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Top Hat Spring Needed!

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Old 08-21-2011, 07:17 PM
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Top Hat Spring Needed!

I lost mine while trying to hook in the new 3200 spring and need a new one. If anybody has one please let me know by PM and I will buy it from you.

Thanks.
Old 08-21-2011, 07:25 PM
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Make sure it didn't fall into the pump
Old 08-21-2011, 07:36 PM
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That's the next place I'm going to look. I spent an hour under the truck and around the engine bay looking for it. It's a gravel driveway by the way.
Old 08-21-2011, 07:42 PM
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Also, while on the subject, does it matter if my new 366 spring is stretched out? Half of it's normal and the other half is stretched out a lot. Do I just need to go ahead and order a new one?
Old 08-21-2011, 07:44 PM
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Use an old speaker or other magnet that you may have and search with that. It sees ferrous metal much better than us...Mark
Old 08-21-2011, 07:54 PM
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good luck man. I launched mine. twice. I found it the first time, then proceeded to launch it into oblivion once again* so I just found another spring that was close to how stiff I thought the stock one had been and stuck that in there to get the truck working again.


* as it turns out, I visited oblivion 2 weeks later while working on something else when I dropped a socket on the ground. I knelt down to pick up my socket and it had pretty much landed on the spring. What luck, right? Now I just need to get motivated to take the stupid thing apart again to change out the spring
Old 08-21-2011, 07:58 PM
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Also, while on the subject, does it matter if my new 366 spring is stretched out? Half of it's normal and the other half is stretched out a lot. Do I just need to go ahead and order a new one?
That doesn't sound right IIRC mine was a solid coil.
You can do the job easier by sliding the throttle shaft from the pump top, assemble spring,top hat, throttle shaft, and slide the pump top back onto the throttle shaft/pump.
Old 08-21-2011, 08:02 PM
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I'm the one that stretched the spring from trying to stretch it from the tophat to the lever.

If I ever find the spring that's the way I'm going to do it.

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Old 08-21-2011, 08:33 PM
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That is the way I ended up doing it after the spring launching headache of the first 2 times, haha.
Old 08-21-2011, 08:43 PM
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Always have a wide bar magnet handy when doing this folks. Found my 3 out of 3 times.
Old 08-21-2011, 11:22 PM
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Yeah, a lot of jumpy parts on these trucks. Also a bunch of nice hiding places under the hood.

If your gov spring is stretched, get a new one. Also get the o-ring for the throttle shaft as long as it's coming out.
If you can't find the tophat spring, I've got one you can have.
Old 08-22-2011, 06:43 AM
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I'm going to look this evening and I'm going to try to get a bar magnet to search for it.

I appreciate the offer for the spring. I will let you know tonight if I need it or not and I will pay you for it.



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Old 08-22-2011, 06:34 PM
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Found it! I searched with a magnet for about 30 min. with no luck, then I layed under the truck and ran my hand across the front cross-member and sure enough it was sitting there.

Thanks for all the help and joeytechman thanks for your offer, I won't be needing it anymore. Now I can finish the install once my new 3200 spring gets here.

I do have one more question, how do you take the throttle shaft out of the AFC? Is it hard to get back in after you hook the spring to the lever?

I ordered a VE pump rebuild kit so I will be replacing the shaft o-ring anyways.
Old 08-22-2011, 06:48 PM
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The throttle shaft just presses into the pump top. It'll take a little bit of force to reinstall it. Just make sure you lube the o-ring. I use "STP Oil Treatment" when lubing o-rings on the pump.
Old 08-22-2011, 08:19 PM
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Wink

Found it! I searched with a magnet for about 30 min. with no luck, then I layed under the truck and ran my hand across the front cross-member and sure enough it was sitting there.
That's one of my parts' favorite hiding places!

Glad you found it.
Pull and wiggle from the bottom of the throttle shaft to remove. Replace o-ring on shaft, lube shaft and o-ring, push and wiggle back in. Don't force it in, you don't want to cut the o-ring.

Just checking, but you have removed the throttle plate from the top of the shaft and carefully noted the index marks?
I'm not sure if the pump top can be removed without doing so.

You are going to love the spring. And all the learning is priceless.


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