Ford 851 Throttle Speed

[ccduke]

I have a 1962 Ford 851. The throttle lever usually works as expected. That is, idle around 700, then pulling the lever down, throttle speed increases smoothly until it tops out around 2000-2200, and the governor will pull it back down if you go higher than that.
So, occasionally, it will start fine, and idle a little higher than normal, but it's the throttle increase that's strange. The lever only has to move slightly to increase throttle speed a lot, and it gets to max throttle only pulling the lever down a little, maybe an inch and a half or two inches. It has done this once in a while the whole time I've owned it (3 years), but usually it goes back to normal in a few minutes. Well, it's been like this for several days now, so I'd kinda like to solve it.
Any thoughts?

 

[John0829]

I would start by checking all the throttle linkages to be sure none are binding. The connection from the governor to the carb is though a spring mounted on the governors arm, be sure the part that slides inside the spring is free to move as well. Since you say it works then does not work properly I am thinking the governor may be the problem. The fly balls of the gov binding up due to wear or sludge build up from your oil, which means pulling the front of the engine to check.

By all means do the simple things of checking all the linkages before even considering opening the engine.