I was driving through a parking lot today going down one of the isles when I noticed a car backing out as I was going by it . I'm sure they seen me , but to be sure I gave it a little gas just in case ..... and that's when all hell broke loose ! The throttle spring that pulls your idle back down when you take your foot off of the gas came off and the throttle went into a floored position . The car flew forward and the tires started spinning , I hit the brakes and tried to turn the wheel at some point , but the car just went straight , picking up speed and headed toward a enbankment with trees at the bottom , and a busy highway ! I should of turned the key off first , but I put it in park first ( I had maybe 2 seconds to make a decision ) , and then quickly turned the key off ! but before I got the key turned off , I got to hear what the motor sounded like at it's highest possible RPM as everything came to a grinding halt about 1 foot from the edge of the enbankment ! I got out and popped the hood , put the spring back on , and everything was fine . Here's a couple of pics of the problem ... Do any of you know what this spring was suppose to connect to ? The clip in the picture that it is connected to is incorrect obviously . I'm thinking mixed brackets and components from the 72 vs 76 motor . I need for this to never happen again , so one way or another I'm going to make this connection a little more permanent . If anyone finds a pic or any other info on what the spring should connect to , that would be great ...

 

check the throttle cable bracket, there should be a hole to hook the spring into...

 

Had that happen on my 68. Makes for a wild ride. For me it broke when I turned onto a highway and punched it. Took my foot off at 65 and it kept going. I got up close to 90 before I got it under control and off to the shoulder.

I'm trying to remember, the spring runs to a hole in a bracket off the carb.(?) not sure
I'm sure someone will have a pic or diagram.
Maybe try wildaboutcars.com

 

No way I'd ever drive a car with a throttle return spring set up like that. You got really lucky. Places like Summit Racing sell throttle return kits, some with dual springs, in case one breaks. You could probably even make something ok yourself, with hardware store parts. Also, don't assume people see you when backing out or parking, as you should see how some of the retirees around here drive. A quick horn toot may **** some people off, but better than a wreck.

 

Carbs have the throttle blade shafts offset so that they will close by air pressure in instances like this. I'd start checking your linkage for binding. That should not have happened.

 

X2 - it should not happen! Check the return spring on the carb throttle plate also.

 

I like the dual spring for this very reason! I know it differs from year to year but see that bolt just in front of the carb? I've seen a bracket that bolts to that for the throttle return spring. I'd encourage you to create a parts wanted thread and see what gets offered up. John

 

Thanks for the replies . I knew that was the wrong set up , and it would have worked just fine until the clip came loose , was not expecting that to happen . I agree that there is something seriously wrong besides the stupid spring set up , and the carb needs a good cleaning among other things ... all the gaskets are shot too . I'm not even suppose to be driving this car now , but since I had to sell our other vehicle I have no choice . Beleive me!! This will never happen again !

 

If I remember correctly the original bracket broke off , and I clipped the spring on that wire retaining bracket that was real tight at the time .

lol , you should see the mark it left on the wet ground . I hope it's still there once the ground dries so I can take a pic and show you how close I came to the edge.

 

You can always throw the shifter into neutral & then turn the key off. You will still have steering & brakes that way. Since the shifter is not in park, turning the key towards you will not lock the steering & there should be more than enough vacuum to stop the car at least once.

 

I had my throttle stick on my Mustang GT once, damned floor-mat!

 

Bryon! Don't scare us like that. Get the darned thing hooked up right. I'm really glad you're ok.

I had this happen on my 72 once (aftermarket cruise control chain jammed). Scared the crap outta me. Then it happened with my 1995 Regency elite (factory cruise). Scared the crap outta me for the second time in my life. You NEVER get used to expecting something like this; and your gut reaction is to slip to neutral. I really hated the sound of the engine stuck at FOT in neutral. The Regency is all electronic. I just shut it off, waited a minute and started it up. Problem resolved like rebooting a puter.

BTW, whattaya mean you're not even supposed to be driving it?? That's your DD isn't it?

 

I was lucky if I had more then a second to make a decision ... in a panic I just jammed the shifter all the way up . I guess I figured , better the tranny then the whole car .

 

Yeah I should not be driving this car , although it's a good car , it needs to many things fixed or replaced to make it completely safe .

 

I have run duel springs on all my older cars carbs since I can remember. Just the way to do it.

 

Holy ****...had my heart pumping just reading that, glad to hear everything is OK.

good luck getting things squared away

 

Some pics 70 350 hope they help glad everyone is ok cheerio

 

This is my 72 Q-jet and spring

 

I had the same thing happen on a 1981 Trans Am. The throttle stuck to the floor while showing off driving through town. Then I got to a sharp turn and met an old man going the other way. I ended up having to cross the road, jumping a sidewalk, and landing into the grocery store parking lot where I shut the key off.

The old man thanked me later for not hitting him. And the whole problem stemmed from having the wrong breather on the car and the throttle linkage caught into the breather when I punched it to the floor.

 

Wow, sounds like a heck of a ride! Glad it turned out ok.

