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© 1998-1999 Brian F. Schreurs
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We'll answer both of those questions. The only part we needed was a new throttle cable, Year One number FD9339; Mopar number 02899339. It was a little too long, but the best we could do since the correct number was discontinued.

We spent a lot of time scratching our heads, trying to figure out how to get the Charger back to Paradise Garage without hiring a tow truck. It took a while, but finally Carl up at Goodyear had an idea which worked.

Go buy a piece of nylon rope. Make it a good length; at least 20 feet.

This rat's nest of linkage caused all our problems.

Look at the carburetor. On ours, an Edelbrock Performer, the throttle return spring is looped through a really big hole. There's probably a similar arrangement no matter what kind of carb you're running. Loop the rope through this hole; pull at least 10 feet. It's going to the front seat.

Now take both ends of the rope and lay it across the engine compartment so that it exits right at the driver's side rear corner of the hood. Because it's a corner, there's just enough gap for the rope to fit.

Close the hood. We tried with the hood closed and cracked open; we actually had more clearance with a closed hood. Now pull on the rope; the engine should rev. If it does, great! You're in business. Otherwise, keep playing with the layout of the rope until it's no longer pinched.

Run the rope through the window, get in the car, and drive off. You'll be controlling the throttle by pulling on the rope, so try your hand at it first -- it takes some getting used to.

New dual-return spring to make sure the gas pedal works right...

...new cable bolted down to prevent squirming...

...and a new kickdown spring to keep the trans in line.

Once home, the throttle cable is easy to remove and replace.

On the gas pedal, there is a little plastic grommet just below the cable end. You can push it out from behind.

With the grommet out of the way, you can now unhook the cable by pulling it through the larger grommet hole.

On the engine, the cable is held down in two places. First, there is a clamp toward the rear of the engine next to the kickdown linkage. Just loosen the clamp enough to slide the cable out.

The second point is, of course, on the carburetor. It is held to the throttle linkage with a very small nut and bolt combination. On our car, it was a 1/4 inch bolt head and a 11/32 inch nut.

Replacement is, amazingly enough, reverse of removal. The only tricky part is threading the cable through the firewall, but even this isn't too bad. Just don't put the cable back into the clamp until it snaps into its grommet in the firewall -- you should be able to see only the very tip of the metal housing on the firewall end.

The cable ends at this fulcrum under your right foot.

We figured that while we were rejuvenating the throttle linkage, we may as well replace other worn parts. The throttle return spring was first to go, replaced by a new dual-spring setup from Mr. Gasket (#19). Note that the inner spring should be hooked opposite of the outer spring.

We also replaced the transmission kickdown spring with a Mr. Gasket spring (#13). This one is "adjustable" by bending the end to whatever length you need. We bent it to match the original, but this is probably going to need adjusting later.

Off with the new and on with the old. It's not too often you do this, but when the new is the wrong part and the old will serve, then it's the right time. Removal and installation was as before.

At last! It took half a year to fix, but at long last the Charger's throttle is as functional as it was last spring. In fact, with the new springs, it's better! But I still haven't found a new 20-inch Mopar throttle cable. If there are any cable manufacturers reading this, you'll have the market cornered if you build one! Please!

Update: As if this webpage isn't getting crazy enough with all the updates on this stupid problem, the Charger broke another throttle cable. Clearly something in our setup requires too much from a stock cable. Our next move was a custom throttle cable, which we detailed separately.