**Scary Moment** Throttle cable stuck while driving - Diagnosis Pls?

[TLCAddict]

hey peeps-

what happened:
my wife was driving our 88 FJ62 yesterday (206k miles) at approx 25 mph, when she felt the cruiser accelerate suddenly up to 40mph. she was unable to brake cuz the gas pedal was somehow stuck all the way down...scary for her!

how she resolved the sudden acceleration & stuck gas pedal:
she tried stepping & pumping on the brake, to no avail. it would not budge!
she then tried pumping on the gas pedal to no avail.
she then pulled the e-brake & the car began to slow...
she finally pulled on the choke & it must've loosened the throttle cable & open the throttle body (I think )... the cruiser started to slow down, but was unable to come to a complete stop cuz it started accelerating again...she freaked out, & at about 5 mph, she threw the FJ in Park!! :whoops:

she's afraid to drive it now w/ the kids -rightly so-
has this happened to others? is this a common throttle issue or was it an unfortunate random event? what is the best way to resolve this & what should be inspected/ fixed?

thanks for the input...
jz

 

[cruiser88]

At the very worst change out the acc. cable. Start by inspecting greasing the cable/throttle body..sounds like its a little on the lack of lube side.



Dont sweat the 5 miles an hour sudden stop with the auto.....

 

[CruisinFJ60]

yea and the reason the brakes didn't work is if the throttle body was all the way open (wide open throttle) no vac is being made so that means no power brakes. the truck woulda stopped (epically since it stopped with emergency brake) she just needed to stand on the brake pedal a little harder as the pedal with no assist would be very hard... oh yea tell her next time just shut it off, yea no power steering but also not speeding up.

and like 88 said check all the moving parts grease em and you will prolly be good.

 

[hicruise55]

Must mean the hand throttle? My 62 has one, but no choke?

 

[Front Range 4x4]

Must mean the hand throttle? My 62 has one, but no choke?

My thought too, pulling the throttle isn't a good way to slow down.

Wondering if she could have accidentally pulled the hand throttle causing the acceleration. If she turned it when pulling on it trying to stop she could have released it thus slowing it.

 

[KLF]

There is no choke on an EFI-equipped FJ62. So she couldn't have pulled one.

The cable for the hand throttle on the dash actually never penetrates the firewall, it simply connects to the linkage for the gas pedal, under the dash. Might wanna look at that, and the cable on the other side of the firewall too.

 

[Dynosoar]

Teach her to turn the key to the "OFF" position if it happens again. OFF will not lock the wheel but will cut the ign.

Dynosoar

 

[Godwin]

There's a couple of vacuum lines near the throttle body, that if routed over the throttle cable, that can snag on the throttle cable and cause this condition. Had it happen a couple of times.

 

[sirenmoses]

happend to my 60 once years ago, think it turned out to be ice somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. a lil different since I just stepped on the clutch & let it rev high while stomping on the accelerate to try & get it to disengage.

x2 on what Dyno said about turning off the switch. goes for motorcycles with the rubber side wrongways & helicopters w/sudden 'unexpected' landings as well. doesn't work on some older fire trucks, in case you wondered....

 

[wengejor]

Sounds pretty scary to me...Tell her that you're going to get one of those big red and yellow panic kill buttons that you see on heavy equipment. Stick that on the dash and hook it up to the ignition...then maybe she'll feel better about taking the kids out.

I had this happen on the rabbit one time...it was a sticky butterfly valve. I pushed in the clutch and stomped on the throttle pedal a few times to free it up. I was on the highway and pulled over to check it out.

 

[Rig of Mortis]

Teach her to turn the key to the "OFF" position if it happens again. OFF will not lock the wheel but will cut the ign.

Dynosoar

X2, that was my first thought, or at least shift into neutral.

Hope she's fine, shaken up but fine.

 

[jmylie]

Long shot but bad motor mount.

The motor could lift causing the accelerator cable to stick.

Putting the truck in neutral may work better than turning off the key but it's easy to think of these things sitting in front of my computer instead of behind the steering wheel.

Glad no one was hurt and there was no damage.

 

[TLCAddict]

thx everyone all for your input...3 cheers for the MUD forum

yes, I meant the throttle.

I had my wife read over the thread comments, so she's more aware of what to do if it happens again, & same for our daughter, cuz she wants the FJ62 as her first car.

a big red, easy, problem-solver button would work nice on the dash...
thx again!
jz

 

[agent orange]

My throttle stuck wide open when a chunk of the air intake hose got wedged into the throttle blade. Of course, your hose probably isnt held together with duct tape like mine was haha.

 

[Tinker]

X3 Dyno! My dad taught me to turn the key off (way before steering column locks) when he was "teaching me how to drive".

Have her practice turning it off without locking the column while she's driving. That way it'll be almost automatic & she can use it in other cars, too.

 

[BGarcia88FJ62]

What you probably have there is a buggered up, worn and or frayed cable that is hanging up inside the cable shroud, only real way to fix it is replacing it.
.

 

[TLCAddict]

There's a couple of vacuum lines near the throttle body, that if routed over the throttle cable, that can snag on the throttle cable and cause this condition. Had it happen a couple of times.

checked the vac lines. all good. no snag.

What you probably have there is a buggered up, worn and or frayed cable that is hanging up inside the cable shroud, only real way to fix it is replacing it.
.

cable looks decent, but I will have it inspected & most likely replaced this week by either jerry @ entreprise or rich @ k&h

At the very worst change out the acc. cable. Start by inspecting greasing the cable/throttle body..sounds like its a little on the lack of lube side.....

for now, cleaned & greased it & checked all hose clips

 

[Ming89FJ62]

What you probably have there is a buggered up, worn and or frayed cable that is hanging up inside the cable shroud, only real way to fix it is replacing it.
.

Had a similar issue a few years back. Went with the replacement accelerator cable (around 185k miles)- problem solved. Definately worth the peace of mind for the

JMHO