I'd like to thank you all for coming on this suspicious occasion..... May I present my very first mod!
Disclaimer: Since they seem to be releasing newer, more updated idiots every day, this mod cannot be made idiot-proof. Therefore, this is presented as documentation of a mod I have done. If you do it yourself and it causes you to crash your car and you break your legs don't come running after me!
The victim in question is a 95 Corolla with no cruise control. A week from today I will be traveling from Texas to Missouri and Michigan. Since I have made this trip before in this car, my right leg was already beginning to cramp in anticipation!
Step one: I found a bike from which I removed a gear shifter. (and other misc parts which were used)
2: I removed console and panel under steering wheel (and whatever else needed to be removed to remove those!)
3: Mounted the shifter to the shifter
4: What could be the purpose of that bracket next to the shifter, I hear you ask? Why thats the perfect location to mount a toggle switch which will eventually become a kill/start switch (as soon as I get a round toit)
5: Routed the cable from the shifter towards the gas pedal: taped it securely to the shifter and various places along the way, also added tape in potential wear areas.
6: Found a mounting point under the steering wheel near the gas pedal
7: Created a bracket to which the cable will mount, placing the cable relatively square on with the gas pedal, since the cable will be pulling on the upper end of the pedal. Also, created an attachment point on the pedal so I can adjust the slack in the cable.
8: Once it's all hooked up try it with the engine off: make sure the pedal goes back up when the hand throttle is returned to the "off" position.
9: reinstalled interior. Pondered origin of excess screws (seen in console)
10: Test in driveway and played with it until it worked right. At first cable didn't have enough slack, and engine ran @ 2000rpm with throttle off.
2nd test with more slack: after using hand throttle engine didn't return completely to idle unless gas pedal was tapped.
3rd test: more slack. Engine returned to idle after using hand throttle.
11: Road test! Works quite nicely. It's positioned low enough to be out of the way for shifting, but is right at hand.
The picture makes it look as if the switch sticks out far, but it also in a very comfortable location. Now all it needs is to be wired up! (probably not till after the trip though)
12: Issues: Both the hand throttle (in off position) and the switch touch the cupholder (extends out just below the large opening) when the shifter is in 1st, 3rd, and 5th gears. I haven't tried driving with the cupholder open yet. shifting in the driveway with it open seems to be ok.
The range of motion of the throttle lever is quite large (150deg?), but the usable area is quite small. The engine dosn't come off idle until the 3rd click, and highway cruising at 70mph was about 7 clicks (abt 1/3rd of total motion).
The previously mentioned clicks are a bit loud.
I had a vague idea of how it could "cancel" when the brake or clutch was pressed, but decided for simplicity sake to just get it working first. I'd like to eventually go back and make that happen, as well as change the ratio to allow finer adjustments for the same motion.
But that's all for another day. Even if it can be improved, it works as it stands, and will be light years better than nothing for my trip.
