Gas Pedal and Throttle Cable Tension

[my12by60]

Since we bought our Q the gas pedal opeation has always felt a bit sticky, for lack of a better term. I am not talking about idle or engine performance, which is fine. Just that the gas pedal offers a bit more resistance than my wife or I would like and the level of resistance is not completely uniform. The main problem point is initial acceleration, where the pedal action wants to inspire more of a jackrabbit start (due to the stickiness) vs. allowing a smooth transition from resting at idle to starting to move.

I cleaned up and lubed (with Tri-Flow) the area at the spring above the gas pedal, the throttle cable where it enters the firewall, and the throttle cable and pivots at the top of the engine. That seems to have smoothed things out a bit.

I also checked the slack level in the throttle cable and I was able to depress the cable almost a full inch. Is that too much? If yes, how much slack should I remove and which direction should I move bolts that hold the throttle cable to take out slack (toward the firewall or toward the radiator)?

[Jttoka]

I was told.
Tighten nut, till taught, then loosen two turns.

[my12by60]

Made some adjustments tonight. Will see how she drives tomorrow. Thanks.

[Q451990]

There's a procedure on page FE-4 of the service manual for your car - available at www.infinitiservicemanual.com

Looks like you'll need a hand vacuum pump, but otherwise nothing too exciting.

[my12by60]

I forgot to close out this thread. The problem was way too much slack in the throttle cable under the hood. I could depress the cable almost a full inch when I checked it. Using the throttle cable adjustment nuts, I took almost all of the slack out so that I could depress the cable only a few mms, as others have noted here to be the correct amount of slack. Prior the the throttle cable adjustment, the reason the car felt twitchy when starting from a dead stop was due to the resistance offered by the gas pedal itself. Since the spring on the gas pedal offers resistance, we felt as if we were moving the throttle when in fact the first inch or so of gas pedal depression was only taking out the slack in the throttle cable. Then when the throttle actually started to open, the car felt jumpy. The cable adjustment has things smoothed out now.

[Q451990]