Hmmm...

whole nine yards (Bottom line - no exact origin....)
Nine yards is believed to be the amount of material need to create a
nun’s habit, or as some would claim, a man’s three-piece suit. Nine
yards is the length of a maharajah's ceremonial sash, the maximum
capacity of a West Virginia ore wagon, the volume of trash that a
standard garbage truck can carry, the entire length of a hangman's
noose, the distance you would have to run from a cell block to the
outer wall in order to survive a jail break, the actual length of a
standard bolt of cloth, the length of a burial shroud, the size of a
soldier's backpack, the length of cloth needed to make a kilt, the
number of yards in a ships sails, or that nine yards refers to some
memorable event in the game of American football (that no one seems to
recall specifically).

There are, of course, many others that I have not mentioned and you
can recreate my search strategy to find dozens more. My favorite, and
frankly the most plausible modern explanation, comes from the more
recent 1940’s, when, as you know, American culture was rife with slang
and “old sayings”, many of which originated from World War II military
vernacular. As the explanation goes, the phrase “the whole nine yards”
first gained fame among fighter pilots who employed the use of .50
caliber machine guns onboard their planes. The gun belt for this
weapon is said to have been exactly 27 feet long, so if a pilot was
really determined to hit a specific target he might completely
discharge his weapon in the enemy’s direction, thus giving his enemy
“the whole nine yards”.

(Reference http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=138922)

Balls to the Wall
Pushing the throttle with ball-knobs) as far forward as possible toward the firewall.... (as pointed out by Ed.)

Balls Out
Balls Out
Refers to an early design of engine governor, in which a pair of masses (balls) spun at an increasing rate as engine speed increased. Centrifugal acceleration threw the masses outward, so "balls out" refers to maximum possible engine speed.
(Reference: http://docmeyer.freeservers.com/trivia.htm)

Thanks

gus