Throttle cable attachment to pedal - help!

[marcus]

My throttle cable suddenly detached itself from the pedal this afternoon, it was quite disconcerting to feel the pedal drop away from under my foot!

On closer inspection, it turns out the rubber bush which sits in the end of the pedal arm had perished and it crumbled away when I tried to re-insert the L-shaped end of the accelerator cable.

To get me home, I simply rolled up a section of paper napkin to wedge the L-shape into the eye on the end of the arm.

According to VAGCAT, I need part number 431721559 (labelled 16 in the image) but obviously I'm probably not going to be able to get hold of that immediately.

Anyone have any suggestion for how to improvise a temporary solution that's a little bit more robust than the napkin? I'd though of cutting a crude replacement bush from a chunk of rubber or flexible plastic eg synthetic wine cork or pencil rubber but is there a more obvious bodge to keep the L-shape from pulling through the eye? Need to use the car tomorrow (Sunday) for a long-ish drive.

[ianaudia4]

Still available from the dealers mate, not sure about GSF.

[ianaudia4]

I suppose as a temp bodge you could cut out from a piece of rubber (make 2 or 3!) and jam it in and wrap some gaffer tape around it.

[Sam]

Mines done the same,
I'd be interested where you get a new one.
I've used a tie rap which has been fine so far

[wassell]

Gsf on ebay. 3 quid new. Had to buy one last week :)

[jxp]

I used a cable tie to fix mine then got a new rubber from dealers

[marcus]

wassell can you post the GSF part number or a link to the relevant eBay page, couldn't find it on the GSF site or their eBay page.

Made quite a serviceable interim replacement from a soft plastic pencil rubber, will post details and photos later.

[marcus]

So this is how I fixed mine, using what I had to hand, essentially I managed to fabricate a replacement bush.

Materials: plastic eraser, eg Staedtler 'Mars', 1st image below, readily available from stationers, and even from Tesco:

eraser.jpg

Method:

Cut a square section off the end of the eraser, and using a compass or circle template (or maybe even a 5p coin, you'd need to measure it), draw a 17-18mm circle on the top face (ie the widest flattest bit).

Drill a 3-4mm hole in the middle of the circle - if you've used a compass, you've a ready-made pilot hole.

Using a knife (Stanley knife, scalpel, whatever, I used a sharp kitchen knife), cut around the perimeter of the circle you've drawn. The more accurately you do this now, the less shaping you have to do next.

Next, using rough-ish sandpaper (80-120) laid flat on a work surface, gradually smooth off the perimeter of the circle by rubbing the circumferance of your blank along the length of the sandpaper, turning as you go, until it's as round as you can get it and about 17mm in diameter. I did it by putting a drill bit through the 'blank' and holding the ends of the bit and rotating it.

You're aiming for what's in image 2.

accelerator bush 1.jpg

The internal diameter of the 'eye' at the top of the pedal is 16.3-16.4mm according to the vernier callipers I used to measure it, and I found getting my fabricated bush down to 17mm worked well - it's larger than the hole you're trying to fill but not by too much and the 'squishiness' of the plastic means you can get it in without too much of a struggle, and once the hook on the end of the accelerator cable is pushed through the hole you've drilled, the combined inward pressure of the eye and the outward pressure of the hook makes for a good tight fit.

The result is in image 4 and it's held up so far. Mine is a bit off-centre but it doesn't seem to be moving, so probably ok until I can get the right part - the 'original' has 'shoulders' on the outer edges, to keep the bush centred, which this improvised solution obviously lacks.

[mark1gls]

Marcus that is a brilliant idea, love what you have done, I had one of the bushes go about 3 years ago so brought other VW bush for something like £6 and it seems to be made of swish cheese and is going again, I have to every month or so push the cable back in or it come out while driving if you put your foot down hard, not ideal really. I think I'll go and buy a rubber and try your idea.

[wassell]

Sorry for the delay guys

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 0553019012

Heres the bush. Fitted a treat :)

[marcus]

Hmm... not as robust or long-lived a repair as I would have liked, hook on cable has worn through one side of my manufactured bush in 10 months, am thinking I should have put a bit of grease in the hole before I pushed the hook in, suspect friction is the culprit.

Will make another one and try this theory, in the meantime has anyone here used the GSF one and how well has it lasted? £4.49 collected seems a lot more appealing than £11.90+P&P from VW Heritage.

[ianaudia4]

The one I bought from the dealer was only about £5 or so!

[marcus]

Do you have a special 'tame' dealer?!

Any time I phone up and ask the price of anything I have to be sitting down, last one was the ignition module for which Alan Day VW in London wanted £199 (and some pence, I mean, why bother with the pence, call it a round £200) - in the end I paid £14.40 plus postage from a place in Lincs for a Febi-Bilstein aftermarket item which works fine.

Will call them anyway, you never know...

[Nate]

Standard roadside fix is to cable tie the hook to the pedal. I had done this to the mk1 half way up Italy and forgotten about it until I stripped the car ready to go off for paint

[ianaudia4]

Do you have a special 'tame' dealer?!

Any time I phone up and ask the price of anything I have to be sitting down, last one was the ignition module for which Alan Day VW in London wanted £199 (and some pence, I mean, why bother with the pence, call it a round £200) - in the end I paid £14.40 plus postage from a place in Lincs for a Febi-Bilstein aftermarket item which works fine.

Will call them anyway, you never know...

I use a number of dealers, the list includes Abridge in Harlow, Benfield in Newcastle upon Tyne and Pulman in Durham. I just ask for their best price, agreed some dealer prices are rather expensive but for some parts actually cheaper than some motor factors. I try to fit VW genuine parts when I can get them (and when I need them!).