The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk My knobs in the truck are stuck.

The only knob that isn't stuck in my truck is the light switch. The choke, throttle, and parking brake knobs will not move in or out. The throttle knob will move a little but that's it.

Jordan,
Check that the cables under the hood of your truck and make sure that they aren't kinked or bent. Otherwise get some penetrating oil like WD-40 or JB80 and spray the inside of the cable the best you can. The inside wire of the cable is probably rusted to the outer casing. It takes some time but usually you can get the rust dissolved and get it working again. Just take your time, it won't happen 5 minutes after you spray it.
Good Luck
Don

I don't think that they are kinked. But how would I get something(I have pb blaster) inside of the cable?

You should be able to spray the PB blaster into the end that is in the engine compartment. Spray it where the cable goes into the protective cover, often made of wound metal wire on these older trucks. Try to spray some at the base of the knob inside the cab also. Capillary action will help draw it into the cable.

Yep. Tried it in the cab, over a week ago. Haven't tried it again since I've been sick but I will.

Don is right about kinked cables... I just about drove myself crazy when I got my "new" old dash off ebay and none of the knobs would move...

After quite a bit of frustration I flipped the dash over, happened to straighten a cable and it was fine...

The next two however were not and I had to spray liquid wrench into the end of the cable housing and elevate it... within a couple hours they released and worked just fine...

I hope that helps, jordan... sounds like you're on the right track...

~Trev

Your cables are just a steel wire inside a hollow coiled sleeve so spray the "BLASTER" directly onto the cable the whole length what you can reach, and it will get to the inside where the rust is and free your cables up, like Don said,unless their kinked, or the cables are froze on the carb. Check the butterflies on the carb. make sure its freed up. You can also spray your heater/defrost cable. Keep a towel handy because the cables will drip if you spray to much, especially inside the cab.
Good luck

Already checked the carb. They move. But one reason that the choke might be hard to pull out is that the one for air intake is kind of hard to turn.

To build on bowtiesr4me's reply if it were me I'd remove the cables in question and soak them in PBBlaster or similar, keeping the knob itself out of the soak. As he noted the cable is a wire within coiled wire and definately not liquid proof. A good soaking with penetrating oil should get them as loose as they will get.

One thing for sure….don’t force them using the knobs in the cab. You can pull the handles right off. As described above soak them over there entire length even if you do not remove them from the truck you can still spray them over their entire length. Another trick is to gently bend the cables everywhere you can in all directions this will slightly open the wound wire cover and help free the inner wire. And of course be sure whatever they are connected to is free to move. You may want to grab the inner wire at the carburetor end with something like vice grips so you can pull from that direction.

I think its been said but just in case it hasn't.....
Where the cable is held down under the hood with a crew it sometime is tighten to tight and will crimp the housing down onto the wire. You can tell just by looking most of the time. If you do not take the cable out at lesst take it loose and hold it up as high as you can when you spray it so that gravity will it down the cable. Tape it up or something like the hood while it is open. It really should come loose but as Kips41 says be sure to push pull from the end under the hood and not the knob.

Jordan

When I buy penetrating oil I make sure it comes with that little tube that increases the volume in a defined spot. Many times you need to get oil in tight spots like those cables and the little tubes make that possible.

I've had success in freeing stuck cables with this method.Get a can of automatic trans fluid,a cheap roasting pan,take the cable off,then dunk it in the pan with the fluid,just enough to cover the cable.You may have to twist-tie the cable to keep in it the oil.Then go work on something else for a few days.When you are happy with the cables,clean the outside of them.Works great,plus you don't have to work hard

You can also slide a piece of fuel line over one end of the cable, fill it with light oil like automatic transmission fluid and gently blow in the fuel line with an air compressor. The air will eventually force the oil and rust to the other end of the cable.

Green,that is a great idea

Yeah, now all I need is a compressor!

Hey, put some pb blaster on the lines. Maybe that will work some.

I found that if you have the end under the hood free, flexing the cable around in different directions will sometimes break the rust bond inside.

Thanks guys. When I put the pb blaster on I flexed the cable around but it didn't really help. I'll keep on trying, though.


Also, do any of you have advice for getting the (I wish I would quit forgetting what things are called)cowl ventilator(?) unstuck, too. I believe that it has something to do with the lever, as when I pushed on the panel or whatever you want to call it it seemed like it wanted to move.

Thanks BC52. An old IA A&P taught me that trick on a $100 aircraft mixture cable that was sticking.

Jordan:
Use the Blaster, let it sit a couple of days. You might also look at taking it apart and and cleaning it up.

You are talking about what?

Your cowl vent

That's the cowl vent and getting one of those freed up is a good, doable project. I just finished mine. First of all DO NOT TRY TO FORCE IT. There are hinges under there and you may just snap one of of the pins. You are going to have to invest in some good penetrating oil to do anything on your truck so get a drop light or flashlight abd get up under the dash and spray the oil on all of the nuts and hinge points. Just start at the knob and follow the linkage up to the vent itself.

You may have to remove the defroster ducts to get complete access. These are probably rotted away so don't try to save them. They are cheap and when it comes time to reassemble you'll have to get new ones anyway.

Give the oil a day to work and start trying to get the linkage to work. You must be patient and persistent with your effort... see if you can loosen the bolts that hold the linkage in and see if you can partially disassemble the parts to free them up. Remember where the parts go if you disassemble anything.

This is a simple mechanical mechanism and a great little project to work on. Just to be safe don't take it apart and let the thing sit or might forget how it goes back together. I'd say working one day on your cables and the nest on your vent is a good plan. You just have to be prepared to get dirty and take thing apart... and remember that none of this is rocket science, it's just simple mechanism and a lot of rust.

Good luck.

On my throttle(1960c10) I have to help it .When I pull on the knob I also step on the accelerator, as they are connected. This may be true on yours.

Ken, I tried that already, and it let the throttle come out just a little bit.

It may not come out too far. Maybe 1/2 inch max I pull mine out about 1/4 to 3/8 inch when starting. Less than 1/4 will raise the rpmsto 1200. High w/ a cold engine so I lower to idle smooth when cold and return to normal within minutes.You can also watch these move on your carb. with someone else trying to operate. Good luck,
Ken

Ok, I will try that.