Hi All...

Just firing up the 'Bird after its winter hibernation and I have found the accelerator pedal has very little movement and is basically flat to the floor. There is minimal movement of the carb linkage when I move the pedal.

I can rev the engine from the carb linkage and it looks to be adjusted ok... so problem seems to be where the linkage goes through the firewall and of course is conveniently hard to see.

I note from looking at some pics on the web there is a (I'll call it) pivot arm that joins the two parts of the linkage and is bolted to the inside of the firewall. This seems to be solid when I push the accelerator pedal by hand ...is there something else that could have come adrift?

TIA

I just dealt with this in the past year or so.

Get an assistant.

Have them slowly depress the pedal while you watch the linkage at the carb. See how much the pedal goes down before the linkage moves at the carb.

For '67, the pedal pivot arm bolts to the flat metal linkage that is behind the engine (they used a cable from '68 on). There is a keyed slot in the flat linkage. I found that after 40+ years that slot had been wallowed out and I had several inches of pedal movement before the carb linkage moved.

They make a nice reproduction of that flat linkage behind the engine that will remove that play. It is a royal PITA to get to with the engine installed though. I had to purchase a ratcheting 1/2 inch wrench (ratcheting head) with a locking swivel head from Sears to get to the bolt that holds the two linkages together.

What a difference to finally have all 490 horses at my disposal.

Another issue could be the metal bracket the pedal arm passes through at the firewall could be loose.

Thanks Salmon.

I followed your advice and got someone to push the pedal for me. I found the bolt holding the two parts of the linkage together wasn't tightened enough allowing them to swivel a little.

You are correct it is a PITA to get at the bottom bolt at the firewall... I can understand why they went to a cable..

How much dead play did you have at the carb? Did tightening up the bolt remove it all? Mine was several inches.

If it's swiveling at that bolt, then the keyway is wallowed out a bit. When I put the new upper linkage arm on, there was no play whatsoever.

I could adjust out the play which was a couple of inches at least if the two parts were allowed to swivel.

It is a round hole rather than square or a keyway, so relies solely on the tightness of the bolt to keep the two parts adjusted.

I had punched the accelerator pedal a few times to get some fuel into the carb as the car had been sitting a few months... Now I know the limitations of that setup I'll be a little more gentle.

Hmmm. That bolt may not to stay tight for very long and you may develop a lot of play again soon.

Here's a picture of what that upper arm is supposed to look like. The keyed hole connects to the pedal arm after it passes through the firewall.

1967 throttle arm

If that is the entire 'linkage', looks like my car has an aftermarket extension to suit my Demon carb and Edelbrock manifold.

I'll be checking it regularly from now on.

Here's the other 2 parts of the stock pedal/throttle rod for reference:

Pedal Arm

Upper Thottle Arm (attaches to carb)

Exploded parts diagram:

Thottle Linkage

A couple of shots of my config showing 1. the the top and bottom bottom throttle linkages, and 2. the top linkage connecting to the rod to the carb.

Very nice clean car.

Thanks Neill for the feedback... PO did a good job!

btw Surprised you are seeing the pics, I have been fighting browsers to upload the photos... I had to resort to Firefox... Chrome didn't want to play.

ps... I see you are from BC... just come back from holidays in your neck of the woods (BC and YK)... fantastic part of the world!

Nice, Where were you" Did you make it to Vancouver Island?

Yes, daytrip to Victoria and the Butchart gardens. Spent most time in and around Vancouver and Whitehorse. Also some time in Seattle (I'm a plane nut so just had to see the Boeing plant).

A PO definitely spliced in a extra linkage section between the OEM linkage behind the block and the rod carb rod with the threaded end.

I was just messing with the gas pedal out of my 67, so I'd thought I'd share some pics..
Sorry for poor quality pics.. you can see the cut out in the threaded end for the second piece. My top linkage was very loose(like whats been brought up) and even looks to be repaired at some point. Even with the nut tight, there was movement in the top linkage. Think I might put something in the gap to take up the slack or make some hilly billy magic happen..
Hope these pics clears up any confusion that might be out there

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