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I am contemplating removing my throttle body in order to clean it and possibly replace my throttle body position sensor. (BTW, I have a 1986 F-150 XLT Lariat with a 5.0 EFI)
This is big "truck surgery" for a guy like me who knows very little about this stuff. Since Murphy's Law always seems to find me I wanted to ask you for your opinion as to what I should be mindful of if I do this job. The photo below is the first of my concerns.
How do I take off #1 & #2. It does not look hard to do knowing my luck I would break something and instantly FUBAR my truck. Do I need to detach #3 or can I leave whatever that is in place on the throttle body?
Is the throttle cable (#1?) and TV cable (#2?) have some sort of pre-set "tension" or adjustment that can get messed up if removed? I do not want to take these off and then when reattached they are out of spec or something like that.
Any tips or "do this" or "don't do that" is appreciated.
What is #1, #2 and #3? Are they are to remove and put back in place?
To minimize breakage and expedite the procedure, just leave the cables all hooked up, and take that gold bracket loose that holds them. Looks like a couple of bolts back there that holds it. Then take the 4 bolts loose that hold the throttle body and take the whole thing loose as an assembly. Move it to the side a little bit and sit it on a rag, and take brake cleaner and start spraying.
I am not too familiar with your particular year truck, but looks like you have 3 cables. One will be to the transmission, yes that one can be messed up and burn your transmission up. One of them will go to the gas pedal. The other one is probably cruise control.
#3 doesn't need to be disconnected at all. It looks like a linkage to connect the throttle to the trans cable. Someone correct me if I'm wrong there?
It's just a ball stud for the throttle cable. Separate adjustment you would have to intentionally screw up that is on the throttle bracket. Stick a screwdriver under and pop upward carefully. All it has is two metal "lips" that fit around the ball stud on the throttle body. The cruise cable is attached to it and both come off together.
As for the kickdown...not as sure on that one. From what I am seeing, it looks like you would pull the kickdown cable out a little and slide it forward toward the front of the truck?
Like I said, no need to unhook #3, it simply connects the linkages for the trans cable and the throttle cable.
Here's a pic of a BBK so you can see what they look like with nothing attached, if that helps you visualize what you need to do.
#1. Put a screwdriver under the cable and pry up against the bracket and the cable will pop off.
#2. Grab the plastic part while holding the throttle linkage and pull back(towards you as you lean over the front of the engine), the cable clip will slide off of the stud towards the front of the vehicle. Don't touch the adjustment mechanism it's setting is very important to the life of the AOD trans and it's real easy to mess up.
Update....Over the weekend I was able to get my throttle plate off. I cleaned it, put a new gasket on it and bolted back on. It was very dirty inside. I started the truck and it idled well in the driveway but I did not drive it on the road. So I must have done it right!
While the coolant hoses were off I noticed the “hole” valve cover gasket. My heart sank. I had never seen that before when poking around the engine – but then again I was not looking for anything like that. I can’t think that this is a good thing. Am I right?
The truck did develop some running issues this weekend but I am not sure that this “hole” is the cause of it.
I will start a new thread about the running issues that just happened. I will need your opinions on this because I think that there could be quite a few causes to the problem. The anti-freeze has been cleaned since the photo was taken. This hole looks like bad news.
