Twin carb (Mk3? Spitfire) Herald throttle cable

[A TR7 16V]

Would anybody know if this [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-VITESSE-6-1600-2-LITRE-ACCELERATOR-THROTTLE-CABLE-147389-TCE032-/372873693829?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10] Vitesse cable will solve my problem in finding a new cable?

It looks to me to be the same as the Spitfire cable connections to the pivot plate and I assume it's the same as the Herald at the pedal end.

Graham

[RobPearce]

I don't know as my Vitesse is early enough to not use a cable. It's a bit suspect that it's listed for Vitesse 1600 because they were all solid rod linkage. It does look probably correct for your application.

[A TR7 16V]

I can't seem to find a clip for the pedal end of the cable. Anybody know a source, got a spare to sell, or able to suggest an alternative?

Graham

[Rutty]

Quoted from A TR7 16V-

I can't seem to find a clip for the pedal end of the cable. Anybody know a source, got a spare to sell, or able to suggest an alternative?

Graham

I had the same problem on my 2L Vitesse which decide to come detached at the pedal end while sitting at traffic lights in the middle of a multi lane contraflow. I had the limp the car at idle speed trying not to stall it till I could pull over. Even then I had the drivers door open in a live lane while I re-attached it. I found a trim clip has solved the problem. If you search on James Paddocks site for GFH1560 you will see the type of thing I mean. It was a bit of trail and error to get the right size.

Mark

[A TR7 16V]

Quoted from Rutty- I found a trim clip has solved the problem. If you search on James Paddocks site for GFH1560 you will see the type of thing I mean. It was a bit of trail and error to get the right size.

Thanks, I'd been looking at them and wondering.

If I see it right, the cable should go through the slot in the end of the pedal and the clip goes on the turned over bit, just to stop the cable end falling out when slack. I'm assuming that cos the current one is through the pedal father down with a screw-on barrel nipple underneath. I've got a few of those clips off Doly seats and such, and some clips to hold tiewraps on a panel edge from re-wiring the front end, one of which should fit. 

Graham

[Rutty]

Yes that's correct or in my case  I caught my foot under the pedal and flipped it up causing the cable to detach. 

Mark

[A TR7 16V]

The spare pedal (I got in case the one in the car is a problem, which I can't allow to cause delays) came yesterday. The spring in that was too far gone to be worth use, but I've a replacement and new clevis pin on order. So I got the pin out of that - eventually. 

The problem was the cotter pin was rusted into the clevis pin. So the ends had to be filed off to pull the pin through. That wasn't a big issue with it out of the car, but I can see it would have been awkward in situ. The one I've got coming (the pin, in effect, cost less than a pound over the spring alone) is from CHIC DOIG, but the list don't say if it's stainless or galvanized. Looking at the image, I suspect the latter. 

I know this isn't a frequent job, but I'm wondering if, for another couple of quid, I should get a stainless clevis pin and R clip, or even a 1/4" UNF setscrew and a nyloc nut?

Graham

[A TR7 16V]

I'm still waiting for the new cable, so I've not done anything but look at the pedal end on the car. But I've been playing with the spare pedal and bracket I got "just in case". I noticed that on both, the bit of metal bent up as a pedal stop when the pedal is full up (to stop it rising up past the point where the cable is just slack) was bent forward, flat to the floor. So the pedal has far too much movement at the idle position. Indeed, if I lift the pedal up enough, it starts to pull on the cable and lift the revs. And given the pedal spring from Chic Doig is much stronger than the knackerd one on the spare set can ever have been, I suspect it's going to need a stop at that end of the pedal if I fit the spring.

I can hold off on fitting the pedal spring a bit, as have fitted a 1500 pivot arm bracket for HS4s on the HS2 carb set, and that puts a bit more load on the carb return springs at idle, which holds the unsprung pedal up better. But I'd like to take as much of the floppiness out of the pedal as possible - it's proved a liability in making it easy to miss the brake and hit the throttle in the past. Hitting both is a little embarrassing. But hitting the throttle instead of the brake coming up on a roundabout turns out to mean an underwear change.

I've bent the idle stop on the spare pedal bracket back up. But it took a bit of hammering, and it's cracked mostly through. So I doubt it will last long against whatever force it is that tends to flatten that bit. I also assume the one in the car will give when I try to lift that too. I also expect it will bend in the wrong place. 

So what is it that tends to flatten that return stop? It looks to me like you have to hook the pedal from behind and pull back with much force to do that.

Also, what is the throttle pedal carrier bolted to on the car floor - captive nuts?

I can't see what's under the one in the car, but it looks to be fitted with a mix of a screw and a bolt. I've plied it with lashings of WD40 in the hope it's might free-up. But I think it's not likely to come quietly. So I don't want to replace the pedal bracket till I can get any errors welded back together.

