Accelerator cable too tight all of a sudden?

[astronomical_02]

Hey all. I'm just start this off by saying that I really appreciate the wealth of knowledge and information posted by the members of this forum. Reading the posts on this website is what inspired me to fix my van. Now down to business...

Upon the first of the year I began the project of repairing the seemingly common problem with the 4.3 of a shot lower intake manifold gasket. I also used this as an opportunity to try and rectify my no heat situation (We are currently residing in Michigan). Along the way I decided to replace a few other things, all in all here is a list of what was done:

-New lower intake manifold gaskets
-New lower intake bolts
-New valve cover gasket
-New water pump
-New heater core
-New heater control valve (6 port)
-New thermostat
-New vacuum lines

I finally got everything put back together yesterday and decided to try and start her up to see how I did. The van started up but was idling quite high. I would estimate, though I could be off due to having no tachometer, it was idling somewhere around 3500-4000 RPM. I quickly shut it down and gave everything a look over to see if there was something I was missing.

I was thinking it might have been a vacuum line issue but as I looked at the throttle body I noticed that it was open about a half inch from the idle control screw. (I can't remember if that's how it always was or not?)

I decided to take the accelerator cable off the throttle body and see how the engine idles. Once I started it with the cable off it idled perfectly.

I have inspected the cable to the best of my ability and as far as I can tell there are no bindings or kinks. The reason I say that is because as I pull the cable away from the firewall I can hear an audible 'click' as the first stopper catches and stops in the tube. There seems to be no sign of any resistance and I never had a problem with it before this project.

I don't want to do anything more before I consult the minds of this forum. As my flight instructor always told me: "There's no problem so bad that you can't make it worse."

So what might I be dealing with here?

[WoodButcher]

Look at the mounting bracket on the intake, you took it off, did you re-assemble properly?

[astronomical_02]

Alright so right after I posted to the forum a buddy randomly came by and we started looking at the van. While he was looking at where the cable connects to the throttle linkage he noticed that it seemed like the cable wasn't seating correctly.

All we did was take a flathead and pry open the two pieces of metal that guide the cable underneath the linkage. They must've gotten pinched during the project. This fixed the problem and now it's running alot better.

Thanks.

[Lumpy]

The bracket for my cable came loose once. Bolt/stud at the head was loose, the bracket flopped. With no stationary point to move from, it would do all kinds of ghosty schtuff.

The other end that you describe as "pry apart" sounds just like mine. Learnt me to have a look at that simple physical stuff real well before suspecting the Capacinective Inversinator Module Input Buffer Rom Chip, or something else similarly expensive.


Lump

[astronomical_02]

Capacinective Inversinator Module Input Buffer Rom Chip, eh? Sounds intimidating haha.

I was cursing myself out for not taking a picture of it before I started tearing it down. I think I learnt me the same lesson this time around, Lumpy.