Hot Rods Stuck Throttle wide open in 2d gear this morning

In my 55 Chevy 210 coming up to speed on an on-ramp driving in to work at Fort Bragg. Didn't realize it was stuck till I hit the clutch to put it in road gear and the 265 over-revved to 5Kplus. Lifters started rattling before I slammed it into high gear. Scared the crap out of me - It's been at least 35 years since I experienced that little thrill. No harm though - still have good oil pressure, no metal in oil, etc. Glad it was warmed up. Shot a little carb cleaner in the Rochester 4G when I got back home.

 

couldn't get it shutt?

 

Yeee haw

 

Hope you didn't spill your coffee! What a wake up call.

 

Just throw that pair of underwear away, you'll never get 'em clean!

 

why did it stick open?

 

Assuming you're in No. Carolina, was the weather cool and humid? With enough air and fuel flow thru the carburetor it may have iced up on you. Are you running a heat riser, and is the exhaust crossover in the intake manifold open?

 

I'd check out the throttle setup real closely on that baby! Its pretty much always humid in NC but its 66 this AM.

 

In aircraft carb icing, it builds ice in the venturi (where the pressure drop cools the airflow) and chokes off airflow, reducing power and if not corrected with 'carb heat', engine stoppage can occur.

Ray

 

I had that happen before, with a throttle cable. It would always fray and stick in the open position. One day it finally did it in the garage on a cold start. Scared the Be-Jesus out of me! Then I realized that the starter was trying to ground through the throttle cable.

I fixed that in a hurry! I installed a few heavy duty ground straps and every thing was OK after that.

 

I had that happen when I was taking my brother in law for a quick ride in my 38, I had it hammered going into second and when I shifted into third (or maybe fourth?) it locked open, I turned of the engine, coasted to a stop, had a throttle cable issue to attend to. He still liked the ride.

 

When I bought my daily the engine compartment was a mess. Had the old 2-barrel throttle cable bracket bent at a weird angle to get it closer to fitting the Edelbrock carb but was still way off. Not 500 feet from the guys house I had it stick wide open. I originally noticed that it was stiff and would kinda hang up under light throttle during the shift and I could blip it to free it back up. Well shifting into 3rd it didn't work. I shut it off, coasted to driveway, bent the bracket a little straighter and babied it to my house where it actually could be fixed. The super soft return springs didn't help.

 

It seems you paid attention in ground school, Ray. I had it happen in a recip helicopter one morning (46 degrees) and, luckily, it was in a hover and not in the wild blue yonder. Carb heat? Sounds good but those were not equipped with it. Very primitive a/c, indeed.

 

Be glad it didn't happen pulling up to the gate. That would have gotten ugly real fast.

 

You can run into the same problem with clutch and shift cables as well. If it seems like you have to replace a cable too soon or too frequently it can often be traced back to grounding problems.

 

Good grounds are your friends!

 

Yes! As a matter of fact 10 years ago when I built that car, I used a clutch cable. I went through 2-3 clutch cables before I made a mechanical linkage. Now I know it was a bad ground.

 

I had a carb ice up a few times. The car, a 1953 Packard 300, just stopped running.
No air cleaner, oil burner, $200.00 POS, but still my pride and joy, and a Packard.
I-5 just north of San Diego. Big drug/ illegal corridor in the early 80's. (probably still)
I was on the side and a CHP pulled up to see what was up.
We were both shocked when I opened the hood and saw the block of ice.

 

I experienced this exact scenario back in the late 70's with an O.T. V8 Vega.

 

Good thing you were in a Chevrolet so you weren't going real fast. If you would have been in a Ford you might have been in trouble.

 

Back in the mid 70's I had an OT Impala that was grounding through the steel brake lines. When one blew due to the heat coming off of the Interstate downhill on the off ramp coming up on a STOP sign . Missed everyone and got the ground fixed after the brake line.

 

Mmm


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LOL !! ... Yeah, right.

 

Do you have a double return spring on the throttle linkage,it's just a good safety feature to have. HRP

 

i did that once . brand new engine, it blew a head gasket .

 

Like lousy shift linkage, except potentially a bad day..

 

Isn’t it amazing how hard it is to find the ignition switch.......

 

Sure , its invisible ....crashed a 37 Plymouth back in the day.... return spring on master , pedal assembly came loose and brake pedal jammed,,,,no brakes.....what ignition switch.....lucked out as I plowed into a raised bank of dirt...front axle literally plowed that pile....no damage at all...except a little on lower front fenders....

 

I had it happen while leaving a school zone after picking up my daughter in my avatar. It was a bad motor mount. It happened more than a couple times. Took about 3 months to find the problem. Different carb. New throttle cables. New foot feet. My mechanic found the problem after, almost running into the back wall of his shop.

 

It seems to me that a big red Emergency Stop button would be a good thing to have. Every piece of stationary machinery is required to have one. Why doesn't moving machinery? If you have a locking steering column you don't really want to turn the key because you will lock the wheel if you turn too far.