Just noticed the other day with the car off and going wide open throttle I couldn't hear the throttle bodies hit their stop(s) My girlfriend stepped on the gas for me while I felt under the coolant reservoir which confirmed I was not reaching wide open throttle. Pretty easy to adjust. Remove the nuts/washers that hold down the top plastic cover and coolant reservoir and lift the reservoir up and out of the way a bit. The cable is connected to a "transmission lever" which I would call a bell crank I suppose. This piece has 2 rod end linkages that attach to each throttle body assembly. First I removed the cable and moved the bell crank WOT by hand. Drivers side throttle bodies reached WOT and passenger side did not reach WOT. So, had to adjust passenger side rod end so both sides reached WOT and rested on their idle stops at the same time. Once that was done I adjusted the throttle cable. At the end of the cable there is an 8mm nut with another 8mm jam nut. Loosen the jam nut to spin the adjuster nut to remove slack from the cable. Now at WOT you will hear the ITB's click against their stops when the accelerator is to the floor. It's a simple thing to check and adjust. I wouldn't be surprised if many cars did not reach wide open throttle at this point due to cable stretch over the last 20+ years.
^ Thanks Dave. Yours looks to be adjusted nicely No slack in the cable. To start mine had the 2 nuts about 1/4in away from the end of the rod. Just guessing but I probably took .300 to .400 slack out in order to hear the stops when reaching the end of throttle travel. (Before adjustment there was no click at the end of range, just hovering somewhere short of full throttle opening). [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IOC4BAqLtw&feature=youtube[/ame]
Good reminder, and one of the long-time basic setup elements from back in the carb days... WOT at pedal = WOT at carb (or throttle body in this case). In the age of drive-by-wire, this unfortunately can often go overlooked.
Yes, simple stuff and I check this on customer cars every day, though easy to see on a data log when tuning on the dyno. Not sure why it took me so long to think to check the 355.
The same guy who designed the throttle cable routing was probably responsible for the gear lever cabling idea.
I couldn't properly check mine this morning without a lift. So I took out my 355 and floored it! Yah. It's good. What a blast to drive this "old school" V8 with no drive by wire.
Is this procedure in the manual somewhere? I was thinking that if you were hitting the stops this would generate wear and tear and also lead to cable stretching. Does any airflow balancing have to be carried out between two banks or just between cylinders on the respective banks? Thanks, Cheers
at WOT at the pedal, cable without slack, I still have some extra travel at the stops before I hit the stops (check by hand). I do not want to adjust the connecting rods for that, as these are yellow sealed, and I guess fiddling with them is not wise. Or do I need to adjust the rods to both sides as well to get WOT at the bell crank? Because that would affect the idle position? Or is it safe to adjust?
I guess I do not understand the system. If the pedal is fully depressed, and there is no WOT at any side, adjusting the rods (shortening), would certainly help getting WOT at a fully depressed pedal. But: when the rod length is shortened, it must mean as a result that there is a slight pre-opening already of the butterflies at idle. As there is no leverage system between the cable, the rod and the linkage. It is lineair. Adjusting the rod length means adjusting the position of the butterfly valve. So in my opinion, adjusting the rods to reach WOT also means adjusting the idle position, something you do not want. Am I getting this wrong? Or is the rod length only adjusted for a mm or so (finetuning), and not reaching WOT at both sides must be achieved by adjusting the pedal at the pedalbox?
If you are not getting WOT on either side, adjust the cable. Mine had a lot of slack. When turning the bell crank by hand to wide open throttle my drivers side throttle bodies would reach WOT but the passenger side did not. I was able to adjust the rod end on the passenger side to realize WOT on both banks at the same time and also for both banks to return to the idle stops at the same time. It was a minor adjustment. The WSM states there is a balance screw (read step 10) Though I did not adjust this or get a good enough look with the air plenums on to be able to see how it functions. http://www.the355.com/mambo/showworkshoppage.php?page=227&volume=1 They are referencing screw number 4- http://www.the355.com/mambo/showworkshoppage.php?page=229&volume=1
Jim - those screws (#2 & #6) adjust the rotational travel of each 2-pair throttle bodies. Here is a photo of them out of the car for reference. The bodies are wrinkle painted and I planned to leave them cast aluminum but I've since changed my mind (I will be painting them as original) so I will need to fully disassemble these... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Bushings to reseal them at the throttle shafts should be looked at Out of 3 I smoke tested all leaked really bad. Bad enough we have 8 throttle plates to seal we don't need leaking shafts also to throw the ecu in panic mode Going to be doing this in Nov
Ok, what also is worth checking is if the pedal/cable uses all possible movement available at the bell crank. It turned out that mine did not use the last cm of turn. Underneath the pedal is a bolt with a rubber stop, to adjust the amount of travel the pedal can have from idle to WOT. Obviously to prevent putting to much strain on the cable and bell crank and levers of the TB's. The stop/bolt needs to be adjusted so you have max butterfly opening without the system getting the strain, by the bolt hitting the stop on the floor first. As said mine had a lot of travel left, now adjusted. Can't wait how it reacts at full throttle now. Too bad the summer over here is like autumn already.
