Helping a buddy out last night, playing with his carb and i noticed he isn't getting nearly WOT with the pedal on the floor.

He has a 455 w/ torqer intake and a Holley 780DP

its a 66 442, so it has that funky Accelerator Rod assembly.

Interestingly enough though, my 66 cutlass has a Holley 650DP, and I CAN get WOT with my setup...

Is there any adjustability in the accelerator mechanism that mounts on the firewall? Do we need to bend some levers to get more play or ?

Initially i played with shortening the rod- but that keeps the carbs throttle arm from returning to idle position.

...
He was complaing about lackluster performance from his engine- Now i can see why- the secondaries would only barely crack open with his foot on the floor!!! He'll be in for a pleasant surprise when this is working properly.

 

Not familiar with that year of Old's linkage. Is it the type that goes though the floor the up to a belcrank on the firwall then out to the carb. There wasn't any adjustment. is the rod in the correct hole on the carbs bracket or maybe the carb does not have the correct braket for the rod. I would check that first.

 

I'd check each of the attachment points from the carb linkage back... and since you have a 66 with the same linkage in good working order... you'll have that for comparison. It could be that one of the rods are bent, a joint in the linkage is badly worn or disconnected, or the attachment points on the carb or the gas pedal are in the wrong place, or loose.

Short of that... tell him to tie a string to the carb linkage... run it through the firewall... and just jerk back on the cord when he has a need to feel the wind rush through his hair. It would be an awesome mod to go along with some of the pix on this site of folks substituting lawn chairs and paint buckets for bucket seats!

 

Unless your friend wants to keep his car "original" he might consider buying a Lokar product (apparently he doesn't care about originality since he has a Holley carb).

http://www.lokar.com/

Oldsguy used this throttle assembly to replace the accelerator pedal on his 46 Olds.

http://www.lokar.com/product-descrip...hrot-pedal.htm

He might also be able to eleminate the accelerator rod and insert a throttle cable available from Lokar or the local auto parts store.

 

Any chance the air cleaner is interfering with the carb linkage?

 

I would look at making a simple bracket on the Holley with a ball at a different position in relation to the throttle pivot.

Draw it out on paper and use a compase to study the current arc. Make a new arc when you figure how much farther to need to open. Attach your stud to get you the new desired arc.

 

The factory used two lengths of L lever at the firewall. 2 and 4 barrel single carb setups used a short arm L and Tri Carbs used the long arm L. You will get more travel with the long L. I have seen them reproduced but they aren't on ebay right now. You could do it on the cheap for a non restoration car like the one above by welding a piece of steel onto the original L so the linkage to the carb is farther away from the pivot for the rod from the accelerator pedal. 2" will be good. The third hole in the L is at the end of the short leg of the L is folded over for dual bearing surfaces where the L pivots on the stud attached to the firewall.

 

funny to see this brought back up to the top again...

Our weather has been crummy almost non-stop since i posted this... Haven't been back out to my friends place to mess with it since then.

WHen i go out again, if we can't figure it out, i'll take some pics of it & go from there.

 

I have Torqer manifold and a Holley 750dp, and I discovered interferens problems at the bottom of the holley butterfly plate. I small arm on the primary rod, that moves down when the carb opens interfered whith the aluminiumadapter plate.

Regards