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Stiff or hard gas pedal

KingTriEye

Active Member
Joined
December 4, 2008
Messages
67
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City, State
Hull, Ma
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Mountaineer Monterey
So here's my issue. I noticed the gas pedal takes quite a bit of force to push down on. Sometimes I feel like by the time it finally goes down I've put so much pressure on it the truck is launchin forward. It's got the Big 5.0 V8 so I'm wondering of anyone else has had this issue.

My first thought is something with the throttle cable but maybe something more? I'd like to fix this soon cause I feel like I'm putting way to much stress on the transmission and drive shafts always launchin forward like that.
 






I'd pull the cable off the throttle body and see how the pedal feels. I'm not sure on the v8, but on the v6 the cable attaches via a ball to the throttle, the ball tends to rust leaving a stiff feeling pedal.
 






Disconnect the throttle linkage at the throttle body and see if the cable travels smoothly or if it hangs or feels sticky. Check for kinks, sharp bends in the cable. Check also the smoothness of the throttle-body butterfly valve, then can get gummed up with dirt and grease after several thousand miles. You may just have to disassemble the throttle cables and remove the throttle-body and clean them all very well. worst-case, you need a new throttle cable. There should be at least 2-3 cables attached to the linkage. The cable to the pedal, the transmission kickdown cable (for A/T vehicles) and the speed-control (cruise-control) cable.
 






Watch my throttle mod video in the link in my signature. That cable that connects the gas pedal to the throttle body should be lubed. Also lube the spring and clean the throttle body.
 






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