So I re-posted in an old thread but need answers asap so I decided to go ahead and start a new thread on this subject. I have been struggling with an 80 wagon that will not idle. It will run without stalling if the accelerator is kept down but once lifted the car stalls. The car hasn't been ran in a few weeks from troubleshooting and I got a chance to take off the auxiliary air valve. The valve was completely closed when I removed it. It is 90+ degrees here but that isn't hot enough to close the valve is it? I sprayed it out with carb cleaner and that made no difference in opening the valve. It is my understanding the valve is to be open when cold and then close gradually as the car warms up. I removed all the vacuum lines and they checked out OK. The relay on the fender well beside the battery looks very old but does click when the car is put in the on position. Can anyone tell me how to check voltage or ohms? Thanks. The engine has a lot of oil and buildup so I am assuming that could be the culprit of the air valve being stuck closed. Is my hypothesis correct on the valve needing to be open when cold and the fact of it being completely closed when I removed it is not correct? After disconnecting lines and pulling off the valve and cleaning and reassembling the car now will not start. It did start before but now it will not. But I am hoping that the car will get back to running properly once I get this figured out. I am looking into this again tomorrow so any help would be greatly appreciated. Again, the valve looks old and definitely had some build up in it as I seen when looking through it. Thanks.

 

I'm having the same issue with my 81 245. It's driving me crazy

 

Idle speed is controlled by the amount of air leaking past the throttle plate and any manual or automatic aux air valves that are present. If your idle motor, aux air valve, IAC, whatever you want to call it - is not letting the designed amount of air through - the engine will stall. Simply adjust the throttle plate to allow enough air for the engine to idle - (and adjust the throttle switch if equipped)

A 81 240 here in the US will have CIS fuel injection. All sorts of things can cause a bad idle - Injector seals leaking extra air in, intake manifold gasket or other broken vacuum lines. Fuel distributor not sending correct fuel amounts at low volumes to all cylinders or injectors not firing properly at low volumes are common problems.

Exactly what problems are you having?