I'd suggest you take the TB plate out and clean it with a scotchbrite pad. We just had the Artic blast across the US & not a single one of my friends from further north had any throttles freeze up with the TBH bypassed.

Now since you had the CC on when it froze that could have been a whole other ball game. It's mounted on the inner fender and I could see that getting frozen over with water which then freezes. I had a ton of solid ice form under my D1. It even froze over my rear drive shaft and at first my D1 wouldn't move until it broke the ice.

 

i do not suggest doing this if you live in winter areas for 4-5 months out of the year and get all kinds off messy weather do not do this, i had problems when the temp was around -15 and below hwy driving, the gas pedal would take a extra 10-20 seconds to return to normal while driving, it didnt happen all the time but when it was cold enough it would, and its not a good feeling lol

 

I still wonder how all those vehicles made without TBH's have zero issues in cold weather like the Hummer H3 for example or 97-06 Jeep Wrangler/96-01 Jeep Cherokee, Chevy 4.8L/5.3/6.0L V8 Pickup/Suburban/Tahoe/Express Van.

You'd be very surprised/shocked how dirty a TB can get. It might look flawless, but I guarantee if you operate it before you remove the TB plate, use a scotchbrite pad on the outer lip surface, clean the main shaft, the springs, lightly lube that, then clean the interior of the TB housing itself where the TB Plate usually rest = it will operately much much more smoothly.

I'll just leave it at that

 

why does it only act up in the extreme cold ?

 

I wish I lived where it truly got cold enough to really put this to the test. Several years back I had 2 LR's during the winter come to me with sticking TB's, both had TBH deleted, one was a D2 while the other was a P38. I had to get them back on the road for the customer ASAP so I just switched out both TB's with 2 I had on the shelf which tested good. Neither of those trucks had the sticky throttle issue again. I then took their units and put em on the bench. You could move it a little and they would return but advance the TB plate a decent amount and both would stick in that position. I cleaned the hell out of them & no change. I then went all out, removing the TB plate, using a wire wheel on a drill to get the crud off, then scotchbrite pad on the trailing edge. I then removed all the cable holders, springs, and guides. Cleaned them all, lightly lubed it and put it back together. I also cleaned out the inside bore to remove the wear mark where the TB usually rested. Once that was done I fully tested it and it would never stick. I did the same to the other unit & it also no longer hung up.

Now it's been close to 4 years since I did all that, and my friends/customers D2/P38 have yet to have anymore issues. The 2 I cleaned up fully = one is on my 04 D2 and the other I gave to a friend when he cracked his while removing his engine.

I know for a fact there are TONS of Jeeps where it is extremely cold and no one has ever had a TB freeze from the lack of a TBH.

Not saying it can't happen up in the mountains with an artic blast, but I highly recommend tearing down the TB completely and giving it a really solid cleaning. Like I said looking clean doesn't mean it's still 100% perfect. Depending on mileage driven a year I'd say at least every 20-25k to go thru it to prevent any issues. It's probably also a good idea to check the TB cable itself as LR had a TSB years ago for the TB Cables sticking so they replaced a bunch of them on 99-01 D2's under warranty. If the little rubber boot is cracked or housing itself moisture could get in there and either cause corrosion or freeze up in cold weather.

Another issue on D2's up north is the springs on the TB can rust, once they rust enough they break and you loose the tension on the TB to return the TB Plate to it's nearly closed position. The 02 Westminster I took on as a project had a super floaty feeling throttle (she was a rust bucket). I went to adjust the throttle cable tension and while messing with it I noticed once the cables were disconnected the two cable attachment points moved freely... Then I saw the spring was broken. I slapped on another spare I had (I had a TON of them because LR used to replace the entire thing vs change TBH plates). Throttle reponse was then awesome again!

 

Came to read about CDL's and now I have a TBH comment. I assumed the heater was to keep it from icing up. I had this happen on a Isuzu Trooper years ago driving across Kansas on a really frigid night. Truck started running rough, then died. I found the carb was an ice ball. I poured white gas (camp fuel) on it, lit it, thawed out. Started Up and never happened again. That said I would guess maybe it could happen to a D2 in the right weather / humidity / temp. If it sticks only in the cold it could be a thin layer of frost or ice that then thaws out and becomes unknown as the culprit by the time its investigated. If it can cause the throttle to stick that's flat out scary.

 

It could be a total coincidence that it never happened before the temporary bypass and never happened again after, but I have my doubts because I never did anything else to it. Yes it’s true, many vehicle don’t have the TBH and don’t freeze, but the engineers put one on this setup for a reason. I don’t see a benefit to bypassing it, I have witnessed a downside.