Hey now that its been 20 degrees outside when i first start my car from sitting overnight the tach jumps around but the engine doesnt. Then once the car has run for a minute or so it stops and acts normal. Is this early signs of distributor failure? I just put this distributor in not too long ago and i checked it for shaft play and it didnt have any more than my other one had. Only reason i swapped it in was cause the old one had a broken vacuum advance.

 

Also anyone got any tips for how to de-ice a throttle cable or keep it from freezing up early in the morning? Its really annoying when your car revs to 3 grand when you push in the clutch.

My BRAT did this on the 234K gauge cluster that I just took out. Apparently the oil or something in the tach is not present after 24 years of driving and it takes a while before the tach can get up there. It used to take mine 20 minutes before it would act normal and bugged the crap out of me. I switched mine to one with 60k and it only does it for a second now.

 

I don't think its that big of an issue just having to wait and let it warm up. I remember seeing a thread where you can re-lube it but it doesn't take much to do it oil wise.

 

Kyle.

FIRST thought is bad alternator, possibly diode

 

what is your shift point? for it to rev to 3k?

 

seems a bit low

 

I usually shift about 4k and it will jump up to 5k on its own when the engine is cold and hasn't thawed the cable

I shift pretty low in the mornings when the car is cold. Usually around 2,500-3000 thousand and then it jumps higher cause the cable is getting hung up. The alternator is an XT6 that seems to be doing fine as far as the volt gauge is showing but maybe it is on its way out. Hope not though.

For a quick-fix on that throttle cable, Ive had very good luck with just about any spray lube that contains TEFLON. Give the cable a good shot at both ends during a warm time of day, and repeat as necesssary. It wont take long to free that baby up. (also will work for hood-latch cables sticking.... or manual choke cables)

Cool thanks Jon. Ill go out and get some on friday and see how that goes. Its really annoying having to pull my accelerator pedal up with my foot so my car doesnt stay reved at stoplights.

Hey now that its been 20 degrees outside when i first start my car from sitting overnight the tach jumps around but the engine doesnt. Then once the car has run for a minute or so it stops and acts normal. Is this early signs of distributor failure?

 

Probably. Put the old disty back in - just swap the vac can over to it.

 

Also anyone got any tips for how to de-ice a throttle cable or keep it from freezing up early in the morning? Its really annoying when your car revs to 3 grand when you push in the clutch.

 

Replace it - the throttle cable is probably wearing through it's nylon inner sheath and is binding. They are only like $15 or so from the dealer. It's worth getting one while you still can. Trying to lube them is messy, and at best a temporary fix. Why bother when they take 10 minutes to replace and are so cheap?

 

GD

Ok well the throttle cable is fairly new..as in only a year or two old. I needed to replace it when i went from the carter-weber to hitachi. I dont remember if i got a factory cable though. That might be my problem. As far as the distributor goes it didnt do it this morning on me. Weird. Im going to line up another 2wd nippo-denso distributor.

Mine did the same thing, the tach bounces around on cold mornings for a little while, but i have a brand new distributer in it, so it could be the lube problem, or just a funky electrical glitch, but I don't think it's too much of a problem

motorcycles(and i suspect cars do too) have a specified cable lube interval. they even make a little clamp that will direct all of the lube into the cable, instead of trying to get it down there on your own.

dirtbike, and streetbike shops have the clamps and cable lube all in one package.

clutch, speedo,throttle...

why replace it when you can lube it?

motorcycles(and i suspect cars do too) have a specified cable lube interval. they even make a little clamp that will direct all of the lube into the cable, instead of trying to get it down there on your own.

dirtbike, and streetbike shops have the clamps and cable lube all in one package.

clutch, speedo,throttle...

why replace it when you can lube it?

 

Interesting. Yea I dont want to replace it just yet. Its only a few years old so it should still be fine. And its only right in the morning when it has sat over night that it does this. Otherwise it behaves normally.

Lubing will not help a worn out inner cable sheath. It will only help a dry cable.

 

GD