I know I've repeatedly told the story about the time I was napping in the back of the truck as my wife was driving and the throttle linkage let go. I took a linkage clip from one place and put it where the broken clip had been, then immobilized the link back to the firewall with a piece of bailing wire that I found along side the freeway off-ramp. Diagnosed, improvised repair and back on the road in about 15 minutes. My wife asked me how I'd fixed it and I told her about the bailing wire. Her comment was "I thought that was a cliche!"

Well.... it happened again tonight.

I had just looped around a cloverleaf on ramp and was trying to speed up in order to match the freeway traffic. I was pretty sure what was wrong, just as soon as it happened. Unfortunately, I was approaching a construction zone, and there was no shoulder available after the other on ramp merged into traffic. I was able to pull into the other on ramp and park on the shoulder for that. I was fairly safe, and not blocking the slow lane.

I pulled off the air filter housing and sure enough, the linkage had separated. "AHA! That's why I keep those linkage clips in the glove box!" After a thorough search, I couldn't find them; they weren't in the glove box or laying in the clutter on the dash. I must have moved them to the other truck or something.

So I walked a 'bailing wire search patrol' along side the on ramp while checking in via the cell phone. The wife agreed to come and get me, but I found a piece of hard steel wire and told her I was going to try and improvise a repair.

It took a lot longer to re-link the throttle this time. I'm probably a hundred pounds heaver than last time, and not nearly as agile as I used to be. Fortunately, I had a half-sheet of chip board in the back of the truck, and I laid it across the top of the engine, then I climbed in under the hood. I was finally able to bend the wire around the linkage.

Put the chip board back, put the air filter & housing back on, closed the hood and it started up. In order to get enough room to get up to speed, I backed up until it seemed safe. As soon as I started forward again, the repair gave out.

Popped the hood again, pulled the air filter housing again, put the chip board back on top of the engine, grabbed the improvised clip and tried to improve the design. Went to install the improved improvised clip and I dropped it. Well, swearword.

I pulled the little flashlight out of my pocket and SURPRISE! it actually worked for me (my pocket flashlights tend to die, because they get accidentally turned on). I climbed all the way into the back of the engine bay and found the clip was resting on top of the transmission housing - the top of the bell, thank goodness. Reached in to grab it, but couldn't see what I was doing... felt around... "What's this?"... I managed to pull out the throttle linkage clip that had come loose and fallen off. It wasn't broken, it had just come loose.

I managed to fetch the improvised clip (didn't want any kind of 'foreign object damage' if I could avoid it), burned my arm on the engine (second degree burns in two places), used the correct clip to re-connect the throttle linkage... left the air filter & housing in the back of the truck... and limped home.

Now I've got to find out what I did with my spare linkage clips. I really DON'T like being caught without them.

I'm grateful that I know this truck REALLY well.

 

I have had a throttle clip break on me too in the short time I owned my 70. I too used some wire to fix it. I kept using the truck as is.... until it came loose. I temporarily fixed it then drove to the NAPA store nearby and bought a pack of clips. They are now in my glovebox..... I think! I better check!

 

Thus the reason I threw all that Rube Goldberg, monkey motion crap in the trash and put a simple threaded rod with heim ends from the pedal to the carb. No more messing around and it only cost a few bucks at the hardware store.

 

Concur with ^^... it's time to re-engineer the linkage - at least on rigs with the issue.

 

you have a pic you can post of your setup?

 

FWIW, if the linkage has a straight rod from the pedal to the carb and the left motor mount breaks, under moderate acceleration, the engine lift will crack the throttle wide open.
I have a straight linkage on my 460, but the 460 uses a captured motor mount design that doesn't separate in the event of mount failure.

 

I love this forum! Lots of people having my experiences. The factory linkage on both of my F-250s is getting a little sloppy, but so am I as I age so who am I to act uppity. I decided to leave mine alone for the same reason as pointed out just above... as the engine revs, it rolls and straight linkage would cause an RPM surge. I remember hearing those surges on heavier trucks back in the day. It would start an interesting cycle until the driver basically closed the throttle to stop the cycle, often necessitating nearly stopping and trying acceleration again.

Speaking of clip packs from NAPA/O'R/AZ, does anybody else pass a silent swear word or two when you open the package needing three of a particular clip, but there's only two of the one you need and 8 others you basically throw into your screw can and forget about? I hate making second trips back to the parts store because of handipack assortments not having enough of the item I need, but a whole lot of items I don't need. Mild rant. I'm done now.

 

I owned my '70 for 12 yrs and never had an issue with a straight throttle rod. In 26 yrs of still owning my '69 I've never had a throttle issue using just a straight rod.

 

My 63 has a 390 with a straight throttle rod. The left mount separated and under acceleration the motor lifted and cracked the throttle wide open. Lifting off the gas didn't do anything. Lucky I had the presence of mind to quickly shut off the ignition.

 

"That's not a bug, it's a feature!"

Yeah, I'm happier when I can dig through a parts drawer and get 4 or 6 of each that I really need. I have, in desperation, used one of the next size up... it didn't want to stay in place.

 

Been there, done that, twice. Best thing I ever did to my 70 was throw away the factory linkage and replace it with a rod from a 76 model.

 

Ok, I know I haven't been around much lately (I started working again -- hate work, it really cuts into my on-line time), but I've got to tell y'all what happened after this.

The one that fell off and was re-installed, broke about a week later. Again, I was on the side of the highway dealing with linkage clips. At least I'd found my spare clips and thrown the bag of clips into the truck.

The one I installed must have been defective, it broke about a week later!

So I've dealt with this once in, say, 30 years, then three times in three weeks!

I'm really glad I know this truck so well.