The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Hillbilly Cruise Control

There is a little knob with a "T" on it on the dash of my 61 chevy. It used to work as a kind of hillbilly cruise control, until it stopped working. I actually used it more to warm the truck up than anything else, I would put the gas pedal down a touch and lock it and let the thing warm up. A month or o ago it quit working. Is this knob a driect cable assembly? Meaning when I pull the knob does it literally lock the carb in position, or is it attatched to the gas pedal. I would like to fix it because it worked as an effective cruise control on flat ground and was a nice tool to warm the old truk up without sitting in it. Thoughts, ideas, verbal abuse, all welcome.

sounds to me like a throttle control like on a tow truck. We just put one on. Does your truck have an extra cable running to the carb? MY does. You pull it and turn it 90 degrees to lock it. Thats the only wat i know of. You can get new cable kits from aw direct towing. I have a brand new adapter kit (if yours hooks up different) that i did not need.If you would want to go that route let me know.

yes the "T" knob is the 'throttle' and hooks to the carb thru the cable which should be pretty obvious when you look under the dash and follow yer eyes thru the firewall to the carb

the throttle was intended as a way to up the idle for running PTO things, as on Johnny's tow truck, or for the warm up you do, or to hold a very slow granny-low crawl in the farm field pickin up the hay bales - VERY unsafe thing to use as a cruise control considering there's no automatic release in an emergency

Bill

Your wire probably just broke, or the little slider might have just come loose.

If I remember it has an outer housing like old lawn mowers. I covered mine w/ heat shrink tubing and am able to use a motocycle cable greaser to 'lube' the hard wire 'T'.
the luber looks like
http://www.motorcycle-parts-and-acc...able-lubricator-black-gold-prod3257.html
about $10. @ any good m/c shop in town.

Both my '46 trucks have the factory 'T' knob.. only used it a few times on real cold days when I wanted to run higher than normal idle RPM's to warm up the engine.

As Red points out, it would be useful in the larger trucks with PTO's for running the pump.

A '66 is 20 years into the future, so technology could have changed things.. but in '46 the 'T' knob is connected to a cable the same size as you'd find on your typical lawn mower throttle cable, and connects to the throttle on the carb.

I can't imagine it would be a real accurate, reliable, or safe cruse control, tho.

sctually Jim, if the throttle cable is lubed it'll wind up not working eventually - needs the friction resistance to stay in one position against the throttle return spring and vibration - someone here awhile back had just that problem

Bill

cool beans, thanks for the replies. i do not use it for cruise control...it is tempting at times though. anyway thanks for the info.

A real throttle cable will have a "flat" machined on the inside of the tube and on the metal section of the cable where the knob attaches. You can turn the knob slightly to "lock" it in place. The repop junk is round all the way around.

There you go trying to be different. When I was driving semis for a living (the 70s) we used the throttle as cruise control. I was even known to put my foot on the dash to stretch out. But I only did that on lonely stretches of highway, like in western Oklahoma.

Hey Bill
I know what you mean and agree w/ you. When I used to use mine the lube helped get the thing moving. In other words it was rusted or stuck and that helped. I also think the friction that would still be there is enough to make it work as a very primitive throttle cruise control, but it would slowly drop in speed.

its just like a choke cable only instead of running the choke butterfly it runs the throttle butterfly with all the ones i've seen theres no twist to it just pull it out like a choke
Nate

Yeah there is no twist to mine. It is just a stright pull out like the choke. Fred, I like your style, I knew I wasn't the only one who had done this. There are not a lot of flat spots where I live, it is known as the "Rolling Hills" so I am kind of SOL there, but if I were a Kansas resident I bet it could be used a lot. Thanks for the posts everybody.

Kyle

cruise control? hahahahahaha. now thats funny.

demo man...if you think that is funny, ask what factory air conditioning is in a new topic!

hahahaha. well i just roll down the windows for my ac.
and the 2000 dodge i have never gets the ac used... just the way that question was worded had me rolling with all kinds of visuals. like jed clampits old truck from the beverly hillbillys

i just looked at my 39. the cable end at the carb is like the choke cable. but slides through a swivel on the throtle. it can move free through this swivel, and has a stop to pull the carb opened.
i remember driving across the plains in a 59 using the T nob as "cruse control" very dangerous.

Fred T and Ft knox used to do the same thing late at night in the midwest pull throttle latch and cruise. Just replaced the throttle cable on my 38 gonna have to look at the old one (if I can find it) to see if it had a flat side to lock in.

I had some old timers tell me(years ago)about puttin a "clothes pin on the throttle" cable, to keep it from vibrating closed and cruisin thru Kansas/Oklahoma or anywhere it was open road...Then theres always that Jim Croche song, with that line, "He's got a broomstick on the throttle"...

hey cosmic. what part of so or are ya? im in grants pass off and on.

well well well...how bout...CAVE JUNCTION.