Throttle Cable Installation on a 993
12-24-2013, 01:49 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Throttle Cable Installation on a 993
We're in the process of re-installing the 3.6 motor from my 1998 993 after performing an extensive rebuild of the motor. Along the way, there have been minor setbacks in the installation process that could have bee avoided had there been instructions in the resources we used for guidance. This short piece is to describe one of the minor, but pure PITA items in the final install.
The motor has to be lowered about 3-6 inches to allow sufficient clearance to facilitate installation of the clutch slave cylinder, attachment of about a half dozen hoses and/or electrical connectors to the back side of the VariRam manifold, and to install and connect up the throttle cable. Of all the these items, the throttle cable was the greatest PITA, until we "stumbled" onto a "trick" that turned the whole process into simplicity!
The throttle cabled passes through the sheet metal attached to the rear of the engine. Please note that when you get ready to insert the cable…..you will discover that there are two identical holes, one next to the other, that both appear to be the proper hole through which to install the throttle cable. The hole through the sheet metal that is closest to the car's centerline, is the correct hole of the two for a manual transmission. If your car has the automatic transmission, the correct hole is the one located the furthest outboard of the car centerline. Don't get them mixed up or your throttle will not be able to fully close!
There is a split grommet to protect the cable where it passes through the engine tin. I could not locate this grommet anywhere in the PET. It appears to be sold only as part of the full cable assembly. I fabricated a new grommet. Go to a supplier such as Grainger and purchase a bag of silicone rubber grommets that are slightly oversized for the hole in the engine tin. The smallest quantity I could purchase was 50 for a total cost of $8.50! I took one of these grommets and bored it out with a 1/2" drill bit to open up the hole to be slightly larger than the OD of the throttle cable. I then used my Dremmel tool to cut through the wall of the grommet This split allows you to open up the grommet to slip it around the throttle cable. Finally I had to use the Dremmel to open up the grommet to fit within the hole through the engine tin. Took all of about two minutes to modify the grommets to fit, and then I slipped the modified grommet around the cable and then fed it through the engine tin.
But, the greatest chore lie ahead. There is a grommet that is an interference fit onto the throttle cable near its end. This grommet allows you to fix the position of the cable into a bracket mounted to the rear of the engine just below the throttle actuation lever. Unfortunately, this bracket is very difficult to access, even with the engine lowered out of the car. And, I found that the 17 year old grommet was extremely hard making it impossible to install into the bracket on the rear of the motor.
So, after fighting its installation for about an hour, I decided to see if I could restore some of the flexibility to the old hardened grommet. I used a WD-40 type product to clean up all the dirt on the grommet. Once that was complete, I planned on wiping down the cleaned grommet with a silicone dielectric grease to complete its rejuvenation.
In the process of cleaning the grommet, I found that you can snap the dust boot off one end of the cable. As it turns out, the PITA grommet was a hard fit over the plastic cable body and was captured on one side by a ridge in the cable body, and on the other side by the dust boot. So, once the dust boot was snapped off of its flange, I was able to slip the PITA grommet off the cable. So, both the dust boot and the grommet were now held in place by the thin stainless wire throttle cable that passes through the throttle cable. This made it extremely easy to lubricate the ID and OD of the grommet with dielectric grease. We allowed the grease to soak over night, before installing the grommet.
Finally, the grommet became very flexible and was extremely easy to snap into place. Once the grommet was snapped into the bracket, I slid the throttle cable body through the center of the grommet and then fixed it in place by snapping one end of the dust boot into place. Done!
The trick of being able to disassemble the grommet from the cable, turned a PITA job into about a 5 minute exercise of ease.
The motor has to be lowered about 3-6 inches to allow sufficient clearance to facilitate installation of the clutch slave cylinder, attachment of about a half dozen hoses and/or electrical connectors to the back side of the VariRam manifold, and to install and connect up the throttle cable. Of all the these items, the throttle cable was the greatest PITA, until we "stumbled" onto a "trick" that turned the whole process into simplicity!
The throttle cabled passes through the sheet metal attached to the rear of the engine. Please note that when you get ready to insert the cable…..you will discover that there are two identical holes, one next to the other, that both appear to be the proper hole through which to install the throttle cable. The hole through the sheet metal that is closest to the car's centerline, is the correct hole of the two for a manual transmission. If your car has the automatic transmission, the correct hole is the one located the furthest outboard of the car centerline. Don't get them mixed up or your throttle will not be able to fully close!
There is a split grommet to protect the cable where it passes through the engine tin. I could not locate this grommet anywhere in the PET. It appears to be sold only as part of the full cable assembly. I fabricated a new grommet. Go to a supplier such as Grainger and purchase a bag of silicone rubber grommets that are slightly oversized for the hole in the engine tin. The smallest quantity I could purchase was 50 for a total cost of $8.50! I took one of these grommets and bored it out with a 1/2" drill bit to open up the hole to be slightly larger than the OD of the throttle cable. I then used my Dremmel tool to cut through the wall of the grommet This split allows you to open up the grommet to slip it around the throttle cable. Finally I had to use the Dremmel to open up the grommet to fit within the hole through the engine tin. Took all of about two minutes to modify the grommets to fit, and then I slipped the modified grommet around the cable and then fed it through the engine tin.
But, the greatest chore lie ahead. There is a grommet that is an interference fit onto the throttle cable near its end. This grommet allows you to fix the position of the cable into a bracket mounted to the rear of the engine just below the throttle actuation lever. Unfortunately, this bracket is very difficult to access, even with the engine lowered out of the car. And, I found that the 17 year old grommet was extremely hard making it impossible to install into the bracket on the rear of the motor.
So, after fighting its installation for about an hour, I decided to see if I could restore some of the flexibility to the old hardened grommet. I used a WD-40 type product to clean up all the dirt on the grommet. Once that was complete, I planned on wiping down the cleaned grommet with a silicone dielectric grease to complete its rejuvenation.
In the process of cleaning the grommet, I found that you can snap the dust boot off one end of the cable. As it turns out, the PITA grommet was a hard fit over the plastic cable body and was captured on one side by a ridge in the cable body, and on the other side by the dust boot. So, once the dust boot was snapped off of its flange, I was able to slip the PITA grommet off the cable. So, both the dust boot and the grommet were now held in place by the thin stainless wire throttle cable that passes through the throttle cable. This made it extremely easy to lubricate the ID and OD of the grommet with dielectric grease. We allowed the grease to soak over night, before installing the grommet.
Finally, the grommet became very flexible and was extremely easy to snap into place. Once the grommet was snapped into the bracket, I slid the throttle cable body through the center of the grommet and then fixed it in place by snapping one end of the dust boot into place. Done!
The trick of being able to disassemble the grommet from the cable, turned a PITA job into about a 5 minute exercise of ease.
