Hey guys, sorry if this has been addressed but I've been looking for a couple days and just haven't found anything. My gf recently bought a high mileage 97 4runner 3.4L SR5 auto, it would idle around 1500 and sometimes after driving it for a bit if she shut it off and then shortly after went to start it again, it would start and die immediately then have to sit for a while to start again. I read around and decided cleaning the IAC looked like a good first step so I ordered new IAC and TB gaskets and took everything apart and cleaned them. I then started putting it back together and suddenly the accelerator cable won't move enough to lay it back in the TB assembly without the cam? (not sure what the crescent shaped tracks the cables lay in are called) being pinned at about 3/4. If I push/pull the accelerator cable from the cab and under the hood it moves back and forth between the cab and hood but somehow seems to be about 2" shorter than it originally was. Also, assuming I figure the cable out, the arm that the accelerator cable attaches to no longer does anything as far as opening the butterfly inside the TB. moving the transmission kickdown arm and the cruise control arm both open the butterfly but the accelerator doesn't. The spring wrapped around the bolt that holds all of the arms on feels a little squishy as though it lost some of its tension. I included a picture with that circled. I'm pretty much at a loss here, thanks for any help.

 

Sorry one more thing, it seems like my accelerator arm is hitting a stop before it should be, I tried to attach a picture to illustrate. I circled the part of the accelerator arm that looks like it hits early, the vertical part. It looks like the arm should travel until the horizontal stop hits. Thanks again for any help and please let me know if I can post anything else or more pictures to illustrate this situation.

 

I don't quite have a mental image of all that you're talking about, but it's been my experience that when all of a sudden things don't reach or fit the way they used to, you put something back together wrong. Did you take photos before disassembly? It helps a ton.

Finding photos of how it should look will show you whether you've got things right or not. My guess is that something didn't go back together quite right.

 

Thanks a lot for the fast reply, I'll definitely look over my pictures again when I put it back together, the other thing I'm wondering about is why rotating the accelerator cable arm doesn't open the butterfly inside the TB? Seems unrelated to anything with the cable. Thanks again

Edit:Also, I didn't take any of the TB assembly apart at all. Thanks

 

I'm not sure that I took my throttle body apart as far as you when I cleaned mine so I'm not sure how it all goes back together. I know on a carb I've been working on lately, there is a screw attaching the throttle wheel to the throttle shaft. Without that the wheel will just spin on the shaft.

Or, if you installed it backwards or off somehow, then instead of coming back to "rest" on/ahead of that stop when you let off the throttle, it's sitting behind the stop and so can't advance forward. Know what I mean? Since I haven't had mine apart I can't really say exactly what might be going on, but my guess is that you just have something slightly off in how you put it back together.

Take a close look at how it should work, what needs to move where etc., then see what's stopping it from doing that. Take it apart again and put it back together in a way that allows it to move how it should.

 

Was trying to compare your photo to my truck but they're a different setup. Maybe this'll help and not just confuse things more...

 

Thanks again for the replies.

I didn't take any of the 3 arms off of the Throttle Body assembly when I was working on it so I'm not really sure how they could have gotten screwed up. Here's where I'm at now, I took the TB off and double checked everything while watching a couple videos and put it back on. Here's everything on, minus the air intake of course. Please let me know if anything blatant jumps out at you. Thanks

Forgot to add, when I start it now it revs up to almost 2k rpms then drops down to around 500, had it sputter out and die once. As soon as it gets below 1k it starts rumbling and sounds really rough. As far as I know these are supposed to idle around 750 so it looks like that's another problem. I should add it has around 280k miles and lived in the NE for a while so unfortunately rust is a pretty real issue. Thanks again for the quick replies on a holiday no less!

 

Ah ok I thought you must have had it all apart. I don't see anything jumping out at me. I'll keep looking.

 

Hey I just got back from driving it around the block! Embarrassed to say, apparently I loosened the screws that hold the rest/stopper for the accelerator cable in place and slipped the arm behind that rest. This resulted in the accelerator arm being stopped right before it engaged the TB. In my earlier picture where I am opening the accelerator arm with my finger you can see that the accelerator arm is on the wrong side of the rest. After getting it all back together it idles at a nice 700-800 rpms and seems to run great! Now on to the evaporative system leak...Thanks again for the help 83, like you said, it was me screwing something up when putting everything back.

 

Nice! Good to hear.