Testarossa failed throttle linkage

Had an interesting issue today whilst out on a drive with a few of the lads. I lost all throttle, pedal did nothing but flop back and forth.

I safely stopped after rolling for two kms into a farmers layby, and had a look around. Clearly the throttle cable in the engine bay was all sloppy and felt like nothing was connected to it. I didn't pull too hard in case I pulled the broken cable into the sheath just in case.

Next step I removed console trims and the throttle plate covers and low and behold, the cable wasnt broken at all, but the right angle arm on the end of the primary cable had popped out of the linkage bracket. Closer inspection revealed that the spring clip that holds it in place had snapped and there was nothing to hold the rod in the hole.

Not looking good at this stage and miles from home. I ended up putting the linkage rod in the other side of the hole and jamming a bit of cardboard behind it so that it couldn't fall out. Then with some 200mph tape I secured the kleenex box to the throttle cable and tootled off on my merry way.

The throttle was a bit sticky caused by the friction of the cardboard against the tunnel, but I still drove another 200km and arrived safely home.

Once home I 'stole' the clip from my other Testarossa as it's off the road, and noticed that the L shaped rod was in the reverse direction on the other car and the spring clip was also reversed. Weird!

So I got onto the parts manual to see if the pictures showed the factory orientation of this rod, and I was not able to locate the correct part for Testarossa of all years. Hmm...the plot thickens.

The throttle linkage diagrams for the Testarossa didn't look at all like mine. The cable was longer and there was only a single connection to a right angled bracket that then ran to the throttle pedal. So I searched further and found a listing for 512TR - RHD and this looked similar to mine, except the end that connected to the engine. The pedal end was like my car. I can't find an exploded parts diagram for a Testarossa RHD model so I'm left wondering how I would ever order a throttle cable if ever I needed one.

Anyway, here's a couple of images that show the difference between the LHD cars and the RHD 512TR (which is sort of like my 1988.5 RHD TR)
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Image to the left above shows standard testarossa and 512TR in what I presume are LHD models.

Picture to the right shows a 512TR RHD unit, but this is exactly as my 88 car is. It has a 4" long connection rod between the end of the cable and the end of the actual throttle bar. There is a spring clip on each end of this 4" rod and another spring clip on the L shaped rod at the end of the actual cable. The parts diagram indicates that there are two RH clips and one LH clip in the combination.

Cost of clip..a measly $1.80 at Ricambi USA or 0.51 pence out of the UK.

It will be interesting to hear from both US and UK owners to see if any one has had any troubles with these clips as they shouldn't be a wear item, yet mine appeared to be cleanly snapped in two as can be seen below.
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And here's the roadside repairs just in case anyone gets caught out whilst on a drive sometime:

First, flip the rod to the other side of the bracket. Then jam something in to stop it falling out and secure the jamming item to the cable with some tape.

Cruise quietly home and don't be too alarmed if the throttle sticks ever so slightly, it's just friction on the jamming material.
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So I have affected temporary repairs but it appears that my other car has been put back togther at a recent time and not done properly.

The temporary fix clearly shows that the rod is arse about, but it will keep the old girl on the road until I'm able to get the correct clips for both cars and re-assemble them both correctly.
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No flies on you PP. Sharp as a tack as usual!

Yes, your observations are correct. I've had to put mine together wrong until I can get RH clips. That black line on the pic above shows the way the rod should be positioned on a RHD car. I'm just hoping that there are parts available in Oz or I'll have to ask one of the Fchat USA or UK guys to grab these for me and put them in a post bag. Unfortunately Eurospares / Ricambi's freight charges are prohibitive from the UK / USA to Oz, particularly for a $1.80 part.

 

There you go PP, you must have overlooked this part.

 

That's great Steve.

I couldn't find them, but was obviously looking in the wrong place. Thanks.

Hey Brian, what do you mean by a clevis pin arangement? Can you elaborate.

I'm happy to put the stock clips back in, but I'm still trying to understand why it snapped in the first place. If there is some sort of lateral force on these clips under certaian conditions then we need to know about it and fix it. Obviously not too pertinent to the LHD cars, but there are 17% of us out there somewhere sitting in your passenger seats.

I thought about it in the night (as you do) and considered putting a thread on the end of the rod and a nylok nut, but cutting a thread without removing the cable would be somewhat difficult.

 

Well I checked with local Ferrari suppliers here and there are no clips in Oz. They may be available on back order to Italy, but the suggestion is that they would come from England anyway and take 6 - 8 weeks. Cost here $3.40 Oz per clip.

Ricambi were $1.60 for the clip and $42.50 to post and the only way of getting anything to Oz is via Fedex, hence the price. Fine if the car was dead or dying but not for a $1.60 clip.

In the end I had to get them from Ricambi, pay a $5.00 postal fee to an old contact in DC, then when they arrive there, she can post them to OZ via 'normal' air mail.

Silly isn't it that they can only (will only) ship Fedex internationally. They must miss out on a lot of business by not using a more cost efficient postage system.

Is anyone aware of a post forwarding company in the USA who will recieve goods and then post them on. This happens a lot on eBay too?


Anyway, the clips could be here in a couple of weeks, so I got the gas welder out and using some silver solder, accomplished a neat weld on the clip. A dremel did the cleanup and I refitted it to the rod on the correct side so the pull is correct. It's nice and strong and the clip still had good tension when it clipped over the rod, so I'm sure it will hold till the clips arrive. A good liberal coating of grease and she's back together again, although temporarily.
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