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MG MGF Technical - Throttle Pedal Free Play

Well I’ve reached 55 and a bit and just bought my first sports car – an ex- demo Trophy with less than 4k miles and now know what I’ve been missing! But then I found this BBS and thought hmmm when will everything start to go wrong, should I stock up on head gaskets, hood screens, gallons of antifreeze, plug leads, heater pipes, brake discs, etc. I’m already paranoid after two weeks! Seriously - one question; should there be some free play in the throttle pedal before any resistance is felt and things happen? Seems to be about half to three-quarters of an inch.
Terry

Terry,

Yes there should be some free play in the throttle. If you want to reassure yourself that it is set up correctly then get someone to sit in the car with the engine off and press the throttle to the floor while you check the butterfly valve in the engine compartment. If it goes to full travel then it is OK. If you can open the butterfly valve more when the pedal is fully depressed then you can adjust the free play at the butterly valve.

HTH

Bruce
Bruce Caldwell

Terry,

Welcome to the world of 55+ MGF ownership.

I waited since I was 21 to buy an MG and appreciate it all the more.

Brian

Terry,

Are we talking about a noticable gap between the pedal being moved and the engine accelerating?

I had this after i had the Trophy throttle body fitted, it is caused by the throttle cable not being adjusted properly and is a very easy fix. Basically, there is a little slack in the cable which means that this slack is taken up by the throttle pedal before it opens the butterfly on the throttle body.

If you open the boot and remove the grille (unclip it from the curved section of bodywork and then lift out), you will see the air filter box on the left with a corrugated rubber pipe coming out of the air box onto the throttle body. Mounted on the side of the throttle body is the butterfly with the throttle cable attached. Follow the bare wire of the throttle cable to the right until it meets a threaded part which clips to the side of the alloy inlet plenum (the VVC embossed bit). The threaded part is the throttle cable adjustment mechanism, by unclipping it and winding the square plastic nut up or down the shaft you can adjust the tension in the cable and thus the instantaniousness (is this a word?) of the throttle response. Play about with it until you have a normal idle and an instant throttle pedal response. There is still some movement in the butterfly at full throttle so you won't overstress the cable providing it is idling normally. One more thing, it is easy to get the cable out of the grove under the butterfly, if all of a sudden you are getting an odd throttle response, check to make sure the cable is seated properly.

Have fun!

SF
Scarlet Fever

Terry,

What you will find on this BBS is a thoroughly nice bunch of people with a wealth of knowledge to assist with all sorts of queries both technical and mundain. The knowledge brought will enable you to enjoy the whole MGF experience. I have had mine 6 years with no problems and thanks to these guys have got passionate about my car. I never thought i would go down the route of the occasional mod here and there, but it's well worth the few quid.

On the subject of maintenance all I can say is treat it with a bit of TLC and respect and i will serve you well. Get the car up to temp before having real fun and if you have been giving a really hard drive allow the car to warm down before turning off the engine to avoid thermal shock. It's still the best little sports car on the market and seriously good fun. Enjoy it. And if you can take it on a track day the car will love it.

Tim
Tim

All - many thanks, will check as per Bruce's and Scarlet's responses. I'm already re-assured! Thanks again.
Terry

Another satisfied customer.... :-)
tim

Glad i could help. :-)

SF
SF

This thread was discussed between 29/04/2002 and 01/05/2002

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