Throttle body cleaning, compressor and bad idle

[HTownWill]

Let me begin by stating I am not a mechanic and I bought this cruiser partly to help me learn more about working on cars. I bought a 94 cruiser a couple months ago. It had a rough idle when I bought it. I drove it home approx 25 miles and it ran ok. Got the oil changed the next day and drove it a bit here and there. The next day after a 2 mile drive I had a loud squeaking coming from hood for a min or 2 then the ac stopped working. I took it to local mech and they told me it needed a new compressor, vcg, distributor o ring was leaking, power steering hose leaking (not the high pressure one) and a tune up. truck has approx 155k miles on it.

So I started ordering parts and I went ahead and put in a new vcg, plugs, wires, rotor and cap, pcv valve and hoses, new battery. I bought a new compressor, exp valve, drier, and condenser which I have not put in yet. The truck is running worse than before now. I have double checked the timing.

When I was doing the valve cover I saw the inside of the throttle body looked pretty dirty but I didn't clean it, probably should have then. Do I just take the air hose off and clean it from the air filter side around the butterfly valve? Do I need to remove it completely? I am trying to figure out why it idles so bad. It will even stall out sometimes. Rpms very low.

Could the rough idle be caused by the bad compressor? Should I try to get the compressor changed out before trying other stuff?

I also just purchased a new oem tps sensor and efi relay which I haven't put in. Ordered 10 sections of vacuum hose also. Should be here this weekend but I looked at them and didn't see any obvious failures on the hoses.

I am quite stumped at what to do next. Going to double check all my plug wire connections tomorrow morning and inspect the big black air hose closely as well.

Please help, would love to put some real miles on this rig. Was hoping to drive it north for the eclipse in august but that's looking unlikely at this point.

Thanks
William

Anyone know any good cruiser mechs in Houston?

 

[BILT4ME]

DO NOT remove the screws in the AFM / VAF harness on the unit next to the air cleaner. Read the below thread to determine what happens.

It's bad. Hopefully you have not already done that.

Read the entire thread.

Cleaned MAF now it cranks but dies after 2-3 seconds RTH please!!

 

[BILT4ME]

Oh.....and WELCOME!

(Officially....)

 

[HTownWill]

DO NOT remove the screws in the AFM / VAF harness on the unit next to the air cleaner. Read the below thread to determine what happens.

It's bad. Hopefully you have not already done that.

Read the entire thread.

Cleaned MAF now it cranks but dies after 2-3 seconds RTH please!!

No I didn't do anything around the maf except disconnect the wire connector from there to take the air filter hose off. I read you aren't supposed to do anything to that, correct? Took the little wire off the connector before unhooking it. I had to read a write up on how to change the air filter and in that threat they stressed this as well. I felt pretty dumb but its a more complicated filter change than any other car I have changed filter on.

 

[ajax1]

When you timed it did you put it in diagnostic mode? There are vacuum lines under the intake also to change

 

[HTownWill]

When you timed it did you put it in diagnostic mode? There are vacuum lines under the intake also to change

Ya I used a piece of wire as a jumper. 3 deg. I haven't started changing out vacuum lines yet. I know there's a diagram under the hood. Looking around for a threat with real pics as well. Haven't found one yet.

Also new efi relay came in today. Might change and see if it helps

 

[MoJ]

Remove the belt that runs to the AC compressor to rule that out. If it's old and needs replaced anyway you can quickly cut it. My wild guess is the distributor wasn't reassembled correctly. First though, what do you mean by "runs worse"? What exactly is it doing or not doing?

Also - have you verified you did not damage the large rubber intake tube?

 

[HTownWill]

Remove the belt that runs to the AC compressor to rule that out. If it's old and needs replaced anyway you can quickly cut it. My wild guess is the distributor wasn't reassembled correctly. First though, what do you mean by "runs worse"? What exactly is it doing or not doing?

Also - have you verified you did not damage the large rubber intake tube?

I am going to check the rubber intake tube again tomorrow morning. I was quite careful putting the dist back together. I did remove the entire thing to replace the inner o ring. I lined the tooth with the notch up with notch on the dist and slid it back in. With the motor at 0 deg the rotor was at around 11 like I have seen in Other threads. It times correctly with the adjustment bolt pretty much in the middle of the available adjustment. I am going to double check the dist tomorrow too but if I mis aligned the teeth in the motor would I still be able to get it to time correctly? I would think it would be way off.

When I say it runs worse the idle is really low and it will even stall out sitting there. It never stalled completely before I changed everything out but the ac was also working before. I guess I will cut out the belt for the ac as I have already bought a new one.

 

[MoJ]

You're probably already aware but it takes a few start/stop/drive cycles for the ecu to settle in after disconnecting the battery. Although I've never had one completely stall I have seen the idle dip to 350 ish the first few starts after disconnecting the battery. Of course verify battery connection and fusible link operation.

 

[HTownWill]

You're probably already aware but it takes a few start/stop/drive cycles for the ecu to settle in after disconnecting the battery. Although I've never had one completely stall I have seen the idle dip to 350 ish the first few starts after disconnecting the battery. Of course verify battery connection and fusible link operation.

I just replaced the battery for good measure. The one in there was from 2013 and undersized. Replaced with optima 27f yellow top. Not sure what the fusible link is but I don't think this is battery related. I bet it is distributor related. Gonna recheck everything. When re inserting the dist it should be basically vertical. Like with the top of dist at 12 o clock? I lined the tooth on gear up with notch but there wasn't really a reference point for the whole distributor body. If I was a whole tooth off would I still be able to get the timing to 3'deg?

 

[ajax1]

Distributer should point to the number 1 cylinder or spark plug which if I remeber correctly should be bout 11 o'clock

 

[ppc]

If you checked timing using the jumper, the CEL was flashing and the timing was at 3 degrees then the distributor was installed correctly. Either the ECU needs to re-learn, the intake tube has a crack or there is some other vacuum leak.

As a new mechanic it is best to limit maintenance to small increments as much as possible. That way you can make a repair, test to verify no harm has been done. Making multiple repairs without testing in between makes finding problems difficult. New parts doesn't mean they are good parts.

 

[HTownWill]

I was going over everything in my head and I think maybe I got dielectric grease on the boot end of some of the spark plugs. I applied it pretty liberally to the boots with my finger. It was kind of a mess. Maybe that is causing misfires and making it idle so rough? What can I use to get the dielectric grease out of the plug boot contacts and off the plugs? Alcohol? Carb cleaner? Soap water?

 

[Rifleman]

After you ave your new battery hooked up, and have done a few starts, you might want to check and see if you have any trouble codes stored.