High idle / hand thottle question...

[dotorg]

I finally got around to replacing the plastic hand throttle piece today, a very easy job with the seats out since I'm in the middle of installing the carpet.

Prior to doing this I'd noticed I had a problem where the idle would sometimes get "stuck" up around 2000rpm or more. I suspected that the pedal itself wasn't coming all the way back out, and a test when I got out of the car and pulled the pedal back out confirmed this. Playing with the hand throttle, I saw the same. I would pull the handle up, see the pedal sink, and when I let the handle down, the pedal didn't come all the way back up. If I pushed the knob the plastic throttle arm catches further back, I could see the pedal rise the rest of the way.

So two questions -- first, is this a sign that the hand throttle is adjusted wrong, or is there a spring mechanism that is supposed to fully raise the pedal that isn't working? Its not a huge deal but when the car decides to "idle" at 2500rpm, it takes some finesse to get it into first without grinding, so for the sake of my tranny, I want to fix it.

And now its time to get back to sniffing carpet glue

[Early_S_Man]

dot,

Since you were having the problem before installing the new hand throttle link ... I son't think it is related to the hand throttle at all! Most binding throttle problems are due to worn bushings ... I would suspect the #28 bushings at the pedal, and the #15 bushings at the bellcrank on the side of the transaxle.