The really cool thing about the AW11 is that it has been around since 1984 so no matter what goes wrong someone has worked out how to fix it and shared a video. The not so cool thing about the AW11 is that it has been around since 1984 so everything needs doing.
The throttle felt sticky and I found myself over revving it when releasing the clutch. For a moment I thought that this was just operator error (what, not my driving skills), in an ego saving move, I quickly dispatched that hurtful thought and I decided to lay the blame on the equipment. A quick check found that the throttle cable was frayed where it entered the cable casing. Well, that looks like a nice simple job to cut my teeth on. I quickly found numerous posts on how to do this. I had already decided that threading in a new cable was the best way to go. There was lots of info on cable diameter (1,6mm) but nothing on the length. When it comes to throttle cable, I can assure you that length and girth are both important.
What I removed from my car was a 2mm cable (not 1.6mm) and there was still amble room inside the cable casing. The 2mm cable actually dials in at 1.8mm. And as for the length, you will need about 3.2m so I brought 4m of SS cable from the local lifting centre for $4.
I cut the original cable at the throttle body end and pulled it through from the accelerator pedal. I removed the seat first to help with the access.
- seat out2.jpg (433.7 KiB) Viewed 3753 times
Hmm, my garage is starting to look like most other AW11 owners. More bits on the floor than on the car.
Next I tinned the cable ends with solder to stop it splaying and threaded it through the existing cable body. Feeding from the engine bay to the interior. I drilled out the existing cable attachments and soldered them onto the new cable.
Job done!
Well no. I promised myself that every time I repair something I will restore whatever I touch. To replace the cable I had removed the over engineered cable bracket. This is a monstrosity and it could easily double as a strengthening bracket for the new cycle bridge that Aucklanders will soon be enjoying. There are a lot of designs out there for replacement cable brackets and these have been perfected into neat, compact, light-weight units. In fact, everything the original bracket is not. The original bracket is so ugly that I decided that it just had to stay and not only that I would make a feature of it by painting it bright blue.
And so the to-do list has grown and I am now 3 weeks into an engine bay detail. This is the almost B4 pix, I had some blue vac tube and a blue radiator cap in my 'just in case' bin so these got added to go with the nice blue throttle bracket.
- Engine bay B4.jpg (525.09 KiB) Viewed 3753 times
The next job is more detailing, painting and new silicon water hoses. Thanks Aliexpress.
