As it has been much too cold here to work in the garage I thought I would try to see if I could modify one of my spare choke levers to make it a throttle lever. as the lever is make from mild steel, I drilled out the spot welds and flattened it in a vise. After bending it to be the mirror image of the original lever I welded it back together. I than made a couple of brackets and a guide for it. As I was looking for something to fill in the slot, I think this will work very well. Now I need a better long slot choke/throttle bezel as the PO cut out a larger hole for an antenna up/down switch in the one I have now.

That worked out really well Dan. Do you have a knob or a plan to duplicate one? I was admiring a friends early Z a few weeks ago that he just dug out of long term storage for restoration. It has and originally came with the throttle control. I have been jokingly trying to convince him to sell or trade that throttle control for years. They sure are tough to find, pricey if you do find one and definitely add a few cool factor points to an early Z.

Ron I have a reproduction set on order. I will post a photo once I get them with everything replated and painted. As well how, I will try to make one for the shorter slot as I have several chokes laying around.

Very nice, Dan. Anxious to hear what you think of the repro knobs.

The reproduction knobs arrived today. I am quite pleased with them. Now I have to find a better bezel.

The reproduction knobs arrived today. I am quite pleased with them. Now I have to find a better bezel.

Where did you get repro ones from?

We have the hole where one should be, so like mentioned above, just looking for the rare as hen's teeth throttle lever to fill the gap. A complete repro kit would seem sensible, albeit over the top, but at the right price it would complete the look!

I've got an original setup in my 11/70 240Z. It does get a lot of attention from Z fans. This was eliminated early on because too many were using this as a 'cruise control'. Many that did found out the hard way that bad s**t happens fast when you forget to shove that lever forward in an emergency braking situation. For those not in the know this lever is a fast idle control. It allows the driver to ramp up the rpm's at idle so the fuel enrichment level (commonly misrepresented as a choke) can be disengaged. This allows the cold engine to warm up more quickly without running it excessively rich, fouling plugs, etc.

Edited March 24, 201114 yr by ezzzzzzz

^ Are you sure it's original to your 11/70 ?

I thought these were eliminated just after the first shipment hit our shores

in North America due to the safety concerns, putting yours well away from

ever having this factory installed setup . I think somewhere around the vin

numbers 500 , certainly below 1000 they stopped putting this in the cars.

My brother had an early 71 with a production date of 12/70 and it definately did not have a hand throttle. You may want to double check your production date!

I have a 2/70 and it didn't get to me with the hand throttle, that's for sure. However, we did put one in last Fall, and like someone already mentioned, it works great as a cruise control - when the road is flat. We too took an old choke assembly and flipped it around. Fortunately the car had the requisite mounting bracket up on the firewall. Our solution to installing the knob was... well, rather elementary...

SeafireXV, everyone knows that these early cars came out of Japan with different parts installed regardless of the production date. I've got vertical defroster lines in the rear hatch but have seen others with the later horizonal in the same time frame. I have no way of verifying if my car left Japan with the fast idle lever but all the parts are there. I rarely use it as I typically just fire the car up and drive away immediately.

Ksbeta, using that lever for cruise control is a very dangerous habit that could easily kill or maim you and others. There are situations such as a blowout or a deer that would preclude your getting to that lever all the while trying to stop and steer the car. That is the very reason this option was pulled from these cars early on.

Edited April 15, 201113 yr by ezzzzzzz