Throttle has a "hard" spot and idles high

[Rick C in Oakville]

My son just headed to the Canadian east coast driving 24 hours straight (about 1500 miles) with his cousin, and the truck started having this problem.He describes it as a hard spot on the throttle, that takes extra effort to push through. Once you get past the hard spot, the engine rev's jump, the throttle doesn't bring the revs up linearly, either idle or 1500 RPms or more.It makes it tough to get up through the gears when accelerating onto the highway, basically need to keep his foot in it and lurch through the gears. He is also afraid he will damage something pushing through the hard spot. Once at highway speed it isn't a problem as the revs are at 2500 and he sets the cruise.He used the cruise control almost exclusively as it was almost 2 lane all the way, the problem cropped up on the last leg of about 500 miles, is there any linkage or cable the cruise uses that may interfere? He also says it idles, but the idle is much higher than normal.Truck is a 98 2500 12v stock, about 250,000 miles, 5 speed standard 4x4, and has been extremely reliable for the 18 months that he has had it.He would like to fix this before they make their trek back at the end of the week as he is afraid keeping his foot in it during gear shifts is going to damage something.Thanks for any help I can relay to him.Rick

[ISX]

Sounds like he has a problem with the governor or something inside the pump. It could also be as simple as the cable since I think there was a recall on it. So a fray in the steel part of the cable could hang up inside the outter plastic part at a particular spot that has a cut in it or something. With the truck off, he should be able to push the pedal down about a 1/2"-3/4" and hit a different hard spot (this is where the rack stops moving and all you do is compress a spring) and then it should move smoothly too the floor (though it will be harder because of the spring). See if that does anything or if it is just an engine running situation. If it does it with the engine off I am betting it is a cable hang up issue.

[Rick C in Oakville]

Thanks, hopefully only a cable issue, 1500 miles with his fingers crossed is not how he wants to end his vacation.

[Rick C in Oakville]

Problem solved, was corroded, about 10 minutes of WD40 has cleared it up at the ball swivel up near the injection Pump, ready to go home tomorrow worry free(hopefully)

[ISX]

Didn't think of that, mine seems to self lubricate everything

[Mopar1973Man]

Hmmmm... Being it got dry and bound up I would inspect it closely and might actual grease all the joints. But you can do this at home when you get there.