I thought I'd share this recent escapade to alert others in future;
I recently had my '83 944 raised to take the undertray off and get in to retension the alternator belt. To do this, I jacked the car up off the front jacking points (the "doughnut" under the floor) one side at a time and put large blocks under the wheels to give me the height.
When all was done and I put the car down, my accelerator pedal was misbehaving. It suddenly had a lot more resistance on the first 1/3 of its travel, after which it "popped" past the resistance and went easily to WOT. When running the car, I couldn't smoothly raise the revs as the accelerator pedal "popped" past the point of resistance, causing a large, unintentional blip of the throttle.
Turns out that the 944 accelerator pedal operates an arm with a wheel on the end. This wheel engages into a slotted channel on the back of the pedal. When jacking the car, the drivers floor had distorted slightly, enough to cause the wheel and slot to become an over-centre locking action, like that feeling you get when locking a set of mole grips into place.
Needless to say, putting a cloth down in front of the pedal and giving the floor a good hard dunt with a lump hammer cured it! The floorpan buffed out ever so slightly (talking millimeters) to its correct position and this has restored correct pedal action.
Moral of the story is to avoid putting too much weight on a single front jacking point, I.e. by raising it really high to get blocks under the wheels!
However, if you do get the problem with the pedal mechanism over centring, simply reach for your lump hammer and a cloth..
George
I recently had my '83 944 raised to take the undertray off and get in to retension the alternator belt. To do this, I jacked the car up off the front jacking points (the "doughnut" under the floor) one side at a time and put large blocks under the wheels to give me the height.
When all was done and I put the car down, my accelerator pedal was misbehaving. It suddenly had a lot more resistance on the first 1/3 of its travel, after which it "popped" past the resistance and went easily to WOT. When running the car, I couldn't smoothly raise the revs as the accelerator pedal "popped" past the point of resistance, causing a large, unintentional blip of the throttle.
Turns out that the 944 accelerator pedal operates an arm with a wheel on the end. This wheel engages into a slotted channel on the back of the pedal. When jacking the car, the drivers floor had distorted slightly, enough to cause the wheel and slot to become an over-centre locking action, like that feeling you get when locking a set of mole grips into place.
Needless to say, putting a cloth down in front of the pedal and giving the floor a good hard dunt with a lump hammer cured it! The floorpan buffed out ever so slightly (talking millimeters) to its correct position and this has restored correct pedal action.
Moral of the story is to avoid putting too much weight on a single front jacking point, I.e. by raising it really high to get blocks under the wheels!
However, if you do get the problem with the pedal mechanism over centring, simply reach for your lump hammer and a cloth..
George
