Since I have owned this car, I've been less than impressed with the effort required to acuate the gas pedal. But I've noticed over the last few weeks that it takes more and more effort to get the pedal to "float" with my foot and allow me to maintain speed with minimal input. My truck requires little to no effort and maintaining speed is a non-issue. The Fiero gas pedal on the other hand, is a real bear to control.
About three months ago, I dismantled, lubed and reassembled the throttle linkage at the throttle body. While I was at it, I tied the throttle cable to the trunk lock mechanism and over a period of several hours, managed to force quite a bit of PB Blaster down into the sheathe of the throttle cable. The cable, when acuated from the engine end, moves very freely and without any binding or hesitation. The throttle linkage at the throttle body moves smoothly and easily. The only part I have not touched is the pivot point for the gas pedal itself and I have a feeling this is where my problem lies. The pedal goes down about .25" before the pivot rod even begins to turn and that leads me to believe that either the pivot rod or the supporting assembly is worn and in need of rebuilding/replacement.
As soon as this rainy weather breaks and I can take a look at it, I'll take some pics and let you guys know how it goes.
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08:30 PM
PFF
System Bot
katatak Member
Posts: 7136 From: Omaha, NE USA Registered: Apr 2008
My gas pedel does the same thing I just thought it was suposeto be like that! Haha I wish it was easer to press in! Let me know if you figure it out. My car most likely has the same issue! Maybe post some pics if you have a chance. I bet a lot of people have the same issue
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10:23 PM
Mar 19th, 2009
Brocephus Member
Posts: 617 From: Franklin, NY, USA Registered: Mar 2006
Ok, no pictures right now as I just didn't have the time or daylight to mess around. There are two screws that hold the whole mess on. The front metal plate just falls off to reveal the gas pedal pivot assembly. The steel rod runs through a plastic bushing/housing and connects to the throttle cable inside the center console. With my big ol' meat hooks, it was semi-difficult to reach, but not at all impossible. The pics I take tomorrow will better demonstrate all this so I'll spare you the verbal description and get right to the meat and potatoes.
Surprisingly enough, the plastic bushing/housing thingy showed very little actual wear. The rod suffered the greatest, losing a section of metal to friction that measured roughly 1/32" deep and 3/8" long. Not a lot of wear, mind you, for a quarter of a century. However, upon closer inspection, I found some nasty, nasty burrs on the rod that were a direct result of the rod rubbing on the metal plate that holds the whole mess together. It was these burrs that were making the extra pedal effort neccesary. I took an extremely fine file and gently filed the burrs away, trying to leave the surface as smooth as possible. I did not want tools marks causing a new pattern of wear between the rod and that metal plate as the plate was barely marred. Leave behind a bunch of careless tool marks and the only thing you'll be accelerating is more wear. I washed all parts with Dawn dish soap, making sure to remove all of the dust contaminated grease installed 25 years ago. Having just left my garage behind in Kentucky for a move to New York, the only grease I could find around the house was dielectric grease I had left over after replacing my ignition control module in my pickup (hence the reason I'll be repeating this process either tomorrow or Saturday). I would prefer a graphite lube to use for this so I don't have to be concerned about anything dripping on the carpet or stinkin' up the car.
After reassembling, reconnecting and tightening I pressed the pedal and to my surprise, it refused to budge. I had to back the screws off until the pedal moved freely. I took it for a road test and could NOT believe the difference. It felt like a new car. the pedal feel was soft and easily manipulated yet, sure and solid. I was actually able to run it up to 1500 rpms, hold it for a second, run it up to 1900 rpms and then drop it down to 1100 or so rpms and hold it for as long as I wished. Before, this was impossible because you had to press so damn hard on it that once it moved, you were pushing so hard on it that it immediately jumped to 25-2800 rpm before you could even let the clutch out. Lift your foot a little and the pedal wouldn't move. The pedal wouldn't move most times until you removed the entire weight of your foot from the pedal. Doing this while driving on the interstate made for difficulty in maintaining speed and also made for terrible fuel mileage as I was constantly having to make drastic changes to the position of the pedal just to alter my speed even 3-4 mph. It sucked then, it's fixed again, I'm tired now and headed for bed in a few. Night night, lol.
