Tighten your throttle cable

My new-to-me 98 has 151k on the clock and the throttle seemed a little flaccid. I checked the throttle cable and there was a fair amount of slack to it. I'm guessing the throttle cable had never been adjusted. Over time the cable will stretch and the slack will need to be taken out by adjustment.

To adjust the cable with the truck running, turn the nuts on the mount until the slack is gone, then manually open the throttle and let it close on its own. If the truck quickly returns to normal idle, you're done. If it "hangs" at higher revs, back the cable off a bit by turning the nuts back. I found it easiest to loosen both nuts just a touch, and then turn each in the same direction by pushing or pulling your two wrenches (12mm and 14mm depending on the cable) the same direction at the same time. The whole process will only take you a few minutes and is a free "mod" to improve your throttle response. My truck already feels livelier.

 

Thanks for the tip.

If I'm looking at the engine from the front, which direction should the nuts move to lower the idle a bit?

I loosened the nut on the right of the mount so that I could remove the throttle body to clean. After putting everything back together the idle at 1800rpm at start up.