hello out there,
i am new to the forum. i was looking at others and thought that this was the best. So, i have a problem. My pride and joy (1979 volvo 242 DL), has been acting very funny. I noticed it about 2 weeks ago. I went to go warm my car up in the morning and it was idling fine (maybe a little shaky-er than normal due to the cold weather), and when i put it in to reverse it died. i then proceeded to restart it and try again, and got the same result. did this for about 20 minutes. it does seem to stay running better when i goto in to drive, but if i don't keep my foot on the throttle it will die. I typically do all my own work using the chilton bible for my year. but looking at the troubleshoot guide it really doesn't steer me any where. Does anybody out there have a good ideas on where to start? your input will be thoroughly appreciated. thank you

 

a 1979, that has K-jetronic CIS injection? my first guess is the idle control valve isn't working but I don't know if a k-ket even has one of those, I've only worked on newer LH injected cars.

the idle control valve (on the cars that have them) is connected to both sides of the throttle body, and modulates how much air bypasses the closed throttle to maintain a steady idle. its only used when the throttle idle switch is activated, telling the ECU that the car is at idle.

 

Is it an automatic? If so, it's possible there's a problem with the torque converter.

 

I don't think the k-jet has an idle air valve - but I am not familiar with the k-jet system either. Try this site:

K-Jet.org | Mechanical Fuel Injection Power!

There are pdfs of green books there that cover the k-jet system. Also you might want to try out The Volvo Resource: brickboard.com. There is a lot more traffic there and still some people knowledgeable on the k-jet system

 

FWIW, the mercedes KE-Jet in a W124 6 cyl (such as the 1991 300E) /does/ have a idle air control valve.

 

Thank you everyone! I'm gonna take a look and do some research. I will report back