Throttle Cable Repair
Changing your G-Gar throttle cable
By ClubLEW member Cliff Ledger

The throttle cable broke on my 1987 Turbo Esprit HC on the way back from the LEF Factory Day in Norfolk leaving us stranded in the middle of the night. Having received the new cable it was time to fit it. This guide will show you what I did and how you can to the same to the same model of Esprit.

I decided to retain the outer shield and replaced just the inner broken cable. It went in a treat but I did smear a small amount of grease on it to help push it through. She's now back on the road.

This job isn't difficult and should take about 1 hour.

You will need the following parts: New throttle cable

You will need the following tools: Philips screwdriver pliers spanner grease

I started by removing the foot plate / cable protector located in the drivers foot well. There are 2 Philips screws holding the plate in.

 

This exposed the broken cable and the cleaves which is attached to the throttle rod. The cable passes through a hole in the cleaves and is held by the nipple soldered to one end of the cable.

 

It appears that this nipple was stuck in the narrowing part of the cleaves and the hole in the cleaves then acted as a scissor action directly on the cable each time the throttle was pressed. Eventually the cable was severed and broke.

I decided to leave the outer part of the cable in place as it appeared to be in good order. The inner cable was then removed by pulling it through from the engine bay. The retainer at the engine end of the cable was removed to be reused on the new cable.

 

The new cable was then lightly greased, the non-nipple end carefully passed through the hole in the cleaves and fed into the outer cable. I continued to slide the cable until it appeared in the engine bay. I did hit a bit of resistance as the cable reached the engine bay end of the outer cable but found by gentle rotation of the cable it would push through. I then passed the cable through the holder mounted on the engine and finally attached the retainer which had been removed from the old cable.

 

It was important to remove excessive slack from the cable and make sure the nipple was correctly located in the cleaves to prevent the previous scissoring action reoccurring.

I then reattached the foot plate / cable cover.

Verdict

The whole job took about 1 hour. It’s an easy job requiring a Philips screwdriver, pliers, spanner and some grease. It’s a job I believe could easily be done road side and I will carry a spare in the car in future to prevent being stranded again.

This maintenance was performed by Cliff Ledger on his 1987 Turbo Esprit HC

If you have any comments, feel free to e-mail us at admin@lotusespritworld.com