I replaced the Holley two barrel that came on the car with a new Holley and encountering a minor issue. When installing the rod end into any of the linkage holes, I can’t install the retaining clip to keep it connected.
The new carb seems to prefer the ball links seen on newer fords.
Any suggestions? I was just going to flip the linkage around but realized I need a threaded rod on both ends.
It’s difficult. In my case, my old original rod had a groove inside of the carburetor bellcrank. I was able to put an E-clip of suitable size on and solve the problem.
Mine was a 2bbl originally but had a 4bbl on it by the time I bought it. A previous owner had made a small groove in the rod and used a C-clip to keep it in the linkage. It never fell off but I wanted more redundancy. So in addition to the C-clip I added a cap nut like these. Always take care that any of these small parts don’t fall into the engine during install.
Didn’t even think of the c clips and caps…will need to check that out.
I’m headed to a local speed shop tomorrow to see what they may have.
On a positive note, car runs smoother with the new carb…it is the 500 com version. Car didn’t have the original autolite on it…had a Holley replacement from 70s I believe.
I ran an Edelbrock dual quad on my 68 for a while, that presented a similar issue. My solution was a couple of small heim joints, on threaded rod. I used a small copper tube to cover up the thread.
Safety tip, always use two return springs independent of each other. If the primary fails, you still have tension on the throttle system.Otherwise if your spring was to slip off the elbow, you could get a pedal to the floor and a blow engine at least, major vehicle accident at worst. Also if you look close, you can see the type of rod clip to use.
I just drill a #40 hole in the throttle rod. Then use a cotter pin.
Was thinking of that as well…seems cheap and relatively easy.
Seems like this is a fairly common issue…found a few articles.
Decided to go this route for now. Adjusts well with ball links to reduce binding.
The Moroso throttle bushings (64920) was also helpful…used in the larger 1/2” hole in the throttle arm.
