I have been the owner of a 1986 Volvo 245 for 34 years I adore the car but am hesitant in driving it because of its stalling at a light/stop sign unless I keep giving it some gas to keep it from stalling. When actually driving with no stopping there is no stalling . I have been to 3 mechanics and no one wants to tackle the problem, do not know the car and imo do not know where to begin. All 3 have encouraged me to get rid of the car. The body is not in good condition- a lot of rust and other problems but the tank does run. I am trying to avoid a donation because my heart can not handle it if they use it for scrap. Never !Never !
Please help with your suggestions , and advice . Thank you

 

Your engine needs the appropriate amount of air (and fuel) to idle.

A common cause of stalling in your engine is simply a dirty throttle plate. The design of the PCV system funnels oily air directly into the throttle housing, carbon builds up and slowly reduces the air volume getting past the plate. So the first step would be to clean the throttle housing and set the basic idle. Your engine also has a idle motor, aux air valve, control slide, IAC, whatever you want to call it. It's mounted under the intake manifold and is supposed to keep the idle speed constant. It allows more air in when an ac compressor or alternator load slows the engine down. It also raises the idle speed when cold. A 34 year old idle motor - may not be working anymore - that's ok - you will be able to adjust the idle speed manually, and hopefully high enough so extra ac load does not make the engine stall.

So clean the throttle housing and plate using a can of spray carb cleaner - I always removed the housing for easy access, but always had a replacement gasket on hand. You can do it on the engine, just not as easy. Once it's clean - see if the engine will idle (~750 rpms) If not you will need to unlock the throttle plate set screw and open the plate until it does idle. I would always clamp off one of the hoses going to the idle motor during this process - to make sure enough air for the engine to run is going past the throttle plate - but those hoses are probably not flexible any more - (someone may mention there is a procedure to ground a test point under the hood that will neutralize the idle motor - I don't bother with that procedure any more) There is a throttle switch on the throttle shaft. It simply tells the idle motor that the plate is in the idle position. So technically, if you open the plate manually (with the setscrew) you should adjust the switch so the probably bad idle motor knows it's supposed to work.

Throttle body gasket is a 1271488