951Dreams

So. I've finally gotten around to looking at my idle. I idle like crap cold, or even when first started warm. But it idles fine once you "get on it". I have a thread in non-turbo section about it. But.... I think I've found an issue I must address first.

Clark's is unclear, and several threads I've read seem to indicate the adjustment screw is UNDER a cover bolt you have to remove. So I never thought more of it. But let me just get to the pictures. Here is what I have.





With that bolt out, I can see all the way down into the intake. It is just a through hole.

HERE IS WHAT I NOW THINK I SHOULD HAVE. NOT MY PICTURE, FROM ANOTHER POST ON HERE.


That's about adjusting the throttle cable. But what I have in the idle screw hole, and what's shown here... Well. The picture tells the tale.

I suspect, unless someone tells me different, something happened to the original screw, and this bolt was used instead. I fear the hole or TB is damaged, and that's why mine is simply gone.

What I THINK I'm SUPPOSED to have is this:
Idle screw



​​​​​​Yes?

Edit: And any bets on why a PO would do this?

951Dreams

I've mostly answered my own question. I had tried searching google for pictures of the area and read a bunch of threads before posting. The only really good picture I could find was from the series I posted. What's in the PET looks like MY bolt, which I had seen before, and was largely why I never questioned it until now. I'd never removed that bolt. And I thought maybe the 86's were different?

But the more I thought about it, and looked at parts sites, the more I realized I of course had some kind of PO hack. As there is no way to adjust what I have. So I've ordered the 951 part from the screenshot I shared. What I have I'm now calling a PO redneck upgrade. I'm returning it to stock. But I am fully expecting to find something is broken on my TB, and there is a reason they just used a normal old bolt instead of getting the $5 part. I have to believe that. But then, a PO used twisted wire as hose clamps all over this car, so all bets are off.

Dan Martinic

The reason someone does this nonsense is time: something is wrong with the original part (maybe its seal was shot) and instead of waiting for an order--days or weeks--they need the car running and just rig up a fix with what's handy.

I remember once finishing a job and realizing I didn't have replacement intake gaskets. At least a week or more of waiting. I need the space and the car, and I want to finish. I started scrambling: what do I have? Can I cut some material to work? I'm looking all over the place for a substitute. I really want to finish the job....

I smartened up just in time to figure I can try re-using the old gaskets while I wait for replacements. That's how I learned you can re-use the darn things sometimes; the old ones are still in there and I have now have new backups in "stock". This worked because the old ones weren't that old.

Yes, I've skipped changing an oil filter before.. just because I didn't have one on hand. When you use the car daily and/or have limited space & time, and you don't always have spares on hand (or forget that you don't), it can be a bummer waiting around for something. You guys in the USA are very lucky to be able to get parts quicker.. but still, it can be a wait for some things..

Hope the threads at least matched and it's not buggered up.

951Dreams

For much of my life I was a poor white boy, with much more mechanical skill than money. I offhand make jokes about redneck engineering, but I was the poster boy of making what I had on hand work. I cringe at some of the things I did. But I also had one (barley) running car most of my life. And if it didn't move I couldn't work. No mass transit where I live. While it annoys me that I've been fighting idle problems for 7 years because of a PO's alternative solution, I'm also kind of impressed.

That being said, some PO in the future is going to crawl up under the dash and see that I have my cruise control module mounted up with zip ties, and think unkind things about me. And it even bothers me some, but the mounting bolt sheered off and nothing I can do about it as it's pressed into the body. So I solved the problem. At least it's out of sight.

Many of my past cars were held together by JB weld, duct tape, zip ties, and sealed with black RTV. Who needs expensive gaskets. What I have learned is that rigged up fixes rarely last. But that was okay because I barely kept cars more than a few years before they died. I bought them cheap, kept them running cheap, salvaged them, then bought a new cheap car to keep running for a few years. I saved tens of thousands in car payments.

I now always keep two older, but well kept, vehicles on hand. My play toys. One a "truck", currently a 2005 Lincoln Navigator 4x4 that saves my *** every year in the snow, as I live in the foothills of the Boston mountains (that are nowhere near Boston for some reason). Can seat 8, tow 8900 lbs, and with my trailer becomes my pickup truck. Just with style. But it also gets 12 mpg. So I drive it when I need it. And of course the 951. That's my mid-Life crisis mobile.

Between my electric daily driver, I always have two running. So I can wait for parts, and I'm not forced to redneck it. Unless, of course, I have no choice, like with my cruise control module. That I couldn't fix "right".

But I am a spoiled American. We have access to cheap cars, it's cheap to own them, and I have lots of room and land to park them on. 4 of which I can park covered. But I worked hard for many many years to have a place like this, and bought my current home BECAUSE it had the room and that covered parking. Places for cars was as important to me as the home itself! I didn't even look at places that didn't have a shop or outbuilding, as well as a garage.

Why? Because I buy older (and cheaper) cars and keep them running myself. But because they are old and cheap, I have to have several because one is always needing work. And with multiple, I never have to worry. One of the will always be running till I can get the others fixed. And they each fill a niche I need filled.

But due to age and arthritis, I have switched my daily driver from a 2001 BMW 740IL, to first a 3 year old Toyota, then a series of newer Chevy Volts (cause electric). I needed a daily I didn't need to work on all the time. I just couldn't do it anymore.

But car payments make me cry. 😢 Never had them in my life till now. When I say I bought cheap cars and fixed then up, I meant cheap! Lol The 951 was the most I've ever paid for a car in my life (at the time). The BMW held that record at $3500 before then. The Navigator was sightly more, but not much. Now my 2018 Volt has ruined my 32 year run of cars I bought for cash.