throttle sticking

5.0lpowerhouse

Founding Member
Sep 25, 2002
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I picked up my 89 GT yesterday and I noticed that at resting position the throttle sticks, driving it in traffic this morning really sucked. do I need a new throttle cable? or is something else wrong
 
Check for any binding along the length of the cable, or even the floormat binding against the pedal (sounds silly...but it happens :) ). If you can't find anything, unhook the throttle cable from the throttle body and make sure the TB isn't the culprit. If its ok then it is probably the cable.
 
as others said, pop the hood. open the butterfly with the crank on the TB (this takes the cable out of the equation). if it sticks, it is your TB. if not, you can even hold the butterfly open a bit, while someone tried the pedal. if the pedal sticks while you are holding the butterfly open (thus putting a lot of slack into the cable), you know that the cable is your problem.
good luck.
 
Welp, it's not the cable... I did as hissin 5.0 said and the freakin throttle body was stuck. Someone else told me that I can fix it with the Idle screw as someone stated above, however I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to do with the idle screw...
 
It's underneath the throttle body. It'll probably be a torx style screw. If you look under your throttle body, you will see a screw that is perpendicular to the opening of the throttle body, the other side of it will be touching the plate that the cable connects to. You should give it a 1/2 turn or a full turn and see if the problem keeps going.
 
I had to adjust mine as well. Sometimes you can just turn it by hand but mine I used a flat head when I couldn't. Here's a pic just in case, my finger is pointing at the screw under the intake tract.
 

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Sorry to jack the thread but I am having pretty close to the same issue. My cable is fine and the tb opens by hand with no issue...when I am at a stop and tap the gas it takes a second or two before the engine responds...so am I lookin IAC? I think I have a fuel leak if that helps but I am pretty sure I had that before this issue came up.
 
CivicEater said:
Sorry to jack the thread but I am having pretty close to the same issue. My cable is fine and the tb opens by hand with no issue...when I am at a stop and tap the gas it takes a second or two before the engine responds...so am I lookin IAC? I think I have a fuel leak if that helps but I am pretty sure I had that before this issue came up.
IAC would not be my first guess. i would be lookin more for a break (or incorrect) TPS voltage. it may have a dip in it off idle. also make sure you dont have a vac leak (that is, if the FUEL LEAK is not causing it - that should be the first thing you fix). good luck.

this is a nice segue into the sticky TB problem - make sure you check your TPS voltage after you mess with the throttle blade adjustment, as turning the idle screw will change the the TPS static voltage , so readjust accordingly (at least check it). good luck.
 
Alright, gotta jump in on this one. I had this very same problem after I did a TB swap a long time ago. I had a very mild 5.0, and scored a 70mm from a friend for free. After I put it on, I had a sticky pedal feeling at idle. But when the car was off, nothing. Basicallt what was happening was that the mild engine combo had too much vaccuum and idle, and was causing a weird pressure difference. Imagine holding a sheet of plywood in the wind, then trying to turn it. Hard at first, but when the pressure equallized, it'd snap open. Same thing for the tb. Jacking up the idle with the idle screw helps, but after I got my tweecer, i just turned it up with the ecu. My new combo doesn't have the same problem because it doesn't produce as much vaccuum at idle. So basically, it means that you may be running too big of a tb for your setup. Hope that helps.