Diagnosing Stuck Gas Pedal

Maintenance advice to keep your Spider in shape.
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QuintupleTurbo
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:31 pm
Your car is a: 1971 Fiat 124 Spider

Diagnosing Stuck Gas Pedal

Post by QuintupleTurbo »

Hey everyone,

Was out on a drive last week, pulled into a parking lot, and noticed that my idle was high when I shifted out of gear. I looked down and my gas pedal looked a little out of sorts, so I put my foot underneath it and pulled it back toward me. This dropped the idle back down.

I was under the impression that maybe the accelerator cable needed replaced. I just replaced it. For as gunked up and rusty as the old one was, this wasn't the problem either :mrgreen:

My guess is something is sticking on the carb side of the accelerator linkage, but nothing looks to be dirty.

Any thoughts on what my next course of action should be here? The motor is from a '79, so it's the linkage that bolts to the valve cover. Should I blast the return springs with something to clean them(?) and then also something to lubricate(?).

Not sure what I should be spraying where if the springs are the culprit. Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated :) Thanks!
"The only substitute for cubic inches is cubic money."
18Fiatsandcounting
Posts: 3798
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:23 pm
Your car is a: 1969 and 1971 124 spiders
Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Re: Diagnosing Stuck Gas Pedal

Post by 18Fiatsandcounting »

QuintupleTurbo wrote:My guess is something is sticking on the carb side of the accelerator linkage, but nothing looks to be dirty.
Which carb do you have? The ADHA? It's fairly common for the multitude of linkages on the primary throttle shaft to bind up so that the primary throttle plate doesn't return to idle when you let off the gas.

Try this: With the engine warm (avoids the effect of the automatic choke), disconnect the linkage from the carb throttle shaft. Start it up, and rev the engine by hand using the linkage on the carb. See if it reliably returns to idle. If it still hangs up with the throttle cable disconnected, then the issue is with the carb. If it appears to work fine, then the issue is still something with the pedal assembly or throttle cable.

Sometimes the pedal assembly up in the footwell gets pretty crusty, although it's a bit of a pain to take it out and lubricate it.

-Bryan
QuintupleTurbo
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:31 pm
Your car is a: 1971 Fiat 124 Spider

Re: Diagnosing Stuck Gas Pedal

Post by QuintupleTurbo »

18Fiatsandcounting wrote: Which carb do you have? The ADHA?

ADFA. The car is a '79 masquerading as a '71 :) Upon further inspection, the throttle return spring broke and I needed to replace that.

I think we're good, but I blew my fuel pump fuse. Time to start another thread!
"The only substitute for cubic inches is cubic money."
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