cutting throttle cable jacket
 

Hi Folks,
I've been repeatedly failing to find a cable that works for me for my throttle. The problem is the amount of free cable after the jacket ends. Any suggestions on ways to cut back the jacket.

Been there, done that. More fun than a barrel full of tangled slinkies ... removing the vinyl sheath is the easy part. Trim off the vinyl to where you want to get the medal sheath cut back to.

Method 1
Take a pair of diagonal cutters (aka wire cutters) and squeeze the cutters so that the blade on one side of the cutters starts spreading the metal sheath coil. \

Just go far enough to open about 1/16th of a gap.

Repeat on the next coil out towards the end.

this will give you a piece of the winding exposed by itself that you can hold with the corner edge of a pair of pliers or vice grips.

Next take a pair of pliers or channel locks and grab right next to the exposed wire and rotate it to unwind the coil while holding the exposed piece tightly. Work your way out to the end , moving the pliers on the exposed piece so there always right next to the coil part.

Method 2
Follows the first method, but instead of unwinding, you nip cut the gapped coil, then repeat the squeeze to expose part and nip again, until you end up with a pile of tiny "C"s

Method 3
Starting at the end, spread the first coil, clamp the housing at the point you want to cut it and unwind the sheathing enough to start gapping it out all the way along the sheathing, working the cable through the opened-up coil.

Pics of the last method are in the 4th post in this thread ...
http://buggymasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2773

easiest way is if you can remove the inside part is to clamp in vise just tight enough to hold in place without crushing it and using a cut off wheel on your drill. If it does leave any burrs inside just use a small round file to remove. this is definitely fastest and easiest way. also if you want to cut inside part, wrap area to be cut with black tape where your mark is going to be and then cut. this will help to keep it from unraveling

I haven't tried this, but it was the first thing that popped in my head. How about a tubing cutter? Like what a plumber would use.

tubing cutter would like ride the coils, and you'd have to strip the outer sheath (vinyl) back more than you would need to remove. My methods are for when you can't take the inner cable out, which is what wildbob is facing i think. Using a cutoff wheel long-ways would also work, but is a little risky with the inner cable still inside.

well, that went badly.. cable search to continue..

what went bad?

Tried to cut away the jacket on a throttle cable... screwed it up badly.. No worries, found this dealer called Venhill that sells custom cable kits.
Bought this:
http://www.venhillusa.com/venhill-un...cable-kit.html

what did you use to try to cut it?

Dremel with a cut off wheel..

how did you screw it up with that? that or a die grinder with a cut off wheel is what I would have used.

Never underestimate the ability of a grunt to screw something up :) I thought I'd get tricky, and instead I threw reason out the window.. I'm actually too embarrassed to admit to what I did.. It was THAT stupid... Ok.. Instead of removing jacketing from the end like a sane person would do, I decided that if I did it down the line a bit, apparently right at a curve, I wouldn't lose those nice crimped fittings on the ends of the cable jacket... Hilarity ensued... I'll post a pic when I get home to teach people that MAYBE thinking things through before breaking out the power tools is the best option. Either way, the end result is that I should have used the Venhill kit from the get go..

"power tools" ... me thinks someone spun some cable into a lovely twisted scary pile ...

It had it coming..