The best thing that you can do, if you really are interested, is take the time to work on what you said is your weakness. Since you are already "pretty good with cars", you will benefit greatly by becoming more familiar with the carburetor/vacuum/emission related stuff. That is most likely where you will find the problem that you are having with your car.
Understanding all of that is the only way that you will be able to diagnose problems and keep the car running. That is short of throwing parts at it spending a fortune in shops to pay people who really don't want to spend time working on your car. The very things that you mentioned are what it takes to effectively figure out and inspect the possibilities. Many times it boils down to a vacuum leak or a bad electrical connection. 1980's cars have lots of little parts like thermal vacuum switches, and vacuum motors that go bad. They create vacuum leaks, and cease performing their functions, while being a dickens to find. This is in addition to normal vacuum and electrical related issues such as deteriorating vacuum lines, and corroded connections. The more that you know about what all these things are for, how they work, and how they interact the better you will become in keeping that car on the road.
Just a suggestion from someone who has been there and done that.
Paul W.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nat Hall <nathall@xxxxxxxx>
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sun, 28 May 2006 21:53:56 -0700
Subject: IML: '82 coupe rough idle
Hey list,
Some of you may remember I recently had my '82 fail the smog test because
of CO emissions that were too high during the treadmill test (CO at idle
was OK). Well, I decided to start simple and I replaced the O^2 sensor
since the old one was obviously toast.
That had an effect, but I'm not sure what it means. Now the car seems to
run better overall while in motion and *seems* to have better power while
accelerating. But now the idling has gone to crap. All I did was change
the sensor, nothing else. The idle is rougher than it used to be,
especially when started cold-- it even stalled once on me the other day
when I was trying to warm it up. Once it's warm, the idle is still rougher
than it used to be but not so bad it stalls. Regular driving it runs
great, like I said, maybe better than before. Absolutely no problems or
even hints of problems at all. What gives?
I know enough about engines and cars in general that I can easily get by
working on them as long as I have a FSM, but diagnosing obscure
carburetor/vaccum/emission related stuff is my weakness. Now that I have a
known-good O^2 sensor, do I just need to adjust the idle speed on the
carburetor? I didn't think I should have to do that. Anything I should look
into before that?
Also, not sure if this is related, but I found I have an exhaust leak
somewhere on the passenger side in engine compartment. My guess is the
passenger side manifold, but I can't find out exactly where it's coming
from. Could this be allowing excess oxygen in during idle and screwing up
the sensor's signal causing the roughness? If so, then why wouldn't this
affect the way the car runs while driving? How hard is this going to be to
track down and fix?
-------------------
Nat Hall
1982 Imperial Coupe
-------------------
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