All of our stainless steel throttle / accelerator cable kits use thicker cable than the plated steel cable that VW used. They’re all supplied over length, to be cut to suit the customers application. This means they can reach a throttle body in just about any location in the engine compartment, and fit all the pedal variants in models with many such as the Bay window bus (T2a, T2b, T2c). They also use higher quality Bowden tube than VW used, meaning they can be bent around tighter radii or for bigger angles in applications which require it. This makes them very adaptable for applications other than what they were originally intended for, and we’ve had customers use them for many different VW engine conversions. Also, because the cables for rear engined VW buses are longer than just about any other application, we’ve sold quite a few to customers who need need a high spec cable for far more obscure applications, including GT40 replicas, bespoke 4wd off roaders and Honda engine converted Lotus Elise’s.

There used to be, and no doubt still are many Subaru powered VW conversions out there with terrible throttle cable arrangements, at least in the UK. These can be any of the following:

  • the rear end of a Subaru cable joined to the front of a VW cable which never works properly long term (many of which were fitted by a UK ‘specialist’)
  • products manufactured by a US ‘specialist’ for the application, but clearly by folk with no understanding of the systems that they are working on, marketed as being for kickdown on automatic VW buses, which cannot make the kickdown work. In fact the kit removes the kickdown feature completely
  • products made from unsuitable cable specs such as bicycle brake cable, either as DIY efforts or by ‘specialists’ such as the awful cable used in the Danbury RHD converted Brazilian spec Bay Window / T2c buses in the UK

We frequently get feedback from customers who can’t believe how amazing our cables are, or words to that effect. They’re not amazing or anything special, just properly engineered products for the job. The excessively positive feedback is because they’re often bought by customers who are having problems with a cable arrangement which can’t work properly, and often they don’t realise how bad what they’ve been trying to put up with is.

These cables are in a different league when it comes to their quality compared to those sold by some UK competitors for more money.

Subaru Powered Manual VW T25 / T3 / Vanagon Stainless Throttle Cable Kit (part no. 800-00009)

Price: £40.83 GBP +VAT (£49.00)

All parts needed to join the VW pedal assembly in any T25 / T3 / Vanagon to any Subaru engine which is not connected to a VW automatic gearbox (see below for cable products for the VW auto gearbox applications).

  • One piece Bowden tube from the pedal to the engine – replaces the original short Bowden tube and the semi rigid nylon tube which VW used
  • Fits 2wd or Syncro, LHD or RHD, with the throttle body in just about any location in the engine compartment
  • M8 fine adjustment at the engine end of the Bowden tube
  • Bowden tube can be bent around a surprisingly tight radius without increasing cable friction (although doing so isn’t recommended unless its absolutely necessary – large bend radii are always preferable)
  • 8mm or 6mm barrel / trunnion engine end cable fitting, to suit all Subaru throttle bodies (most are 8mm, but MY90-92 legacies were 6mm)

Subaru Powered Manual VW Beetle / Bay Window / Split Screen Bus Stainless Throttle Cable Kit (part no. 800-00016)

Price: £30.00 GBP +VAT (£36.00)

All parts needed to join the VW pedal assembly in any Beetle / Bay window (T2c, T2b, T2c) / Split Screen bis (T1) to any Subaru engine:

  • Uses the original steel chassis tube from the pedal to the rear torsion tube
  • New over length Bowden tube from the rear torsion tube to the engine
  • Fits LHD or RHD, with the throttle body in just about any location in the engine compartment
  • M8 fine adjustment at the engine end of the Bowden tube
  • Bowden tube can be bent around a surprisingly tight radius without increasing cable friction (although doing so isn’t recommended unless its absolutely necessary – large bend radii are always preferable)
  • 8mm barrel / trunnion engine end cable fitting, to suit MY93 onwards Subaru throttle bodies. If you have an MY90-92 Legacy engine which had a 6mm trunnion at the engine end of the cable not 8mm, please point this out at the time of order, and we’ll swap the trunnion for a 6mm one

Automatic VW T25 / T3 / Vanagon Front Stainless Throttle Cable Kit (part no. 800-00026)

Price: £40.83 GBP +VAT (£40.00)

All parts needed to join the VW pedal assembly in any automatic T25 / T3 / Vanagon the kickdown lever on the VW automatic gearbox. Originally developed for customers doing Subaru engine conversions who also found then needed a replacement for the VW front throttle cable, but couldn’t get one at the time, this kit is not actually engine conversion specific. It’s just a replacement for sometimes unavailable VW front cable in stainless steel.

  • One piece Bowden tube from the pedal to the gearbox – replaces the original short Bowden tube and the semi rigid nylon tube which VW used
  • Fits LHD or RHD
  • M8 fine adjustment at the both ends of the Bowden tube
  • Requires removal of the kickdown lever from the side of your gearbox to install. If someone has stripped the thread, and welded the arm on to the shaft (customers have found this), or if you have a very early variant which we have seen in workshop manuals, but never for real in which the shaft was originally welded to the lever, with the nut holding everything together inside the gearbox, not outside, you can’t fit this kit (at least not without replacing your early or damaged kickdown shaft with the later type with the external nut).

