1989 Columbia - smoking throttle cable???

[buddsy92]

Recently I purchased a 1989 Columbia and after some diagnoses, fuel pump was the issue and so I replaced with an electric one as suggested on these forums.

Cart ran great that day, I took it up and down the block a couple times and put it back in the garage so I could reassemble the body (redid the fibreglass rear end)

(The cart sat in the garage all night)

Once all back together, it wouldn’t start. Checked for spark and I was only getting a tiny spark AFTER releasing the throttle. No spark when initially pressing or as I held it, only once I released the gas pedal.

So I’m tinkering around in here looking for a broken wire or one thing, testing voltage through different components like circuit breaker and micro switch etc.

then I see a faint hint of smoke and burning so I disconnect everything and after searching all over o found that my throttle cable is very hot!! At the carb, that’s where it was smoking (the rubber on throttle cable)

Reached under the cart and the spring that hold that cable to the gas pedal mechanism was also veryyy hot


What the heck has gone wrong here and how do I fix this!?!?

[buddsy92]

And that spring underneath that’s holding my throttle cable to the gas pedal mechanism will actually create sparks if you rub it against the metal Happens when the key is both on and off

[Cartmaster]

You probably have a bad or missing ground somewhere between the battery, frame and engine.

[buddsy92]

I’ve looked all over and can’t find anything.

It seems odd that it was working with the new fuel pump one day and the next day it has this issue after reassembling the rear body again.

I suppose it’s possible that I knocked something during that process but I’ve looked through it all and don’t see anything visually. No pinches or frayed wires or anything.

Is there a way to test the wires or components to narrow things down??

[raydhd]

It sure makes me think something is hot with current that shouldn't be. With the set up in those carts my thought is the key switch itself , or a micro switch or a solenoid ?

[buddsy92]

I found a tiny sliver of wire touching the battery tray and that’s fixed the issue of the throttle cable heating up.

Problem still remains that I only get spark once I release the gas pedal. No spark when I initially hit the gas, or as I hold it - but only a small spark once I release it

A friend of mine has an early 80s part cart so I took his coil and spark plug cable to try and no change.

How exactly can I narrow this down? I’m starting to wonder if it’s a component failure such as voltage regulator or something and maybe not a loose wire or ground?

[Lochlin]

A single spark when the accelerator is released is a sure sign the the ignition module has failed. Unfortunately, those are made anymore but there are options. Just out the "ignition module" sticky on top of the forum.

With regard to the hot throttle wire, that actually happened to be when I restored an 89 last year but it was the choke cable that was getting hot. That happens when there is a poor ground somewhere and the choke cable / throttle cable ends up serving a path for grounding.

[buddsy92]

Originally Posted by Lochlin

A single spark when the accelerator is released is a sure sign the the ignition module has failed. Unfortunately, those are made anymore but there are options. Just out the "ignition module" sticky on top of the forum.

With regard to the hot throttle wire, that actually happened to be when I restored an 89 last year but it was the choke cable that was getting hot. That happens when there is a poor ground somewhere and the choke cable / throttle cable ends up serving a path for grounding.

Hmm ya my throttle cable was hot because of the green wire going to voltage regulator was touching the battery tray. I taped it up and moved it away and it’s fine now.

What are the odds of this failing right after I get it running with a new electric fuel pump, though? I feel like I must’ve knocked a wire loose or something when reassembling the body (did it by myself and had to wrestle with it a bit)

[buddsy92]

And is it possible that I didn’t ground the electric fuel pump good enough, and it fried the module?

I must’ve done something wrong because it would be a wacky coincidence for it to fail after replacing that pump with electric.

[Lochlin]

Nah, those modules were junk and failed often. That's why almost all Columbias that are still on the road have some type of conversion for spark. Conversion isn't all that difficult. The easiest way is to simply procure a points plate somewhere. If you do a forum search you will see that plates from certain motorcycles and cars will work. You can leave points run things from that point but I prefer to add one these to go back to electronic:

https://www.amazon.com/ROP-Shop-Univ...&tag=hyprod-20

Adding the external module just makes things easier to time is all.