Check those throttle cables!

Mine snapped a few months ago literally as I was pulling into the shop for my annual oil change.

 

It's a pretty common occurrence in old posts here. Use whatever you have in the car to up the idle speed and it's not tough to limp home. A folded up car registration paper...
Sometimes the clutch cable breaks too. In that case, engage starter in 1st gear. A 308 will easily start on level ground, in gear. Any downhill sections of your return trip allow you to use the starter or gravity(pop clutch start) to use a higher gear. Yes, you could shift without the clutch if the revs are well matched, but too much risk for me.

 

Happened to me years ago except mine frayed on the pedal end and only a couple of strands holding it. The cable will go out the housings but will not go back in. I had to temporarily add a return spring on the throttle body linkage and that got me home.

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Ouch!

Mine went at the Virginia City Hill Climb (200 miles from home). I jerry-rigged a temporary fix.

If you can pull the frayed inner cable back out, you can fold it back on itself over a piece of wire (such as copper electrical wire) and secure the folded cable with a twist tie or maybe even tape. You can then fold the (copper) wire at the same spot and wrap the other end around the throttle lever. Basically, you are making an extension to the throttle cable to enable you to wrap the extension around the throttle lever. (I wish I had taken pictures.)

I still had enough cable travel that it didn't limit my throttle range. Truth-be-known, mine didn't completely fray; I was just down to two strands which were about to break.

 

I just finished diagnosing a sticking throttle cable myself and also feared it was the cable coming to the end of its useful life. Turns out it was mostly just 45 year-old grease in the throttle linkage pivot (carb car). But the PO, instead of properly diagnosing the issue and correcting it, just slapped an external return spring on the linkage to overcome the extra stiction. Being a new to me car (and me being new to carb 308s), I had no reason to think the extra spring didn't belong. I had wondered why the throttle pedal action in this car was so much stiffer than in my '83, and just put it down to operating the four Webers.
As if we weren't afflicted with enough issues to overcome from the factory......
- Dave