Thanks! I enjoy having all these easter eggs that look like they could have been stock (but not). I have a ream of altered factory decals too. No one will probably ever notice, but I'll know.
Hutch
BUILD THREAD 1987 Olds 442 Project Build
- Thread starter oldsofb
- Start date
Hutch
I was looking at my Throttle Cable. The bushing/o-ring is cracked and brittle. You can't find the bushing by itself, so I ordered a new one. First one was by ATP, the second from Pioneer. Both are wrong for my 442.
The manufacturers picture says it looks like this:
This is what I got. It looks like a head bolt washer on the end of a cable:
Both companies cable looked exactly the same except one had a Red plastic collar on it and one was Blue:
Guess I have to make my own. I started with an O-Ring kit I had laying around:
The 7/16 grommet fit the eyelet of the cable perfect. If the plastic center to your bushing isn't cracked or brittle, you can fit that perfectly in the o-ring:
I didn't trust the 38 year old plastic to not crack or fall apart at some point, so I looked for an alternative.
I found a Brass Round Tube on amazon. It's 300mm long, with an 8mm OD and a 1.5mm wall thickness. I drilled it out to 1/4" to match my carb stud.
I trim it to match the thickness of the grommet. It fits like a glove.
All better.
Hutch
The manufacturers picture says it looks like this:
This is what I got. It looks like a head bolt washer on the end of a cable:
Both companies cable looked exactly the same except one had a Red plastic collar on it and one was Blue:
Guess I have to make my own. I started with an O-Ring kit I had laying around:
The 7/16 grommet fit the eyelet of the cable perfect. If the plastic center to your bushing isn't cracked or brittle, you can fit that perfectly in the o-ring:
I didn't trust the 38 year old plastic to not crack or fall apart at some point, so I looked for an alternative.
I found a Brass Round Tube on amazon. It's 300mm long, with an 8mm OD and a 1.5mm wall thickness. I drilled it out to 1/4" to match my carb stud.
I trim it to match the thickness of the grommet. It fits like a glove.
All better.
Hutch
Your ingenuity around these mechanical problems never ceases to amaze me.
In my videos I always say "I love to modify stuff". But sometimes I'd just like to bolt something on with no other work. This is one of those times. I would have loved to have just bought a new cable and called it a day.
What really irks me is the the whole point was you can't get the bushing alone. You buy the replacement and the eyelet is wrong and there's STILL no bushing!!
Hutch
And you couldn't get those bushings from GM either. You had to buy the entire cable. It came with all that, but nothing separate.
Durability? Only reason I changed out the 84’s factory cable with a new GM one was because I could. It didn’t need changing really. Both the 85 and 87 are rockin the OEM factory units. Of course the plastic ferrule bushing was designed for sacrificial wear, but they’re still holding after 40-ish years. I’d say they measure up fairly well.
That said, I know what you mean. It’s an improvement over stock. So it should last at least 50 more years.
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