Could this be a choke problem or something else? My carburated '86GL, manual trans with 165k has a problem that someone else must have experienced. When starting from cold, it will go into fast idle and it has some trouble when cold, but not like the problem it has when warm. When re-starting (when the engine is still warm), it will not hold an idle most of the time, and acts as though the anti-deisel solonoid is not working. Sometimes if I run the rpm's up then let up on the gas while moving several times, it will be fine and then hold an idle like it should. Otherwise not holding an idle makes it hard to drive in traffic. I don't know if it is a carter or hitachi, but hi-way and town driving are otherwise fine if I start cold and do not shut it off. Any ideas?

Sorry to get your hopes up because i do not have an answer but it says you are located in springfield, what state is that just out of curiosity?

Originally posted by xforxlifex

Sorry to get your hopes up because i do not have an answer but it says you are located in springfield, what state is that just out of curiosity?

 

read his title, it says springfield, OR, i think that means Oregon, if i am not mistaken.

yea...... i was tired ok?

Actually, it has been changed since the question was asked.. I looked too.. all it said before was springfield... No state listed.

 

Pablo. It sounds like you may have a vacuum leak.. But it could be a carb problem. You said that the engine has some trouble when cold as well.. what kind of trouble

Thank you Caleb, im not crazy.

I did add the state to city later. Since there are about 40 Springfields in the country, it is the least I can do.

 

When starting cold, it will go into fast idle after one or two presses of the gas pedal, although it generally dies the first time and need to start it again. After warming up for a minute or so, it will generally hold an idle (when the outside temp is in the 30's or 40's). If I only let it run a fast idle for a few seconds, it will have a hard time.

The vacuum leak idea makes sense, although it would be intermittant. The anti-diesel solonoid is there to create a massive vacuum leak when the key is shut off, so that the engine has no choice but to stop. Could it be operating correctly only when starting cold, but not other-wise and creating this problem? Has anyone replaced one of these without tearing the carb apart? I have no intention of rebuilding any part of this car, and one hour of shop time is 10% of the value so it is hard justifying a trip to a mechanic. Thanks.

Sorry pablo, I do not mean to challendge your knowledge of carbs,

but the anti diesel soleniod does not work the way you descibed.

I believe it shuts the fuel flow off to the idle circuit, thats why it can not "run on".

I got this from studying a blowup picturs of a Hitachi.

 

As for your problem, sure sounds like the age old problem with the Hitachi

(which you have - unless someone changed the manifold and carb)

this problem is worn throttle shaft bushings.

Sorry replacement carb seems to be the easiest fix

suppose its the SPRINGFIELD where the Simpsons are from, since they never disclosed the state

Obviously, first check for obvious vacuum leaks. If you want to check for a vacuum leak on your carb, spray starting fluid at the base on the outside of the carb. If you have a vacuum leak there it will raise your idle. If it doesn't change the idle then it probably is something else.

I have sprayed carb cleaner all over would be leaking compenents in search of a leak, with no change to the engine speed. Of course it was holding an idle correctly at the time and running fine at the moment. A mechanic told me last summer that the anti-deisel solenoid was designed to create a massive vacuum leak, so that was not something I came up with on my own. If the throttle bores were worn to the point of such shoddy performance some of the time, could it run OK any of the time? I think not, so there has to be some other explanation. Thanks for the comments, thus far.

It is pretty easy to wiggle the throttle shaft to see how loose it is. Do it while idling, and if it's problem, it will show up quick!

 

I have mostly seen this on the POS Holley 5200 Weber clone once endemic on Vegas, Pintos and Chevettes, but any carb that is 20 years old is likely to have some wear issues.