Ford cars had locking columns 'till '47.

My 52 F-2 pickup that I got from my Grandpa had a hand thottle on it from the factory, I used it a ferw times for loading up hay bales as mentioned in an earlier post. And also to hand pick sweet corn too.

     

Michael

Sandy Valley, NV

My 54 1 ton had a dash mounted hand throttle.  I used it as an ancient cruise control.  Problem was max. highway speed.  45 mph and around 4500 rpm.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Still curious about it's operation: Ratchet & twist-release? Friction hold? Any drag on the carb. linkage? If not, what mechanism was used to hold position and avoid drag?

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

Its operation from inside cab was just like a manual choke.  The further you pulled the knob out the faster the engine would run.  When pushed all the way in engine idled normally and foot throttle functioned normally.  It was a long time ago so cant be much help.  Using it as a "cruise control"  wasnt very safe, and it took a fair amount of push/pull effort to operate the hand throttle.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

The old throttle cables were identical to choke cables in most vehicles. Friction would hold them. They were only made to warm an engine or to drive a PTO. Even at that, they would not hold a constant rpm. On vehicles that required a constant PTO speed we used to install a Pierce governor. They are still being manufactured. A Pierce governor could be used as a cruise control. A cable type throttle like trucks had in the 40's and 50's was actually pretty worthless and thats why they discontinued installing them.



http://www.piercelockcraft.com/speed-control-devices/mechanical-governors.php

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

The older fords came with Chandler Grove 94 carbs, then with the holley 94,  used today for multiple carb setups. I think there were close to 19 versions of this 2 barrel carb.the older ones came with choke ,normal accelerator, and hand throttle.This was set up on the opposite side of the throttle shaft and could be set like a hand choke. the foot pedal could accelerate past the point where the hand throttle was set, but would not cancel out the hand set throttle to lower it.

 I believe they were in fords in the fourties or even until the early 50's in some truck applications.You can buy new reproduction 94's today for about 150.00

While growing up, my neighbor had a mid-70's, 400M equipped, Ford LTD- actually whatever the low trim level version was called.  It was an ex-cop car.  It had holes all over the interior where stuff had been previously installed.

The car had a cable pull located just to the right of the steering column.  When a cop would let the car sit idle with the engine running, they would raise the rpm's to keep it cool. 

Gary used it as a cruise control only a couple times since it didn't adjust for hills and it wouldn't automatically kick off.

Nick 

'60 F100 with '62 4V 292 y-block

Anyone that was in the military (all branchs of the service had them) should remember the M35 2 1/2 ton truck and the M54 5 ton truck. They both had throttle cables, we use to run conveys with the throttles pulled out. Not the smartest thing to do, but who ever said that we were smart back then.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

One of my friends had a hand control throttle on his car, it was a bar mounted on the steering column with a motorcycle type twist grip at the end and had a rod that ran from it and hooked to the top of the gas peddle. worked great. You just twisted it like a motorcycle throttle and when you let go the carburator return spring brought it back. you should find something at the conversion center.

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.