1971/72 c10 throttle cable to 4x4
Just wanted to post some info on the 1971/72 Carburetor throttle cable. As many of you already know the 71/72 throttle cable is alot longer then the 4x4 cable and it's a little harder to find a 4x4 cable. I know they sell reproduction and the 4x4 I bought fit fine but when hooked up it sounded like the cable was frayed when pushing on the gas pedal. Tried grease ,didn't help so I tried graphite powder with no positive results. The cable was fine just bad engineering I guess. So here's where it gets productive, why not try to shorten one of my C10 cables to a 4x4 length. Well after working on it here and there I can say it can be done and wasn't too bad. Here's a run down how I did it. I cut the cable at the firewall fitting leaving a inch or so sticking out. Then the fun part of getting the cable/housing out of the plastic fitting. Pulled the cables out with pliers and used drill bits to drill out the remainder size Stepping up a little at a time until I could dig the rest out with a pick. Then I cut the 2 good pieces to match the 4x4 cable I already had. Next step was trying to find a new barrel/ swage clamp to match the factory one which so far seems non existent. I ended up ordering some crimp barrels/swage clamps but they don't have the diameter to match the plastic piece that snaps into the gas peddle hole so I ended up drilling out the old cable strains from the factory barrel/swage and reusing it and adding one of the smaller barrels behind it as extra grip. Just thought I would post this if anyone else needs a factory cable shortened.
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