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I recently purchased an 89 ford e350 with a 7.3 IDI diesel and E40D trans. The cruise was not working at all and I found that the ball chain wasn't connected to the throttle. I reconnected it, though it seemed a bit short, and it made the truck idle higher than I liked by pulling on the throttle. Today, I notice that I was idling down the street at about 35mph and had to really work the brakes to get it stopped. I've tried to find a parts list or even just a photo of the setup at the throttle with no luck. I'm wondering if there's a piece missing, or maybe the ball chain broke and is missing a few links? Is there a parts diagram available that would show me if I'm missing something?
I am thinking, since you said it seemed short when you connected it that the section that goes on your throttle was missing, broken off, meaning what you have done is pulled it too tight, making it engaged in the off position, disconnect it, then replace the entire thing.
Thanks for trying to help me. Yes, that's an excellent idea. I can't seem to locate the part number or a source for a replacement. I didn't see anything on partsgeek, rockauto, autozone or o'reillys. The service manual happens to mention the cruise cable part number, but not the ball chain stuff, and no diagram for the ball chain setup that I was able to locate. Any ideas how to proceed?
I just happened to notice this topic... A ball chain? That sounds like the old Ford cruise control setup of the 1970s! Or maybe it's an after-market setup?
What does the servo look like? Is it a rubber bellows like the 1970s?
The factory vacuum-operated servo of your era was a black plastic box that had a round metal diaphragm cover, and an attachment point for a cable to go to the throttle. Also had an external vacuum hose jumper on it, from one section of the servo to the other. Can find pics of it on rockauto's site.
But more importantly if you cant find the actual part.. Maybe you cold order "Ball Chain with connectors" from a supply house. I see that they make them in stainless steel.
In the mean time perhaps you could rig something up connecting it to give the chain just a little slack and test it out to make sure that is the problem..
IF you do a search on "9A825 ford", It will bring up a variety of cables. Some with a chain and others without it but the basic part number for them all is 9A825
I'm nearly certain its the factory setup, but it's hard to know on a 30 year old vehicle. The controls are in the steering wheel. The actuator assembly is shown on page 37-01-9 in the shop manual, labelled as assembly 9c734. Page 37-01-12 purports to show in view B the actuator assembly 9A825, but that's not what's on my 7.3.
In the shop manual, page 37-01-4, the visual inspection paragraph indicates "The bead chain, if so equipped, should have no more than 3.18mm (1/8 inch) free play with the throttle set to hot idle position. The actuator cable, if so equipped, should be adjusted as tight as possible withouth opening the throttle plate or increasing the idle speed."
I take that to mean one could be equipped with either setup. Maybe the diesels are bead chain?
I'll post a picture of it when I get back home tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks for jumping in with the links. I googled all sorts of bead chain stuff a few days back and didn't find any sources. I'll follow up the links you sent. I think the only other possibility is that the dump valve isn't dumping. I can certainly set the cruise control and it holds the speed pretty well. My gut tells me that there's some chain missing or a plastic extender missing off the end that connects to the throttle.
I recently purchased an 89 ford E350 with a 7.3 IDI diesel and E40D trans. The cruise was not working at all and I found that the ball chain wasn't connected to the throttle.
I reconnected it, though it seemed a bit short, and it made the truck idle higher than I liked by pulling on the throttle. Today, I noticed that I was idling down the street at about 35mph and had to really work the brakes to get it stopped.
I've tried to find a parts list or even just a photo of the setup at the throttle with no luck.
Thanks so much for posting the diagram. In my case, I don't havea 9A825 actuator cable with the throttle end showin in the diagram. There's some cable, but it goes to a fairly long bead chain. I suppose it's possible that someone put an earlier servo on a later van? I'll post some pics and that should make things clearer.
Thanks so much everyone that helped me. I think I have it solved. I went back and got closer examination of the throttle setup. It turns out there are three things, not the two that I thought, that attach to the throttle on this rig. 1) The throttle cable. 2) The cruise control actuator cable 3) A bead chain. I believe the bead chain is an add on servo purposefully made to speed up the engine at the drivers will.
Here's a few pics looking from inside the cab towards the front of the engine. The add-on servo is attached to the passenger side of the engine near where the engine and transmission meet.
The round metal servo has a bead chain on the other side that goes to the throttle. A slightly closer view. The two black cables coming in from the left are the throttle and cruise cables. A bit of the other side of the servo so you can see where the cable attaches. The air cleaner blocks a further forward view.
At present, I simply disconnected the ball chain from the throttle plate and I found my cruise works perfectly. My mistake was believing that the bead chain was part of the factory system. There's a lighted switch on the dash that says "throttle", but it doesn't light when flipped on and the van never changed engine speed whether it was on or off. I have no real need of it, so I expect it to stay inoperative.
11-19-2017, 01:19 AM
