BajaRunner

Anyone ever have it?

My gas pedal is extremely stiff. I just bought my truck, and I thought it was the throttle body just being sticky. Well, I cleaned the throttle body, and oiled up the springs, mechanism and ends of the cable, and its still very stiff.

I'm quite sure that the kickdown cable/transmission cable is causing the stiffness. Is there a specification of adjusting this cable? Does it just need to be "tight" (not overly tight obviously).

I can't find any information in the FSM for setting it. Or, does it in fact need to be replaced? What exactly does the throttle cable do for the auto tranny?

Anyone have this situation and have fixed it? Thanks

BoredOutnJackdUp

It's the throttle cable. i had the same problem on my s-10.
I used the 2.8 v6 throttle cable when i swapped in a 4.3 crate motor.
and it didn't work because the old motor was tbi and the new one was carb.

nv4runner

X2 on the throttle cable. My 3.0L had a stiff pedal from the day I bought it until the day the cable broke. After I replaced it the gas pedal was nice and smooth and easy to push again.

To see if it is the kick down cable you could just unhook it from the TB. Just don't try to go anywhere. It tells the trans to downshift when you floor it or that its okay to upshift at partial throttle.

BajaRunner

Throttle cable as in the one that goes to the accelerator pedal, not the transmission, right?

BoredOutnJackdUp

correct.

BajaRunner

Ok thanks !

I will test with just that connected. That seems perfectly logical, but of course my bird brain didn't think of that.

These NEED to be replaced, and not cleaned or lubed? What exactly happens to them that they get "stiff"?

Lively

Did this correct the problem Baja?

j-money$$$

Waiting for the answer as well. My 4runner has had the same stiff gas pedal since i bought it. I know its the cable, just dont want to get into replacing it unless someone else has good luck with it

quicksilvr

I helped my '96's stiff throttle with a healthy dose of WD40 down inside the sheath. Just unhooked the cable, pulled the little rubber grommet away, and then also lifted the cable up so that gravity could help the WD run down in there. After dosing it with WD and working it around it got better. Not perfect, but noticeably better.

guitarplayer360

yes an answer please! I am having the same problem, only my pedal gives about an inch and a half before there is any tension against my foot... so i have to go an inch and a half before I can actually give it any gas.

BajaRunner

No I never got a cable. I have been ridiculously busy with things that I can't even find time to work on my truck. I plan on taking the throttle body off and cleaning it to make sure its not internal. I DID spray some silicon spray on the linkage, and it helped, but not fully. I am still unsure on what to do.

Guitarplayer, it sounds like you need to adjust the cable at the throttle body, to take out the slack!

Dbl. E

Mine's throttle is pretty stiff as well. I like it because it keeps me from pushing on it very hard- I find myself driving slow but I get pretty good fuel mileage this way.

guitarplayer360

yeah Im gonna try to get to that tomorrow. I really think it limits my throttle to how much my pedal can go down...which actually isnt that much because it gives so much before engaging..

SpecialScottie

I actually like the stiff pedal. Keeps me from using soo much gas

BajaRunner

Update: I finally got around to installing a new ACCELERATOR cable (Don't buy the throttle cable, thats for the transmission).

And it FIXED it... Yay! No more foot cramps with trying to push the gas to pass a HEEP!

Nelsonmd

Glad to hear it's fixed. For those just wanting to lube it, not sure now well this would work on 4runner cables, but I have used this kit on a couple motorcycles and it works quite well.

http://www.amazon.com/Tusk-Cable-Lube-Kit/dp/B0039O2OAI

It may be tougher on the threaded sheath termination of our accel cables, but I got it to work on a threaded sheath on a motorcycle.

Banzai240

This is an OLD thread, but in doing some research for the '92 4Runner I just picked up, I found the info here useful.

I have a new throttle, err... Accelerator cable on the way, and have already cleaned up everything I can in the meantime.

The stiffness, however, doesn't seem to be either the cable or dirt. The cable slides fine, and the throttle body seems to open/close smoothly. I AM totally out of adjustment, however, so a new cable is getting installed. I have at least 1/4" or more of travel before the slack is taken up. Not cool.

I did notice a couple of things, however.

1) The cable on my V6 model routes RIGHT by where the exhaust pipe connect so the driver's side manifold. Going to wrap my new cable with heat-shielding, just to help protect it from the heat.

2) The Diameter of the throttle guide on the Throttle body seems a little small. Wondering if there isn't a larger diameter replacement out there on another Throttle body that might fit? Will research that.

3) There are TWO throttle springs available for the Accelerator Pedal. I've searched EBAY and when you look for pedals for a '92 4Runner and look at the pictures, there are some that have the thicker spring, like mine appears to, and others that have a rather THIN looking spring. I've ordered both available part numbers for ToyotaPartsDeal.com, and will figure out which is which. The two part numbers are: 90959-03026 and 90508-26077. There was/is also 90508-32019, but it says it was replaced by 90959-03026, so I just ordered the two. I'm hoping that one of them is the lighter spring, which should also help.

Will report back once I have all this in place. I figure something should make it better... hopefully!