I am currently swapping a ls style motor into my 87 3rd gen. I needed a throttle cable to interface between the gas pedal and the throttle body. Looking at the options for a throttle cable you have a few choices.

One is to use the 4th gen throttle cable. You have to tie a knot in the cable to take up some slack and there will be a large hole in the firewall where the cable goes through.

Second option is to buy a lokar cable and customize your ride making it look awesome. However the price is high and I'm not ready for the cable because I may change engine positions or intake manifolds. If I did this I would end up buying the lokar cable twice.

So what is the other option? Make your own on the cheap! This is the route I took and it looks fairly decent and cost about $15. The nice thing is that you can customize the length to whatever you want.

 

Here are the two cables. 4th gen on the top and thirdgen on the bottom. You need the drivers compartment side of the 3rd gen cable and the throttle body side of the 4th gen cable

 

I assume there's more coming here.

You can use a flat washer to make the hole the right size. You don't need to tie a knot in the cable, just bend the throttle pedal arm until you have the correct travel.

 

Next install the 3rd gen cable on the firewall and the 4th gen cable on the throttle body bracket. In this case i am using the ls6 manifold. Then mark with either tape or marker about 1.5" on the 4th gen cable from the front of the 3rd gen cable. If the wording sounds confusing look at the picture.

 

Next cut the end off the cable of the 3rd gen cable. Be sure to use tape wrapped around the cable so that when you cut it the ends don't fray.

Cut the cable on the 4th gen cable about 3.5" or 4" from the little round barrel on the throttle body side.

Then cut the 4th gen cable where you marked. In the above picture I cut to the left side of the tape.

After that you need to fish the steel cable through both the 3rd gen cable and the 4th gen cable. Look at the pic below for clarity.

 

Now take a heat gun and heat the end of the 3rd gen cable. Do not melt the plastic when you do this. You only want to heat it enough to allow it to grow in diameter. Heat slowly and try it until you get the right temperature without melting the plastic. I used a little grease and forced the 4thgen end into the 3rd gen end. I worked it a little bit at a time until i got the full 1.5" inches. Then let it cool and it will have shrunk itself around the 4th gen piece.

 

Looks good! I didnt have any problems using a 4th gen one however...but it did cost me 50 bucks

 

Some items you will need now are a small pencil torch from any decent home store. You might need to buy extra butane for practicing. Buy electrical connectors that are 22-18 gauge. The connectors must also have a hole in the center of them. And buy some solder for metal brazing not electrical use. Also get the according flux with the solder. Solder with some silver in it seemed to work fine.

Take the electrical connector and drill through it all the way to allow the cable to pass through. You also need to clear the hole in the center of the connector after you drill. This hole is where you will add the solder.

 

Clip the assembled cable into the throttle body bracket. Then attach the 4" piece of 4th gen cable to the throttle body. Measure where you need to cut the cable and allow for the length of the electrical connector. The two cables should pass into each side of the connector but not touch each other inside the connector. Leave that hole open for the solder to flow in.

Then crimp the cables in the connector so the cables stay in place. Now apply the flux heat the connector and add the solder. It will fill the hole and flow into the cable securing it for good.

Practice on spare pieces first since you will probably melt the connector on accident. You want the cable to be hot enough to melt the solder upon contact. Do not heat the solder and drip it onto the cables. It will not stick this way.

 

Here is the final results. Looks pretty good and didn't cost a lot. I got the throttle cable from the junk yard for $5 and already had the 3rdgen cable. If you can't find a 4th gen cable check other gm cars. A few full size vans had a similar cable and so did a few oldsmobiles.

 

Ok thanks for the .50 cent fix. You got me there dude! And glad that you didn't have any trouble with the 4th gen cable. I just wanted to try something a little bit different. Plus this may be a good fix for people who are doing other setups. Hope it helps someone. It was definantly more time involved but it worked. Thanks for the input.

 

I'm missing something here......

If half the engine side of the 4th gen cable gets put in the heated end of the 3rd gen body side....

#1. I'm not seeing how the actual cable inside gets spliced together.
#2. You do show a splice, but only in the last 4".

