Vintage Speedster Accelerator Cable Questions

Give Kirk Duncan a call and ask him.  Find his contact info at the top of this page under "Makers".

He has always been helpful to me with any issues with my VS.

Please share what you learn with the rest of us---I have 44,000 miles on my cable so I'd be interested in what you learn!  Thanks.

If the new cable proves to be too long it's not a big deal to modify it. You would have to cut the rear end of the cable to a suitable length ( cut off the swaged steel rod ) and use a kit like this to install a new "rod" fitting at that suitable length.

I've found that a good way to cut that cable is to wrap it tightly with a minimum amount of masking tape, mark it to the correct length, get a very sharp cold chisel and whack it one time with a heavy hammer. Another easy method is to wrap the cable as above and make the cut with a fine cut off wheel in a Dremel tool.

http://www.mgmagicclassicmotor...e-shortening-kit-vw/

Alessio:

Remember that a Vintage Speedster is built upon an old Volkswagen chassis, using many of the same old parts.  The throttle cable is one of those parts.  Everyone just buys a VW sedan throttle cable for somewhere around 1970.  The cable is slipped, peg end first, into a tube right beside the gas pedal and simply pushed to the rear through the tube.  It's a very good idea to lube the cable with automotive grease (any type) as you're feeding it through.  Once it's all pushed through (you may have to reach behind the fan shroud on the engine to retrieve it back there as it comes through the firewall) then the "S" bend goes into the 1/8" hole on the gas peadal actuator lever - pull a little cable back out for a bending loop and just push the S end into the hole.

Now, on the rear and beside the transmission, the throttle cable goes through a flexible vinyl tube between the chassis and a hard metal tube that runs through the fan shroud.  Once assembled, the flexible vinyl tube should be held in place because it's slightly longer than the distance it spans and that bend keeps it in place.  The metal tube through the fan shroud is angled to point the throttle cable right towards the carburetor linkage.  When everything is assembled, pull the cable towards the rear of the car as far as possible (make sure that it pulls the gas pedal all the way back) - you should see that the cable is about a foot too long (Because a Speedster is about a foot shorter than a VW sedan).  Using the cable end adapter that David shows just above (they work great!), figure out where that end should go to mate with your throttle linkage, and then cut the cable to fit into the adapter to get you to the right length.

Tighten the adapter onto the cable with the set screw, tighten the adapter to the throttle linkage and you're done.

Should take about 30 minutes for you to finish and, yes, this is what we all have to do.

Yep! Pretty easy....ask me how I know!

Here I am fishing out my spare cable right in the beginning of a Carlisle Cruise....with me in the lead!  20 min. and we were on the road!

~WB

I remember that day...rained (no wipers) hard that evening as I followed a lost Lane.

I've never made so many U turns but he got us there.

Vintage has the correct length cables last I needed one.

"...followed a lost Lane."

I spend much of my life that way.

I think you can use almost any cable that has the right size loop on the pedal end. When I put my new engine in last year ,I found that the old cable was too short for the new engine. I ordered a new one, but I didn't want to wait for it so I could drive the car.  I had just replaced my garage door opener and the old one was in the corner with the chain and cable that opened the 16 foot door for 15 years. It was about 1/16 inch and 14 feet long with the right size loop on one end. It slid through the tube like a rocket and was about a foot too long, so I cut it with pliers and put a dab of JB Weld on the end. Worked fine.  The new one came eventually and it's in the tool kit as a spare, but I don't think I'll ever use it.

I think you could use bailing wire for a thousand miles if you had to.

First aid for a broken accelerator cable is to gather shoe laces from a few friends and knot them together, a bit jerky until you get the hand of the correct pull tension..it' will get you to where you can replace a cable.

Did the shoelace trick in a Westfalia during the eighties coming home from some skiing in the Sierras. We even stopped to help some people with a broken car who were stranded. You should have seen the look on their faces. My dad driving up front and me in the back running the engine room with a shoe lace...

Here is another version of the McGuyver shoe-lace repair on our Speedster...