spharticus

Hello all- 98 ES300. Removed manifold and all that to replace knock sensors. After putting humpty back together, my accelerator will not move. At all. at the throttle body, there are two cables, top and bottom. The bottom cable at the TB runs down to the AT, behind/just above the park/drive cable and mechanism. The tranny is working fine, it is not locked up and I can roll the car in any direction.

I'm aware of the interior TB issue where it gets all gummed up at the butterfly valve, but that isn't the issue here, when I remove the bottom cable at the TB, the butterfly moves all the way open/closed cleanly and without hesitation. With the cable disconnected the accelerator works freely.

This cable is just locked up. I can move the outer jacket up and down, so I don't think the cable is bound by something inside the cable jacket. I have several questions.

What is that cable connected to in the transmission?
Is that the "kickdown" cable? I was noticing odd shifting patterns before I stared this repair.
What could I have done removing/reinstalling the intake manifold/fuel rails that could have locked it up?
Looking at the service manual, the next step is to remove the park/neutral switch and get to the cable behind it.

The car starts, and moving from P to N or D doesn't do anything (to affect the cable i'm talking about).

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Tim

LeX2K

So you're saying the cable going into the transmission won't move? That can happen if you pull on it too hard did that happen?

spharticus

Yes, that is what is happening. It could have pulled too hard on the cable while I was removing the manifold, and I know i was pulling on it after I found the issue.

LeX2K

I think the only way to get to the cable in the transmission is to remove part of the valve body. I'm thinking if you can rotate the cam inside the transmission (cable attaches to this) it will pull the cable back into position.

spharticus

Not sure what you mean by valve body, only thing I can see by the cable is the park lever and gear shift cable .

is there a way to rotate that cam externally, like manually turning the front wheels/axle? Thanks for your help.

LeX2K

The cam is internal to the transmission to get to it the transmission pan has to be dropped along with the valve body. Have you tried grabbing the end with pliers and pushing on the cable? Might be enough to get it to start moving. Also check to see if the rubber sheathing on the transmission has not pulled out.

spharticus

I won't go into all the steps I did, but the cam is ok, it moves as designed. The cable is binding somewhere in the cover. i put a little silicone spray in the cable, but its still binding up.

Any ideas to fix it without replacing, the ATF has not been changed that im aware of (yeah I know) and I'm afraid if I drain the fluid, the magic holding the trans together will go along with it .