Ford 881 Throttle Linkage

[lfholmer]

I'm the second owner of a 1959 Ford 881....it's been in the family for approximately 35 years.

Eighteen months ago I disassembled it down to the bones and rebuilt or replaced the suspension, cylinder head, brakes, alternator, carburetor, starter, etc. I've added all-new rubber and everything has been repainted. I'm currently in the final stages of reassembly and have had it running in short spurts. This is where I ran into a problem with the throttle linkage.

As you can see in the picture, the linkage is shown in the idle position with the bell crank rotated full clockwise. The problem comes when I connect the return spring (shown) to the attachment point on the bottom of the battery tray. This rotates the unit clockwise toward full throttle! BTW - the hand throttle lever is now in the down position.

Obviously, I have something wrong with this installation and I’m at a loss to rectify the situation. I took lots of pictures, but apparently not enough. And, I'm trying not to take Bubba approach by moving the spring attachment point to a new location. Thanks for your help.

 

[TractorTech]

Looking at your picture, do you have any tension on the friction plate? It looks very lightly tensioned.

 

[John0829]

Something does not seem right to me, I'll look at mine tomorrow

 

[lfholmer]

You are correct about the light tension on the friction plate, just haven't hit that point on the checklist.

 

[John0829]

Your connections are correct, I looked at mine tonight and grabbed some pics for you.

 

[lfholmer]

Thanks, guys for the quick response. The pictures confirmed mine is connected correctly, with the same bellcrank configuration. I going to reassemble and tighten up the friction plate and see if that can solve this mystery. The only other possibility is a problem up by the governor. I'll report back.