Stromberg Throttle Cable

[redskatejbf]

Help...............I`ve just installed the original engine back into my S4, ( I had a Weber carb. engine in it for the last 15 years), and the throttle cable on the Strombergs is very stiff so the pedal is`jerky`. I am either going no where or taking off like a jack rabbit, its a pain to drive. The carbs have been rebuilt, the foot pedal is free, so Iam convinced its the cable, I fitted a new cable supplied by P.M. when first installed and that jammed when the bonnet was closed, I found a old cable in my spares box and fitted that, its alot better but still no good,its longer than P.Ms. Does anyone know of a super smooth cable that I could use,perhaps one from a bicycle shop etc. Any suggestions most welcome, Iam sure someone must have had a similar problem.

Please excuse me if I do not acknowledge any posts for about 5 days as I will be away.

Regards, John.

[69S4]

Hi John

No real answer to your problem but I've had the same happen to me and I went through a phase of changing cables as well. The current one is just a std Paul Matty supplied cable that I got about 15yrs ago and the action is as smooth as my normal day car. I did however look carefully at all aspects of the operation from the pedal through to the angle of the arm where it connects to the carbs. I pressure lubed the cable and made sure the bends were all smooth.

The whole thing should be almost friction free so if you've got a stick-slip motion then something is catching somewhere. On mine there was a mismatched angle where the cable entered the footwell above the pedal so the inner cable was rubbing on the side of the bracket where the outer is located to the point where it was starting to cut through. There's also something wrong if your cable is jamming when you shut the bonnet, the cable run should be well below that.

[Robbie693]

Hi John,

I had a new cable from Paul Matty a while ago (this is for Dellorto's mind), which was stiff but a lube with some GT85 sorted it out immediately..

Worth a try, if you haven't already

Cheers

Robbie

[Jeff@Jae]

The problem with Strombergs is usually that the pedal feel is too light ! A lot of folks add a bit stiffer return spring just to achieve some pedal "feel". It really sounds like a cable issue or misalignment. It's nice to have the spring steel cable holder to keep the cable from flopping around. It was usually attached to the cam cover retaining stud on LHD cars.

[redskatejbf]

Thanks Stuart, Robbie and Jeff for your time and trouble to reply.
Stuart...... you could be right with the mismatched angle of cable entry at the footwell / pedal clevis connection. There is certainly a scraping sound from that area when I work the pedal by hand with the engine off, but I cannot find any misalignment by eye or by slackening off the nuts either side of the footwell to allow self alignment.

Could I ask you, or someone with a Stromberg engine (R H drive) to measure the length of the cable and post a photo of the cable so I can see the correct position/run of the cable from the footwell to the `stop` on the cam cover and then to the carbs., perhaps I do not have the cable run correctly.

The photo would be a great help in confirming I have run it correctly and a bit embarrassing as I do not have a clue to how I post a photo if someone asked me to do the same.
Kind Regards John.