Carburetor or accelerator cable gone bad?

[wild70stang]

I haven't noticed until now that my pedal was slowly sinking closer to the firewall until yesterday when I was stranded 40 miles from my apartment with my pedal not working. If I push the pedal it does not pull the accelerator cable to open the throttle. The pedal just hits the floor. When looking at the cable it has about an inch of play (it sticks an inch forward of where it is attached to the pedal linkage). I took both the cable and linkage off and found that the cable is the 22 3/4 inch length and the pedal linkage has no unusual bends in the rods to signify that it is bent. Could the throttle is loose and twisting forward???

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!

 

[bnickel]

throttle linkage on the carb or the cable is super stretched out, but normally a cable that is that stretched would break. i have had the cable come off at the pedal end though, there is supposed to be a little retainer that holds the cable end to the pedal arm if that retainer comes off (very common) then the cable will not stay in the pedal arm. i've used a zip tie before to hold the cable in.

also make sure the pedal is still bolted to the toe board, it's only held in with sheetmetal screws and over the years they have a tendancy to pull out of the sheetmetal. mine are now held in with nuts and bolts

 

[wild70stang]

the throttle cable is new and the plastic piece is still in great shape. The pedal linkage was also bolted tightly into the firewall.