pedal covers - messing up idle switch?

[ranahan@charter.net (John Erickson)]

LMK what you find out.  I have the same problem with the following exceptions:

- new throttle cable
- no pedal cover
- new bushing in the "big O"

I'm about to pull the throttle body off, dismantle it, and clean it thoroughly.

John
87 16v


At 06:11 PM 11/29/2002 -0800, T. Reed wrote:
>I decided to check my accelerator cable adjustment today to make sure
>that the butterflys were opening all the way and that idle switch was
>being tripped.
>
>I found that about 1/3 of the time (particularly when the gas pedal was
>let off slowly), the idle switch was not being activated even though my
>foot was off the pedal completely. So I adjusted the cable until it was
>being activated every time.
>
>Then I realized that at this setting the throttle was only opening about
>70 percent. I tried to adjust it again and after several attempts I still
>could not adjust the cable properly for both WOT and the idle switch.
>
>The spring responsible for that last tiny bit of uumph to hit the idle
>switch didn't appear to be doing its job so I took off the accelerator
>cable and tried opening the throttle body. It hit the switch every time,
>as long as the cable was not connected.
>
>I then grabbed the cable and tried pulling it.. it was very smooth with no
>binding. What the hell??
>
>All I can think of that would prevent me from being able to adjust the
>cable right would be
>
>1) the throttle body spring is worn out - not likely because it swung back
>    very strong when I tried it with the cable disconnected
>2) the accelerator cable needs to be lubricated - this is possible but it
>    sure didn't feel hard to move
>3) the extra weight of my aluminum pedal covers is making the throttle
>    body spring work harder to lift the pedal back up and thus the switch
>    is only closing when the pedal is "gotten off of" quickly.
>4) while I was down there I noticed that I do not have an accelerator
>    pedal bushing between the O part on the pedal arm and the hook on the
>    accelerator cable. I assume this is the bushing people have been
>    talking about on the list lately? My pedal has a lot of up-and-down
>    slop but its not noticable unless you lift up on the pedal. Is it
>    possible that this is making the accelerator pedal hit the stop on the
>    carpet before WOT?
>
>I'm trying to figure this out because every time that the idle switch
>doesn't get tripped I have to blip the throttle to get the car idle right
>- otherwise the idle speed varies sinusoidally with a period of about 2
>seconds.
>
>I realize there is a certain cheese factor to having aluminum pedal covers
>but mine are purely there for functionality. Most of the time I drive in
>tennis shoes and when they get wet (which is 6 days a week here in
>Seattle), they slip right off the stock rubber pedals like they were
>covered in oil - very dangerous! The covers I use have little grippy spots
>on them that improve the traction drastically. I've been looking for a
>way to further improve traction that doesn't involve putting grip tape on
>them, if you have any ideas let me know.
>
>So, I guess for now I'll try and hunt down an accelerator pedal bushing
>and see if that fixes my problem.
>
>-Toby
>
>
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