Follow-Up... ever de-rust Ye Olde throttle cable "retainer plate thaaaang"?

[fixizin]

So as follow-on to the zip-tie throttle cable hack, AND messing around with my TPS to achieve WOT, at some point I removed the cover/shroud over the throttle body plate-actuator (to check range of motion), and dang, it's gotten RUSTY under there! Now it's taken 26 years to get this bad, and it looks like there's plenty of "meat" to last another quarter of a century, BUT... I'm thinkin' I want to REMOVE it, ATTACK it with a wire wheel, then spray it w/ that phosphoric acid stuff that turns rust into black primer (Dupli-Color Rust Fix)...

... but, kinda worried that the ears might break off from that bright green cable-retainer when I try to squeeze it back out of the hole...?

TALK ME OUT OF IT!... lol, thanks in advance.

 

[RobbieD]

I'm kinda anal about stuff like that, too, and I well understand not wanting to push your luck with old, brittle parts unless it's absolutely necessary.

Honestly, if were me, I'd unbolt the bracket, leaving the cable in place, and use a toothbrush-sized brass brush to knock the scale off of the rusty spots, and then mask around the cable, put some newspaper under the bracket, and just "judicially" spray it in place with good a good rattle can paint.

You can also easily wire-brush and paint the bolts before reinstalling, and there'll be paint on the bracket beneath the bolt flanges.

edited for crappy spelling

 

[JoshT]

I can't speak for the clip. I've had a bunch of old plastic clips break when work on my ranger, but never had a problem with the stuff associated with throttle or transmission cables. Remove at your own risk, but personally I'd go for it.

If I successfully removed the bracket, I'd drop that thing (hardware too) in some Evaporust for a few hours. When you pull it out and rinse it off, the rust will be gone. Then hit it with a fresh coat of paint and reinstall.

 

[Bgunner]

Evaporust works awesome and doesn't need to be thrown out on the first go round. It can be reused, just put it in a safe container for the next rust removal piece you come across.

I to would be leery of the clips on the throttle cable breaking off. Maybe call around/online and see the quickest you can get a cable just incase they do break while trying to clean up the bracket. This way you know if the worst comes to be you know how long the truck will be down for incase you need it for work and travel. This way you know, say, it will take 2 weeks to get a new cable you can prepare for the truck being down for that time just incase.

Removing the cable with the bracket can put odd stresses on those clips also, so even leaving it connected could still end up being a cable replacement. Just a heads up.

 

[fixizin]

#1: NO worries about the bright green cable-retainer, gave it a little "test squeeze", and it's still supple and flexible--almost rubbery--even after 26 years of under-hood HEAT in NV, AZ, and FL... Backed it out no problem-o... thank you FoMoCo!

Then removed the bracket (two 10mm bolts), started attacking it with a wire wheel on a drill, quickly got bored with that, dunked it in Evapo-Rust for 30 minutes (got impatient, running out of daylight), rinse in hot wawa, a little more wire wheel, and... crikey, that's good enough--this thing's not even visible when the plastic shroud is back in place, amirite?

My 15-year-old can of Dupli-Color Rust Fix was kaput, so bought the Rust-Oleum version in the meantime, probably sprayed it on too thick, 2 coats, but WTH, perfect out-of-the-way practice piece... even had a run-drip on the underside--don't care! Supposed to let it cure/dry 24 hours, didn't want to be out of action that long, 24 minutes seems good enough... oops, still a bit soft (see how some transferred to the bright green ears when shoved back thru, and came off the hex-heads when tightened)--don't care!

Frickin' WAY better than it was! <<--trumpet

^^Compare to top photo in Post #1!^^

 

[fixizin]

I should probably get a cheap paint brush and slop some Evapo-Rust around on other elements under the hood... and under the body.