Here is a photo of my stock spring-in-spring setup. Sorry about the mess, this is before I rebuilt it.

Dang Allan, That is one clean carb and intake! ...but I think you missed a spot by that one valve cover bolt at the bottom of the photo...

 

Thanks ... all the pics I looked at are a little different then my set up . I'm not sure if that's the difference between 72 vs 76 ? I took Allens pic and drew my own version of what I have . The arrow to the right pointing to the circled part is non existent on my car , and the other arrow points to a tab with a hole in the end of it that I drew and a crappy drawing of the spring that somewhat resembles what I got , so that's why the spring is going in the other direction on my car . I can always take a picture of it , but drawing on Allens pic was funner .

 

Bryon, I think your spring should be going BACK and hooking onto the back of the throttle cable mount. Looks like the right length for that. No experience on a 76 engine but I seriously doubt the spring was ever hooked up like you have it now.

BTW - I don't mind that you drew on my engine. I'll just go back out in the garage and paint over that circle and arrows!

 

The throttle cable bracket on my 71 looks just like Fourtwenty's and AZ455's,part of the bracket has a factory bent tang sticking out with a hole drilled in it to accept the throttle return spring.

Also I have a dual spring like AZ455.


Allan...is that a factory bracket used on your car?

 

That tab I circled on your pic , with the hole in it for the spring is not on my set up . I'll have to look and see if it broke off or something , but I doubt it . I'm going to take a pic of it and show you .... brb

 

Ok ... I was wrong . It's not the circled tab in Allens pic that does NOT have the hole for the spring , it's the front one as seen in the pics below . The end of the spring is broke off too . I'm thinking maybe I should not put this one off , and get this fixed ASAP ... I like the dual spring idea on AZ455's pic .

 

Yeah, that pic was taken when I was doing the grinding on my front chassis. I think the whole engine needs to come out for a rebuild, then it can go back all nice and shiny. I think my intake is from 73, which would explain the EGR opening that I blocked off. I have an EGR that will fit that, so I might just hook it up and see what happens. IIRC late 72 started introducing that feature? I'll have to look that up.

 

I'm thinking there is definetly some mixed and matched parts from the 72 and 76 conversion here .

 

If you really look at my pics you can see that if you hooked a spring in between those two tabs , it would not work .

 

Are we talking about the same 2 tabs? Leave the spring attached to the throttle tab, but move the other end back to the tab just to the L tab beside the throttle cable bracket. Its got the hole for the spring. I don't think your spring is broken, that's the shape some of these things came in. Try it and see if the length is right.

 

What I mean is ... The tab the spring is in now is like 2 inches out to the side , so the spring would be on a angle going back to the other tab hitting that ufo looking thingy along the way . I'm looking at everyone elses set up and their set up , along with yours is going straight back , and not on an angle . I'm going to take one more pic to see if I can get the right angle to show you .

 

Even if it would hook up on that angle , it would pull the lever the wrong way anyhow and give the car gas instead of taking it away .... take a look at the pic . I drew a red line where the spring would have to be . The last pic shows another problem in the same area , that piece just pops off ! I'm going to buy some Gumout tomorrow and clean this dirty carb up ... and don't ask where the air cleaner is either .

 

I also cant seem to find any pics or diagrams on how a 76 olds motor set up would look like .

 

That tab that sticks way out on your throttle linkage doesn't seem right to me. I have never seen one like that.

Under where your throttle cable attaches there is no hole for the end of the spring? That's what I see on every Qjet I have personally seen. The hole must be under the pivot point, or like you said it would just pull the throttle open.

You need a c-clip or something to hold your throttle cable to the linkage on the carb.

Oh, and the UFO is your EGR valve.

 

I'm going to check and see if it's even the right Olds carb . I was going to clean up the linkage a little before work with some Gumout .... I'll try and get some numbers off of it .

any ideas where the model # or serial # on the carb would be ? So far I know it's a Rochester Q-Jet

 

Bry, One of these if the carb should be from '76, check out carburetor.ca, thats where i get my rebuild kits.

350 c.i w/AT --> 17056246, 17056546

350/455 w/AT --> 17056250, 17056251, 17056252, 17056253, 17056255, 17056256, 17056257, 17056258, 17056259, 17056550, 17056551, 17056552, 17056553, 17056556

 

I have the numbers wrote down , but I completely forgot about this after what I went through with my not so wonderful wife today ! I will get the numbers again when I'm on lunch break at work.

 

Ok , here's the numbers off of carb ........ 17056240 and then under that is ........ 1006 ADZ

 

Looks like a Carb from '76 since 17056240

I have a spare 78 carb and it reads 17058253

This is the kit for it. http://www.carbkitsource.com/carbs/kits/CK351.htm

 

FYI - I cleaned the carb and everything is working the way it should , and I already tried out my new spring retainer and it holds .... now I have to get the burned rubber smell out of my car .

 

Post a pic of the current set up. A 2nd set of eyes never hurts.
is the spring still pulled against the rubber hose?