Friday, June 15, 2012

mckinney x3

Unlike the windshield entry, this one is x3 because there actually are three mckinney iterations. First when I received all the parts in, second when I more closely inspected and then installed the radiator, and now when doing the same with the throttle body cable.







It came with a bracket, several end links, fittings, and adapters, as well as the cable and housing itself. There was also a black and white picture showing it installed. Upon further examination, I realized that the engine in the picture was not an rb25. This only worried me slightly as the cable could very easily work with many models of engine in a 24o z.

It did begin to concern me when I looked more closely at the tip of the throttle cable. There was a small round ball, and not a perpendicularly mounted cylinder as I've always seen used with most throttle bodies, and what is incidentally needed on an rb25.





The smaller red cable is the one that came with the kit, sitting next to my s13 cable which I previously adapted for use while the motorset was in the 28o z. As I did not want to mount the throttle cable in the same fashion in the 24o, I ordered what I thought to be a kit which was fabricated to work with my engine in a 24o. Almost comically at this point, I wasn't entirely correct.





The old housing had been damaged during the last engine removal. The aft bracket got caught on the windshield cowl as the engine was being pulled forward, partially unraveling the housing. This was OK at the time as a new cable kit was being ordered, but after realizing the problem with the new cable, my thoughts were dashed about simply using the old cable/housing with the new fittings and bracket. Now I had to try to transplant the old cable into the new housing, in hopes that the old cable was one, long enough in length, and two, small enough in diameter.

I cut the back end off of the old throttle cable as cleanly as I could with minimal fraying and then removed it from it's housing. I repeated this with the new cable except it was simply attached to it's fitting assembly with a small set screw which was easily removed with the included small allen wrench. 




I tried to minimize chance of fraying and catching of the old cable in the new housing by twisting the end of the cable as tightly as I could in it's natural orientation before inserting it into the new housing. The old cable was a bigger diameter than the new one, but it fit like a glove in the new housing. The new cable was actually loose which made me believe that the incorrect cable was provided with the correct diameter, and hopefully length, housing. That and the fact that it had the wrong end on it made me relatively unhappy about spending 129$ on something that I had to modify from mckinney, yet again.

When feeding the snug cable into the housing, I twisted it as I pushed so that it would feed in the orientation of it's strands and not fray. It would catch lightly, but simply retract/twist/feed again and it fed all the way through with time and patience.




Make sure to put end caps and fittings on either end before installing the cable as some may not be able to be installed over the cable ends, namely the throttle body side, once the cable is fully inside the housing. Not that it was difficult, but it would be frustrating to say the least to have to thread it all over again for want of a housing cap. In this case the housing was also new, the inside being completely coated with a waxy substance, which I'm sure helped the process.





I then attached the rest of the needed fittings and bracket, adjusting it approximately for use. Luckily the old cable seemed to be dead on as far as length, which was confirmed during installation. Any shorter and it may not have worked. For the hell of it, I put the new cable into the old housing and tucked it away.

Luckily I had not thrown away the old cable after ordering the new one, or simply cut it during the last engine removal, or damaged it while it was laying around my kitchen for 3 months, or ...



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