So has anybody got a suggestion for how to fix for that idle pedal stop without taking the pedal bracket off the car?

Graham

[RobPearce]

It's a while since I repaired Tessa's pedal, and as I've mentioned, she has the earlier solid-rod linkage. However, I'm fairly sure the pedal carrier had captive nuts on it with a couple of 1/4" UNF bolts through the floor pan. On Tessa, these were stiff enough (and the floor pan rotten enough) that trying to undo them with a spanner caused the floor to bend and split, so it became a much bigger job! The new one may not have come with nuts and I may have tack welded a couple onto it. I think the parts catalogue shows a couple of self-tappers from the inside (with the pointy end poking out through the floor!)

 

[A TR7 16V]

There are no captive nuts on the spare I'm playing with or the one in the car. So I'm hoping there are captive nuts in the floorpan. 

I'm going now to try and fix the stop for the pedal at the idle end or fit a fix I have got for it if it snaps off like I expect.

Graham

[A TR7 16V]

Well that was a fail. The thing on the floor has been that much welded out of bits, fixing the idle stop for the pedal means back to the drawing board. Without that, fitting the spring makes matters worse.

I'm going to have to grind that thing off the floor. I might be able to put bolts right through, but I think I'd rather have captive nuts welded underneath. So If I'm fitting another, I'll get a new one, with the stop attached.

Graham

[A TR7 16V]

So I've been looking for a new accelerator pedal bracket and found that there's two types of idle stop for the pedal.

Before I broke the stop off, the spare I have looked like this picture, which I found at Sport and Classics:

The stop I mean is the bent up bit at the right hand end of the bracket, which the bottom edge of the pedal rests against when not pressed.

But the pictures Rimmers (and James Paddock show) look like this:

I take it the stop on this is the splayed part at the end, and assume that the bottom corners of the pedal bare on these when not pressed. The issue with that is that the pedal I have is canted over to the right - the hinge plate is welded to the pedal plate at an angle, and the weld looks original.

The question is, does either work better than the other or have issues with wear on the pedal where they bare?

The first one looks to at least have some option to adjust it by prizing it up or bashing it down a bit. Maybe the second one adjusts by increasing or decreasing the splays - they'd need to be different given the cant on the pedal.

Graham

[Pete Arnold]

Graham,

I have recently done a (hopefully successful) bodge on my Vitesse MkI to prevent the accelerator pedal from waggling around so, although my car uses the rod rather than cable system, I can imagine the fiddly job you are attempting.

I wonder whether you have looked at the Canley Classics website which uses the original Triumph parts diagrams; if not, take a look at the “acceleration controls” pages for both Herald 13/60 and Vitesse (ref diagrams W, X, XS, XT).  You will find that there are various different pedals and brackets for these cars – at least 2 cable & 2 rod systems, I think.

However there appears to be only one bracket and one pedal still available and I’m not sure that this bracket is actually suitable for all the different versions!

Good luck,

Pete

[RobPearce]

I would suspect that the earlier Vitesses, like mine and Pete's, don't need the pedal backstop on that bracket. The hook round the rod will act as a rather better backstop.

[Pete Arnold]

Rob,

This shows the layout in my Vitesse and I guess yours is the same.

And you're quite right that, as shown, the bracket is fixed to the floor with a couple of self tappers!

Pete

[A TR7 16V]

That looks like the third type that Canley's sell. The pedal stop is the two lugs that stick out to give a step in the rounded section to the rear of where the clevis pin goes through. I don't know what the slotted hook at the front of the bracket is, its not on the herald ones I have or can see anywhere. Is it for a spring?

I've looked and the parts diagram on Canley's website for the 13/60 shows what looks like the black one from Sports and Classics, with the hooked up bit at the back.

The thing is that the spare pedal I have is canted over about 10 deg. clockwise to the line of the clevis pin. And the wife wants that one because she reckons it'll make it harder to hit the accelerator instead of the brake. I've looked closely, and it looks like original welding, not like its been modified. From what I can see, the pedal in the car is the same, but the thing on the floor where the bracket should be is canted the other way, so the pedal sits straight up.

So the pedal SWMBO wants would hit the right one of those lugs first and then, given there's slack in the pin, come straight up, removing at least some of the angle it's canted over at. Whereas, with the hooked end, as shown in the black bracket, the bottom end of the underside of the pedal (the side that faces forwards when the pedal is at idle position) will meet the flat plate that hooked end forms, more or less straight - the bottom/back edge of the pedal will lie across it at about the 10 deg. angle, but it won't make the pedal straighten up.

Problem with getting one of those is the postage from Sports and Classics in the US.

Graham