If the engine side of the 4th gen cable assembly is already there, why the splicing at the last 4"?

 

Yes the nomenclature here is a bit confusing because the throttle cables are an assembly. So when i refer to them they all have the same basic parts and names. Look at post #5 second pic.

I am using the plastic casing or sheathing of the 3rd gen throttle cable assembly to correctly fit the firewall and match the gas pedal.

I cut the 4th gen plastic casing at the point mentioned and i am only using that small piece shown that clips to the throttle body bracket.

The 4" piece i am refering to is the steel cable portion. This 4" portion of cable has the barrel at the end of it that mates with the 4th gen throttle body.

Now the steel cable that runs INSIDE the plastic case or sheating is the rest of the 4th gen steel cable. This portion is fed through the 3rd gen plastic sheathing and the modified 4th gen plastic sheathing. You only have to cut the steel cable so that you can fish it through both plastic sheathings.

You do not use any portion of the 3rd gen steel cable. You only use the plastic sheathing of the 3rd gen cable.

Hope this clears everything up. There is only one splice of steel cable and one union of the two plastic cases.

 

So.....

Are you really only cutting the 4th gen steel cable, to insert it through 3rd gen plastic firewall sheath? Then splice the 4th gen steel cable back together? In other words.....Only the 3rd gen firewall portion of plastic is reused?

If so.....Do the 3rd & 4th gen pedals have the same pedal end? Does the 4th gen steel cable easily fit to the 3rd gen pedal?

 

4th gen cable end is same as thirdgen cable end, so it all works well at the pedal. The 3rd gen firewall part is so that the cable sheath is held firmly in place since the 4th gen firewall clip doesnt fit snug with the thirdgen hole.

 

^^^ Yea you guys are right on. This is just one of the many cheap time consuming mods that i've been working on! The rule is I can only put money into my car if I make money selling car parts or doing a side job that is car related. So I have to come up with cheap fixes that look halfway decent and will last awhile. Wait till I post a thread about my home made motor mounts!

 

When did the LS1s switch to DBW?

I'm guessing the cables were only like 98-00?

 

The only things I dont like about this is that extra fitting that is now sitting on your intake, and the fact that its spliced cable. It would really suck to nail the throttle and have it snap... My throttle has a stop at the throttle body. It doesnt rely on the floor to stop the pedal. As hard as I step on that sometimes Ide be afraid of it popping.

I must be the only person that had no issue getting the 4th gen cable to fit nito the thirdgen firewall. If you orient it just right, it covers the whole hole and fits snug.

Good thinking though...def not saying its a bad idea. Its a great idea. I suppose if you have the two cables and are confident in your cable splicing this would work pretty good.

J.

 

Camaros and firebirds had a cable all the way until the last production year 2002. Trucks had them in 03 and in 04. I think most of the corvettes are dbw and i assume the gto's and ssr's are dbw too.

 

I was looking at that extra fitting and it wouldn't be hard to make a quick metal bracket for it. The solder is good for 8000psi and the crimp will only help that. It should hold good until I figure out what i want to do permenantly.

 

I got an LQ4 out of a 2003 van that was cable throttle, and another from a 2004 van that was DBW.

The LS1/T56 I got from a 2000 SS was traction control, and had a different type of throttle cable entirely.

Although a bit apples & oranges, I put a Lokar cable on the '57 earlier this year. High quality stuff, made a huge difference in the throttle operation. If I hadn't already done a 4th gen cable on the LS1/T56 swap, I would seriously consider the Lokar. When the LQ4 goes in the '57, it will without doubt have a Lokar cable.

 

There are different throttle body part numbers and seperate throttle cable part numbers for the Fbodys. Check LS1tech for more info on the numbers but the 98-99 had a different cable than the 00-02. I think i have the 98-99 cable part number but do have a 00-02 throttle body and no problems either way

 

Yea thanks for posting the pics of the new lokar bracket assembly. It does look awesome

 

I believe it was due to different TB cable cam radius between the early and later years.

Since we're modifying anything that needs it with our swaps anyway, shouldn't matter to us.