My son just acquired his grandpa’s 71 Electra Glide. Bike has been sitting for years and we are going through it to get it back on the road. Throttle was very stiff so he bought a new throttle cable at the local parts store. It fit fine and routed best we could but it is still very stiff. This throttle cable is actually a single wire inside a protecting wrap and not the typical more flexible cord used on many of my other bikes. The cable is concealed inside the handle bars, not exposed. The cable he bought was a less expensive $8.00 universal cable but it fit fine. There is no sleeve inside the protecting wrap for the wire to slide in but the cord we took off didn’t either. He could spend the $80 on a more expensive throttle cable but I’m not sure that will help either. My deal is even with this wire perfectly straight and not installed there is a decent amount of drag on it so I see no way it could ever work great. If we went with a cable with a more flexible cord instead of the stiff wire I concerned we may run into troubles with the throttle closing at times. Is this stiff throttle something we just have to deal with. Would like to think not. As is there is no way just the spring pressure on the carb is going to return the bike to an idle. You must twist the throttle both ways and it sometimes gets tough to move.

 

Hello and welcome.
I had difficulty reading as posted.
Perhaps it was typed on a smart phone with no spacing.
From a distance it reads like free movement at carb and throttle grip need to be confirmed prior to cable replacemt/installation.
Once that is confirmed then the correct cable needs to be acquired.
The more turns/bends a cable has then the greater the amount of friction.

Maybe it will be easier for others to read like this:
Your post below.
Best of luck.

My son just acquired his grandpa’s 71 Electra Glide.
Bike has been sitting for years and we are going through it to get it back on the road.
Throttle was very stiff so he bought a new throttle cable at the local parts store.
It fit fine and routed best we could but it is still very stiff.
This throttle cable is actually a single wire inside a protecting wrap and not the typical more flexible cord used on many of my other bikes. The cable is concealed inside the handle bars, not exposed.
The cable he bought was a less expensive $8.00 universal cable but it fit fine.
There is no sleeve inside the protecting wrap for the wire to slide in but the cord we took off didn’t either.
He could spend the $80 on a more expensive throttle cable but I’m not sure that will help either.
My deal is even with this wire perfectly straight and not installed there is a decent amount of drag on it so I see no way it could ever work great.
If we went with a cable with a more flexible cord instead of the stiff wire I concerned we may run into troubles with the throttle closing at times.
Is this stiff throttle something we just have to deal with?? Would like to think not.
As is there is no way just the spring pressure on the carb is going to return the bike to an idle.
You must twist the throttle both ways and it sometimes gets tough to move.

 

Thanks for the reply IM.
Just before posting my original thread I did remove the throttle cable off the carb to make sure spring pressure on the carb was good.
It is tight and snaps the throttle plate shut quickly.
There is not enough tension there to pull the wire cable through the sleeve though even with it completely straight with no bends in it.
I guess trying a better cable is the best thing to try next.
Hopefully it will make an improvement but I’m not sure it will help enough.

 

I've owned 5 shovels from way back until just recently. The first being a 1970 and it had the single wire stiff cable. The rider controlled the throttle position from idle to wide open. If you took your hand off the throttle going down the road, it stayed at that position. When they went to the flexible cable it was much safer as the return spring on the carb would bring it back to idle unless you had the tension shoe tightened up. Dual cables even safer.

 

THANK YOU! I was hoping someone with experience with this type of throttle setup would chime in. We are pretty excited about getting this thing back on the road but I am concerned about the safety of that stiff throttle. I’m thinking that switching to more flexible cable wouldn’t work well either. This bike only has just over 10,000 miles. It is starting good and running nice but we still have a lot of work to go.

 

did the replacement cable have a coiled wire core?
they do make a cable that has a composite core and would reduce drag quite a bit.
i see no reason why a multi-strand cable would not work, however, the cable must be captured at both ends so then the cable is actuated, it was something to push against, same as the other cable. that is no hill for a stepper, just get a cable for a 74, mine was not single wire.

 

The replacement cable does have a coiled wire sleeve but does not have a coating over it like the one we took out. Cable itself is solid. I’ll attach a pic of both to clarify. Without the coating over the new cable I can definitely imaging dirt and debris getting inside quicker and making things worse. I wish there was a liner inside the coiled core to make the wire slide easier. My concern with a cable is its ability to push the throttle closed. It could just kink instead of pushing it closed. Guess that shouldn’t be a problem as long as the carb spring is working properly but it’s just nice to have safety backup. I’m also a little concerned about the clamp in the throttle grip being able to stay tight on a braided cord opposed to the solid wire. We are considering changing to a modern dual push/pull cable if needed by swapping controls from a modern bike but then you loose the concealed look of the cable inside the handle bar. Would also have to modify the cable attachment on the carb. Haven’t decided what to try next. Thanks for any input!

 

My first Harley had that type of throttle. I liked it because it would stay where you turned loose the grip. Yes, it was a little stiffer than the cable ones.
If you take the grip apart and clean the old oil and grease out of the rolled assembly and the inside of the grip, use a dry lube such as graphite, it will be much easier to turn.

That system is not designed to shut the throttle down to idle when you let go of it. In today's world, it's probably considered a "safety" issue but in the days they built those bikes, people were expected to use their brain and not rely on government mandated features.

 

basically a lawn mower cable.
i would def go to a multi-stand cable. the only other option is a booster spring.
https://fastech-racing.com/throttle-...-per-foot.html

this is just the housing

 

We took the new cheap cable out and put the old cable back in after cleaning it up good. It is working a lot better now. Think he is going to go ahead and order a new good cable to see it it helps more. Thanks for your responses with experience with this same type of setup.