Do older vehicles have two position accelerators?

T

The motor guy

Joined
Nov 29, 2009
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Every vehicle I've ever driven you just put your foot at the very bottom of the accelerator and press all the way to the floor. This 2nd gen dodge I had it to the floor the whole time pulling my trailer, until I realized hey if I put my foot higher up I get more pedal travel. I just thought the truck was just slow. Well, it still is, but atleast it's faster. Seems kind of dumb to have the pedal pivot like that honestly.
 
This unlocked a memory I forgot about. My parents used to have a 97 Dodge Grand Caravan that had a gas pedal like that. If you press the bottom of the pedal with your toes it goes to the floor, but it's still not at full throttle. Slide your foot up a little and push down and then you realize there's more travel there. I don't think it's intentionally designed to be a two position throttle, but rather a side effect of the fact that the pedal connection to the "arm" is hinged.
 
My older GM cars with throttle linkages were like that. Maybe it was to get more linkage travel without having the gas pedal too high at the start. The current fleet is all electronic throttle and they all have the gas pedal solidly fixed to the position sensor arm.
 
Now that you mention it. I remember dad's old 86 Cutlass Ciera being like that. I think my Camaro was as well. They simply used a gas pedal that was hinged in the middle and rocked back and forth a good distance. I always had my foot most of the way on the pedal so I never really thought of it, but I can see where if you were pushing the bottom with your toes, it would contact the carpet first until you rocked your foot up towards the top.
 
My 2001 BMW E46 330 had an accelerator pedal that had the "kick-down" in the last few millimeters of travel. Had a definate click when it did too. Being drive by wire and more of a potentiometer, it made sense as it was basically a switch that signaled the trans to downshift. Found this out when trying to figure out why my pedal had this, but made no difference in acceleration. The pedal was for an automatic transmission car and mine was manual. It had been replaced without concern for trans type. Didn't like the feel when I matted it, so I put in a manual trans pedal and all was good with the world again.
 
shortyb said:
My 2001 BMW E46 330 had an accelerator pedal that had the "kick-down" in the last few millimeters of travel. Had a definate click when it did too. Being drive by wire and more of a potentiometer, it made sense as it was basically a switch that signaled the trans to downshift. Found this out when trying to figure out why my pedal had this, but made no difference in acceleration. The pedal was for an automatic transmission car and mine was manual. It had been replaced without concern for trans type. Didn't like the feel when I matted it, so I put in a manual trans pedal and all was good with the world again.
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Yeah, it would downshift for sure if I wasn't towing anything. Scared the **** out of me. It'd not like the truck goes anywhere though
 
bobdoo said:
That pedal was hinged in the center...
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Exactly, there are two hinge points, one where it's mounted to the firewall and the other in the center of the pedal. If you push the bottom of the pedal with your toe it will hit the floor before fully retracting the linkage. I would think most people have the ball of their foot in the center or upper portion of the pedal so this isn't an issue.
 
dishdude said:
Exactly, there are two hinge points, one where it's mounted to the firewall and the other in the center of the pedal. If you push the bottom of the pedal with your toe it will hit the floor before fully retracting the linkage.
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I still don't understand the purpose though. Seems dumb. I prefer to rest my heal on the floor and jist use my toe. With this setup I have to hold my whole leg up.
 
The motor guy said:
I still don't understand the purpose though. Seems dumb. I prefer to rest my heal on the floor and jist use my toe. With this setup I have to hold my whole leg up.
Click to expand...

Why isn't your heel resting on the floor and pivoting as you press and release the pedal?
 
In the old days gas pedals were hinged on the bottom and activated a series of rods that eventually went to the carburetor.

They figured out that if a motor mount broke or some other calamity went down, it could lock the gas wide open. Fun!

They switched to flexible cables because the technology was there, but the pedals had to pivot in the middle to pull the cable through the firewall. Fine, so they did that.

Marketing got ahold of the new thing and pointed out that women in high heels could use the pedal now, so "we did it for them."
 
GM accelerator pedals like this design had more travel if you pushed the pedal above the pivot pin (Item 6).
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The motor guy said:
No it's my dodge diesel. It's a cable and pulley connected to the throttle position sensor
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What year?

My Mercedes diesels are sort of that way. I think it has to do with the shape of the track on some linkages going to the injection pump.

If you have a real mechanical IP in the truck, I’d have a good hard look at the condition, adjustment, and lubrication of the linkages.
 
just fyi, the lexus rx 350 fourth gen has the floor mounted accelerator. don't really notice a difference between it and my truck, which has the standard accelerator mounting.
 
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