When putting my engine back yesterday I tried to feed the throttle cable through. When I got around to trying sort the cable today it didn’t make it all the way out and the excess cable bunched up behind the engine firewall in the gearbox side. Tried for a very long time to feed another wire and pull it through but ended up pulling the throttle tube out of the fan housing. Still haven’t got the damn cable through either. When I had the engine out it seemed like there was a piece of rubber hose over the throttle tube between the fan housing and back engine firewall to hold the throttle tube in the fan housing and stop it falling out. I can’t find anything in the Haynes or any schematic online. I also now can’t find that big of rubber tube that has come off. Can anyone tell me what there should be after the throttle tube, is there rubber hose on it to keep it in place?
There should be a flexible conduit over the gearbox. front mates with steel conduit, rear mates with throttle tube. Original VW fitted a grommet in the rear tin to laughably hold the throttle tube in place. Some use a small jubilee clip or... whatever you can lash up.
You can use rubber tube or cable ties to hold the tube through the fan housing. There should be a grommet through the firewall to protect the tube and grip it but wait for engine out time. Push the throttle tube forwards and wiggle it around- it ought to go into the end of the bowden tube that carries the throttle cable round the gearbox and up to the hole in the gearbox support that faces the tube going through the fan housing.. If the end of the cable is kinked or "hairy" it could be worth trying to straighten it then wrap it in a little insulating tape before pushing it through from the front of the bus again. Ideally you would twist it back to tidy wire then solder the strands together so it doesnt fray so fast. If its really nasty try twisting the cable so it winds the strands tighter as it goes in. Dont forget to grease it too. In the end just buy another cable, fit that..
So after reading your replies I happened to have just received some rubber grommets in the post this morning with some wiring. I fitted the grommet to the firewall and got the throttle tube nicely in. Just to clarify from the rear it is the throttle tube through the fan housing and firewall with a grommet round the tube where it goes through the firewall. Then the flexible conduit butts up to/goes over, the throttle tube. Nothing else in the sequence there? My cable isn’t that bad it is a little bent towards the end. I just couldn’t get it to thread through. I tried removing the conduit and just trying to get the cable in but no luck. I ordered a new cable for when I had put the engine back in now but turns out I have the cable for August 72 and my van is May 72. You only see the detail if you click on the item to see more detail. I have pulled the cable out completely as I couldn’t seem to push any of it back in, once out I am noticing a plastic piece which must have dislodged. Can you tell me where on the set up this plastic bush/guide should be?
The throttle tube should stick out a bit (not too much) from the rear of the tinware and the "bell end" on the flexi conduit should fit over it, all held in place by the cable when fitted. You may have to saw a bit off the end of a new tube. I've no idea what the plastic tube is supposed to do. Thin tinned copper wire twisted temporarily on the end of the cable is good for pulling it through.
The plastic tube used to be red and had the part number on it. I've always sliced them off with a stanley knife as they cause trouble otherwise. That trouble being when the cable breaks, you pull each end out and it gets left somewhere inside blocking the path for your new cable.
At least try to get rid of the two bends in the cable just behind the tip so it points straight ahead, mimimising any tendency to try to dive off sideways when you push it from behind. Grease it, and when it gets stuck, rotate the far end to tighten the twist of the wire.. it may hop over the thing it wedges on .
Only the Empi "one size fits all" cables are multi-strand. Original ones, the OP's one pictured and the ones you buy for your particular year/engine/RH/LH drive are all single strand.
Oh yes .had to do a Goon Show patter of feet from BBQ to bus... . a Made in Germany (Made in Poland to German specs) GEMO replacement.. Showing plastic bit with part number and strands. As carried in me bus.
Thanks for all the help. I got there in the end. Ordered a new cable again (the one I ordered first time round was for > Aug 72 and my van is May 72 so needed the 71 cable). The problem I was having was getting the flexible conduit over the throttle fan housing tube because the end of the conduit is a bit worn. I ordered a new throttle conduit and fan housing tube from Just Kampers and the crap that arrived. The conduit is described as for 68-79, it is the correct length but has no internal liner and just rusty internal through the coil spring, also it does’t have a crimped end on both ends. So it doesn’t even fit! The throttle tube also had a tiny flare not a full tapered flare like the original. The original can’t be pushed through the fan housing, the new one can, it is also much longer. So I have just put the original conduit and original throttle tube back with the new cable.
Not sure but don’t think so as it came without packaging and nothing about the brand on the Just Kampers website. The problem, as well as being too long, is that it just has a tiny turned over end almost like a brake line. I just didn’t like it, but the conduit was even more surprising as I was hoping to replace that.
