BROKE ACCELERATOR CABLE - How do drive home in a pinch

Yesterday we went for a BOOT down the hill and at the red light (lots of people here looking at the colors changing) the cable snapped. Had to push the car out of the intersection to a spot to look at the damage. Was able to slacken the cable in the back to give me some more at the pedal and attached it with a vice grip on the pedal. Drove back home with the vice-grip on the pedal. (Run the cable through the hole on the pedal and grip it with the vice grip) Make sure the vice grip handle is toward you so you can move with your foot or easily you can reach down and activate UP/DOWN with your hand. Was OK!!

Today will attach a new cable, through the hole and attach with a crimper. The original cable had that hook, that's what came off the cable.

Adventure!

Do THAT in a Honda!

Mike - NICE SAVE! I'll add your remedy to my list of 'McGuyver' fixes on the road. When you got home, I bet you felt most gratified with your engineering feat. Isn't it all part of the adventure in a Speedy?

I had a similar incident (as many of us on this SOC site) but at the other end (cable snapped at linkage). Glad you made it home safely.

Option #2
Gather a few friends shoe laces, tie them together and attach to the carb..it does take a bit to get use to pulling it with the right amount of tension but this works in a pinch too. Her panty hose will also work....it's a great excuse on a first date :)

Note: Add to "Things I need" list:

(1) pair of vice grips

(1) pair or Panty Hose from a nearby donor

(1) extra throttle cable (carefully hidden in case I could actually use the Panty hose....)

Changed the cable today. Cable was 1/16" steel rope, bought 15' for about $1.00. Originally I thought that I needed (could) attach it to the broken one so that I can pull it through where it needed to go.

That was a pipe dream.

So I could get it in at the pedal and it came out under the car near the fuel line under the rear drivers side. Then it needed to come up to the rear of the dog house. Easy enough!!! But the dog house end on the inside is about 3" from the firewall.... %$#!!!!

So hold onto the end of the cable with a long nose and with your finger find the tube on the inside of the dog house and slowly try to insert the end of the wire. No problem.

Now I had both ends. I bought some crimpers and ran the pedal end through the hole and crimped the wire. Attached the other end to the dual carb (leading side) left. Then noticed that the pedal was a little hard to depress. I looked under the car and saw that it snaked around the fuel line. Not good!!! Pulled it out of the doghouse and re-routed and did the long nose trick again.

Now it's perfect.

Note: The old cable is dirty and greasy and you will get some nice marks on your shirt.

Two words: Morse cable. All us Spyder people use them, maybe it would work for you guys.

Pip: pls explain/show Morse Cable. What is that??

All the buggy guys use them, like a grown up bike cable, but actually more often used on aircraft for controls and linkages. A thick 1/8" or so inner cable with threaded steel ends inside a plastic tube wrapped with spiral steel and a coating of vinyl. Also used on boats for shifting/steering. I think Spyders use a 6ft, you would use a 8-9 foot, but they don't wear out and break(10000 miles on mine). Very smooth and low resistance as long as bends are smooth and large as possible.

UPDATE :: Make sure you disconnect the battery before running a wire blindly to the back of the car. Mine got HOT when it touched something in the back. I think it hit the regulator. All is OK and the wire was not damaged.

Morse cable is a great idea I thought about that but there is no way a covered wire would fit in the tube and that is where I wanted it to go.