ChuckD
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Kerman, CA
Anyone have a hand throttle on thier MT XJ/MJ? If so is it worth it if you have a stock T-case and 4.10 gears and 33's?
FatXJ said:Well as I bicycle mechanic I can tell you what you need.
First you need a brake lever, right or left it doesn't matter really. They do make some levers with adjustable travel so you can fine tune it to your needs. Second is housing, you will need get brake housing for whatever length you need. Third is a cable, cables come in many different types. For a hand throttle I would use a stainless brake cable. You can also get teflon coated and regular cables but stainless hold up the best. I'm not sure what length you need but they come in standard and tandem lengths. When you cut the cable you can either buy a cable end cap (from bike shop) or solder the end to keep it from fraying.
For extra bling: they also make braided housing that is either kevlar or steel braided. It costs almost 3X as much but is very stiff and reduces compression.
notorious DUG said:Sorry, maybe you should become a Jeep mechanic before to tell people what they need.
Brake lever hand throttles suck, one of my friends made one and it was just dumb, and it worked for dog crap. Think of it like this, you have one hand on the wheel and most of the other hand is busy with the shifter, you only have a thumb or a couple of fingers free to accuratly actuate the hand throttle, big, clumsy brake lever is not the answer.
this was done using a right hand friction lock shifter lever and a 60" cable. Whole thing was under 20 bucks. Cool part is it has an adjustable friction lock on it so you can bump the idle up to run your welder/winch/compressor whatever. It iwll also function as a pretty good cruise control.
I bought my lever at a local bike shop but it is the SAME lever that comes in the RE kit.
FatXJ said:Hmmm... you sound like you like you should become a mechanic in any form. I am a Jeep mechanic because I always work on mine.
I recommended the brake lever because that's all I have seen and everybody I know that has one loves it. My roommate put one in his Yota and it worked awesome because you could grab the shifter and use the throttle at the same time. The key is to mount it low enough so that it doesn't interfere with the shifter knob. Then you can put 2-3 fingers on the throttle while still having at least one to wrap around the knob. I don't see how your setup is any better than a brake lever. A brake lever is fully adjustable at any time, yours is much harder to adjust. The advantage of yours is that it can be set to run at a certain RPM. My hand can do that too. So pick your pleasure but I like a brake lever.
Oh yeah that shifter that you used is called an Friction/SIS shifter. It has two positions one for friction shifting and one for indexed.
Scott Mac. said:Looks like you're back to your old self again Dug.:wierd:
FatXJ said:The new brake levers for linear pull brakes have almost 2x the cable pull as the old style canti levers. This is what my buddy used and he could go to WOT with it. The key is mounting the cable close the the pivot point on the throttle body, but not too close as to make it hard to pull. These are bike parts, so in your own words you have no professional expertise on them so how can you say what is needed? Think about it.
So since I work on other peoples vehicles does that make me a mechanic? I changed ball joints this week on my neighbors truck and replaced the brakes on my neighbors van, and next week I am adjusting the valves on my neighbors Honda Shadow. Yeah I kn0w I can become a licensed mechanic if I go take the stupid tests but that doesn't do me any good because I don't do it for a living. So I'll do everything myself and do it just the same as a licensed mechanic but not pay for it.
I like to think this: "You are what you do, not what a piece of paper says you are". I know some dumb mechanics but yet they are professional mechanics because they took the same tests you did. I'm willing to bet many of these home mechanics know more than some professionals.