Marinucci: Add a throttle tool to your bays

Outfitting each general-repair bay with a pedal control tool will boost the overall efficiency of your service department.

Here's what you need to know about this useful but frequently forgotten tool.

This device, which is usually called a throttle-holding tool, enables technicians to operate a gas pedal or brake pedal whenever necessary. This allows a tech to perform basic tasks such as increasing engine speed and/or applying the brakes easily, safely and reliably.

After I began using this type of tool in the late 1980s, I found it to be indispensable. But eventually I also discovered that relatively few technicians had one handy when I visited a tire dealership or service shop.

What is more, techs often asked me to donate my personal throttle tool — shown in the accompanying photo — to their service department.

One advantage of this affordable device is that it saves time by turning a two-person job into a one-person job. By using a proper throttle tool, a tech does not need to collar a co-worker to operate a gas pedal or brake pedal during certain tasks.

Of course, one-person procedures are welcome news for everyone — owners, managers and technicians alike.

To me, evolving technology has increased the need for a device as simple as a throttle tool. On an older vehicle, a tech could raise engine speed by manually operating the mechanical throttle linkage under the hood.

But the electronically controlled throttle design, which has been commonplace for years, completely eliminated the traditional underhood throttle linkage.

Experience has shown that equipping each bay with a throttle tool saves time for another reason: Techs do not have to search for an alternative device of some kind.

Plus, an alternative may cause unexpected trouble. For instance, I have seen techs use lengths of old two-by-fours they found back in the shop's scrap pile.

In this approach, a tech simply jams a length of wood between the pedal and the forward edge of the driver's seat.

Mind you, a worker may get away with this substitution, but the method may stain, mar or tear the upholstery on the front of the driver's seat.

How it works

The basic design for a popular, versatile throttle-holding tool has a long, adjustable rod that stretches from the vehicle's steering wheel down to its gas pedal or brake pedal. A curved bracket at the upper end of this rod hooks onto the steering wheel.

Naturally, the user has to adjust the rod to the proper length. One popular adjusting mechanism closely resembles that of a common caulk-gun plunger.

For example, depressing the little tab or latch on the tool lets you manually slide the rod down to the appropriate pedal. This amounts to a coarse tool adjustment.

Next, the user fine-tunes the length of the rod by squeezing a grip handle on the tool — akin to operating the hand grip on a caulk gun. Depressing the tab unloads the rod adjustment, releasing the tool's pressure on the gas pedal or brake pedal.

Another design of throttle tool utilizes a neat, threaded rod adjuster. Turning a knob on this adjuster enables the user to fine-tune the tool quickly.

Some techs prefer this style because the threaded adjuster eases the task of quickly and precisely adjusting the tool to reach the preferred engine speed.

By all means, see if your favorite tool vendor can recommend an appropriate product. In the meantime, I will cite two examples.

For instance, Thexton Manufacturing Co. makes tool No. 393, which appears in the accompanying photograph. This is the product I have used for more than 30 years.

Several years ago, Thexton discontinued throttle tool No. 592, which had a threaded rod adjustment feature on it. However, some internet tool vendors still offer this model.

Lisle Corp. offers tool No. 48770, which also has a threaded rod adjuster.

BG Products Inc. offers a 12.00-volt, motorized throttle-control device called the REV-IT. This tool, which also operates the gas pedal, rhythmically cycles engine speed up and down during induction-cleaning services.

Throttle tool applications

Many techs perform routine lighting checks on every vehicle they service. Applying the brake pedal with an appropriate pedal tool makes a brake light inspection a one-person job.

A tech may be checking the current (amps) output of a suspect alternator. He may have to hold engine speed at a steady 2,000 RPM in order to make an accurate measurement — a one-person job with a proper throttle tool.

Suppose a tech is recharging a vehicle's air conditioner. In that case, maintaining an engine of approximately 1,800-2,000 RPM usually speeds up the job.

Sometimes a tech needs to feed a liquid cleaning chemical into an engine very steadily and very safely. (The objective may be cleaning the induction system or removing deposits from the intake valves.)

For example, the chemical manufacturer mandate a steady 1,600 RPM engine speed coupled with a slow trickle of the cleaner. Follow directions.

Raising engine speed with a throttle tool reduces the risk of the cleaner stalling the engine and/or causing a potentially disastrous hydraulic lock up.

Cleaning an electrically controlled throttle assembly requires holding the throttle blade open reliably during the service. An adjustable throttle-holding tool is ideal for that task — I have done it many times.