Automatic VW T25 / T3 / Vanagon Subaru Conversion Rear Kickdown Stainless Throttle Cable Kit (part no. 800-00025)

Price: £57.50 GBP +VAT (£60.00)

On a standard automatic VW T25 / T3 / Vanagon, the throttle connection from the kickdown lever on the gearbox to the engine wasn’t a cable. It was a mechanical linkage which does not lend itself to being modified to suit other engines. Replacing it with a cable is the way to go for engine conversions, however, the original mechanical linkage is also a critical part of how the kickdown works. Exactly how the VW automatic kickdown works seems to be quite widely misunderstood, and this has resulted in some pretty awful products being sold which are marketed as cable kits for Subaru engine conversions with VW auto kickdown which cannot possibly enable the kickdown to work. In fact they totally disable the kickdown. This kits is the real thing – it enables your kickdown to work as VW intended with Subaru engines. It is designed for the EJ series engines with their throttle bodies in the standard location.

  • Retains correct VW kickdown function with your Subaru engine
  • Requires setting up the rear cable correct first, with the front cable disconnected, as detailed in the instructions. If you do not follow this, you are unlikely to every get the kickdown and throttle working together properly

This rear kickdown throttle cable kit is too long to fit the EG33 engines perfectly. Because their throttle cable exits the throttle body towards the gearbox, not towards the alternator like on all the other Subaru engines, no 180 degree bend in the engine compartment is required. However, because the Bowden tube is such high spec, and the excess cable length is quite long, you can loop the cable 360 degrees to ‘lose’ the extra length (cable tying the cable loop to itself) without adding any friction to the cable. The only downside to this is that it doesn’t look as neat as a shorter cable made for the job would. But who is going to be looking between your VW floor and top of the gearbox? As the demand for kickdown cable kits for automatic VW’s with EG33’s is very very low, we’re unlikely to ever make a shorter version just for this one application.

Manual VW T25 / T3 / Vanagon VW Inline 4 (GTi, TDi) Conversion Stainless Throttle Cable Kit (part no. 800-00070)

Price £43.33 GBP +VAT (£52.00)

We’re no experts on any of the VW inline engines that are regularly transplanted into VW’s, apart from knowing that we regularly sell throttle cable kits, speed sensors, rev counter interfaces, pedal switches / switch brackets, etc to customers doing them. This means we’ve learned a bit about these engines requirements for these products. With the throttle cables, the main thing learned is that there is no one cable spec that suits all of these engines when fitted to the most common recipient – the T25 / T3 / Vanagon. After selling many variants, as chosen by the customers, we know what cable specs are used, but not which engines use them. As the variations in the cable specs are small and to keep things simple, we’ve decided to do a ‘one cable kit suits all engines’ kit for them, by including a few extra parts.

  • Suits any of the commonly used VAG inline engines which are transplanted into the manual T25 / T3 / Vanagon models
  • Fits 2wd or Syncro, LHD or RHD, with the throttle body in just about any location in the engine compartment
  • 8mm, 13mm or 16mm engine end Bowden tube mounting

RHD Converted Danbury Type 1 Engined Brazilian Bay Window / T2c Bus One Piece Stainless Throttle Cable Kit (part no. 800-00028)

Price: £41.67 GBP +VAT (£50.00)

When Danbury converted imported Brazilian import type 1 engined T2c models to RHD in the UK, they did a particularly awful job of the throttle cable. They kept the original LHD cable, and added a new cable to the front of it, in a ‘S’ shape across the the RHD pedal location. These seem to be notorious for being trouble among the owners community ( www.brazilianvwbay.com ), and this is hardly surprising when you see how it was done and the quality of the components used. Very much like what never works reliably long term in badly done Subaru engine conversions.

When we were asked whether we could develop a version of our cable kits for Subaru conversions to replace both cables in them, the original answer was no, having no knowledge of them or access to one. However, the guy doing the asking was prepared to help with that as he had access to kne at the time (thanks Aidan). It turned out that we could make a far better cable kit for them entirely from components we already made for other applications, just in a unique combination. This is the result:

danbury rhd bay cable kit pic

  • Replaces both the original VW LHD cable and the Danbury RHD conversion cable
  • Doesn’t use the original steel chassis conduit
  • One piece inner cable from the pedal lever to the carburettor
  • One piece Bowden tube from the pedal chassis bracket to the fan housing tube
  • Supplied over length, so you can route it however you like
  • The same highs spec, thicker then standard stainless steel cable as all out other throttle cable kits use

If your cable kit is one where the new Bowden tube supplied covers it for the entire length (i.e. our T25 / T3 / Vanagon or Danbury RHD converted T2c kits), no, they’re designed to run dry. If your cable kit is for a model with a steel conduit welded into the chassis (i.e. a Beetle, Split screen bus, or a T2a, T2b or T2c which still has it’s original throttle cable arrangement), the chassis tube will still have some grease in it. This doesn’t matter, as the inner cable is fitted from the rear, so the grease will only be on the part of the cable in the steel chassis tube.

These cable kits are very well proven. The end fittings are load tested in every batch. This is not always understood, but the only load a correctly set throttle cable should ever see is that from the carburetor or throttle body return spring, or the kickdown spring in the case of the auto T25 / T3 / Vanagon. The only way they can ever see a higher load than that is when incorrectly set (too short), so the carb or throttle body runs out of travel before the pedal reaches the floor or its down stop. When that happens, the cable sees as much force as the driver puts on the pedal at full throttle, and this is when things get overloaded. Therefore setting the cable as per the instructions is important.