagon diesel. Yes, it was a slug. Anyway, the throttle cable broke at night, and I was able to patch it back to the linkage using a cotter pin that came from a Dollar Store. I promptly forgot the repair and months later it happened again. This time, in daylight, I just opened the motor hatch in the sleeping compartment of the van, and used a long wire to connect to the throttle linkage. I was able to limp home with this wire, running the throttle with my right hand while I shifted and steered. Been there, done that!
John 
K5PRO


> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 16:32:13 -0500
> From: "Carl" <km1h at jeremy.mv.com
> 
> Colin youre as nutty as I am!
> Many moons ago I had a 55 T Bird with a 389 Pontiac and tripower 
> shoehorned in. The hood had a cutout for the carbs to clear.
> One nice summer Sunday I was tooling around about 25 miles from home 
> when the carb linkage broke.
> 
> Rummaging around in the glove box and trunk came up empty. Out comes the 
> pocket knife and I lop off a length of wire for the tailights. Tied that 
> to the center carb and ran the wire over the windshield top (It was in 
> roadster mode). The only discomfort was that I had to use my right hand 
> to play throttleman as well as shift the Muncie 4 speed.
> 
> Got some real weird looks including some cops that drove by and 
> continued on their way.