Synchromesh

I recently acquired a stock '84 Carrera Targa. It's an early one made in August '83 - one of the first Carreras.

The car was sitting for a few months. So I drove it on the freeway today and it ran just fine. However, once I got off the freeway there was a dip in the idle once every 10-15 seconds. Eventually it would stall after sitting at a long street light. On top of that, when in first or second gear the engine would attempt to cut out, the car would jerk and have no power until I would clutch it in and rev the engine a bit. No problems at higher revs or higher gears though.

After a while this problem disappeared and the car ran smoothly again. Any ideas what this could possibly be? Thanks!

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

Welcome.
Sounds like it could be number of things. You might investigate the idle control valve ICV, and check for vacuum leaks.
Good luck,
Dave

Synchromesh

I'll look into those, thanks!

Amber Gramps

Dave is correct. I'd start there. The ICV should buzz in your hand with key on/engine off.

Drisump

In my experience, the 3.2 is quite particular as far as it's running on "sub optimal" gas. Even though you say it hadn't been driven in quite some time, it may not have much good gas in the tank to start with. Most fuels these days degrade in very short amounts of time and you may find that a proper concentration of new, quality gas in the tank may even out these issues. And....run a bottle of Techron through it. Cheers

Synchromesh

Thanks for your responses.

I took the ICV out and shook it. It clicked very consistently. I took some carb cleaner spray and sprayed it inside. The other test it passed as well, with ignition key on it buzzed consistently and evenly in my hand. So I'm leaning towards something else.

The car has been sitting for a few days while I was replacing the starter (which was a pretty major $&@#&). I started it and it ran pretty badly constantly dying on me. After a while it warmed up and the problem started going away. Drove it around the block - only died once. It seems to be exacerbated on hills though. Any thoughts on where I should look next?

rusnak

Make sure the distributor cap does not have water underneath it.

I'd start with fuel pressure, having drained some or most of the old gas if the tank is nearly full, and fill with new gas.