Am I cursed, or just bad at mechanics?

[TheDude]

My dad and I spent almost four fun hours at a junkyard today. We were hoping to score a set of bumpers for the '65 Galaxie, but found nothing. We went over to the truck and van section to look for a cable throttle for my Mustang. There were plenty of Ford trucks that had cable throttles, but they were all for ball joints. After a couple hours of searching I finally got one. It is for a ball joint but I thought I could make it work. The black rubber around the cable is in good shape and the end of it is a light blue, the same color as my engine. What is the problem, you ask? The rebuilt Holley 2bbl carburetor I just got has a strange throttle arm. Whatever pulling mechanism the carburetor used, attached to an oval hole. What the hell am I supposed to do? I can't think well right now. I have had a cold all weekend but I still went to work, installed the V-8 accelerator rod (thanks Steve) and got up early today to browse the junkyard. Not much rest, and I am running out of energy. Does anyone else have this oval-hole-linkage-thing?

Thanks

 

[MustangSix]

Good mechanics is often simply a way of looking at stuff to make it work differently than intended. It's called "low degree of functional fixedness".

Holley and Edelbrock both sell a carb cable adapter set that gives you a couple of balls that bolt onto your arm. Then it's just simple physics: pull the lever at the proper angle to activate the throttle. You need to bend up or adapt a bracket that positions the cable to do that.

Adapt and overcome.

 

[Asa]

for the linkage, would it be possible to go back, get the piece the linkage you snagged hooks up to, then make an adapter from the oval joint to a ball joint?

as for the bumpers... i'd love to know of a junkyard that has cars old enough to go looking thinking that i could find parts from a '65 anything

 

[Mustangaroo]

My son Jason used a 1978 Fairmont cable system attached to his Holley 5200, I have lots of picture but they really are not needed, all you have to do is go remove one for a fairmont and install it on you mustnag the same as you took it of! You will need the hardware to the carb the bracket on the vale cover and you will need the pedal and bracket used by the fairmont.... It's not hard but you do need to think outside the box! I have read your post and I think you are making it harder that need be!

 

[80broncoman]

I know they seem expenive but you can get a "ball" that bolts to the carb arm. I think you might be able to get them at auto zone or at advance auto.
If not you can always mail order jegs or summit.
The companys the sell them are holley and edelbrock.

 

[TheDude]

I will return to the junkyard this weekend and hunt down a '78 fairmont. The very back section of the junkyard has cars from the 40's 50's and 60's in a particular area. There is also a '72 Mustang coupe. I got the fan and fan pulley from a 67-68 Mustang. It was a sad sight. The radiator support was replaced (had a 2002 date sticker on it) but it looks like the owner gave up on it. The floors are completely gone. So sad...

 

[TheDude]

Did the Fairmonts come with different engines? If so, what engine do I need to get the setup from?

 

[LameHoof65]

Okay, now I went to the yard last week and pulled a couple of linkage sets that were pretty neat---one was a short setup with bracket from the old 5200 on an old Pinto, and the other from a '78 fairmont.

 

[WhitePony]

Heh, I guess I'm gonna be next to search for cable linkages for a 5200. The carb that I got from Stovebolt looks t have a slightly different linkage than TheDude's carb in his pics. From the angle of the linkage, it looks like it's going to be a bit of a challange to get a good smooth full range pull with a cable.

Kris