I have to imagine somebody else has had this problem.
Couple years ago I replaced the throttle cables on my 93 Heritage. Drove it for a year or two.

Last summer my throttle tube broke on the road. Luckily we were 30 mins from a Harley dealer that had my exact grip in stock. Replaced the tube, but couldn't get the return cable hooked up. Rode it anyway.

Now the bike is on the stand and I cant for the life of me figure out how I could have ever hooked it up. It's about 1.5 inches too short.
Thoughts?

 

Which tube broke? You talking #13 in this diagram?

 

Nope. It's the throttle tube where the cable-ends and ferrules attach. The Kuryakin grip section.

 

You don't need the return cable for any reason other than to prevent "my throttle stuck open officer" legal defense purposes. I haven't run one in years.

If you must hook it up then you take all the adjustment out of both cables and remove the pull cable from the receiver on the carby, hook up the return, open the throttle with your hand by twisting the external quadrant and keeping the pull cable out of the slotted receiver. Put the return cable in the handlebar tube, then into the receiver and then put the pull cable in the tube. Put all the switchblock back together with the pull cable still out of the receiver but in the quadrant (all adjustment backed off on both cables) push the throttle forward to compress the push cable and slide the pull cable up the slot and lever it into the receiver with a screwdriver. Then adjust cables and with air filter off, ensure throttle butterfly opens fully.

 

You need to slacken off the adjusters as much as they will go. You might have to remove the pull cable at the carb to get enough slack. Then put the cable ends in the throttle grip. Then put the cables on the butterfly wheel on the carb in the right place, cable with spring goes to the rear of the butterfly wheel. The return one is the tricky one in that it doesn't always want to seat properly so you often have to work it in. The return is the one with the spring. I've done it both ways pull cable first and return cable first, doesn't seem to make much difference, but you need all the slack you can get out of the adjusters.

Once the cables are in place then adjust them so that the pull cable pulls the wheel to the stop on the carb body. Do this first before you adjust the return cable. You then adjust the return cable to take up some of the slack, but not all of it as you need a bit of slack for the throttle wheel to work properly. Once the bike is running you will have to adjust the idle screw.

That's about it. After you do it once you'll figure it out.

 

Okay, thanks y'all.
I'll take another look at it and report back.
I remember it being a PITA the 1st time doing it...

 

Its finally nice enough outside to get back to this.
I have no idea how these things could've been hooked up before. It looks like the pull cable is about 1-1/4" too short.
All the slack is out.
IIRC I had removed the cable bracket from the carb last time...

 

So I took the cable bracket off the carb and was able to get the cables hooked up, but there's no way to reattach the bracket now.
Look where the screwdriver is pointing to to see my issue.

 

I see 2 things, photo in post #7 - cable not hooked up and the throttle plate is partially open, witnessed by the position of the bellcrank. I assumed you were holding it open. (?)
Post #8 photo - it's still partially open and your fingers aren't in the picture...

Take the top half off the throttle assembly on the handlebars and see if you put one or both of the cable ferrules (#18 in the diagram) on backward. The cable end should sit in the countersunk area so none of it sticks out. A "little bit" at the bars equates to a "whole lot" at the carb end.





Buy a new grommet for the manifold too. Otherwise, when you get it figured out and back together you'll likely have an intake leak if you try to use the old one.

 

Try switching the cables. One might be longer than the other.