Thread: Newbie Questions

Originally Posted by thylacoleo

Hi all,
I've just become an RRC owner again after a break of 19 years. Ive bought an 87 3.5 EFI dual fuel with Disco auto box. It seems well maintained, but as I don't know the history I'm looking at doing a major service on it. Aside from the obvious - fluids, filters, hoses, belts, plugs, leads, ignition components etc is there anything else that I should replace as a matter of course?
It seems to run ok, but with a slight tendency to cut out at low revs - for instance when reversing out of the garage or a parking space. This can happens whether the motor is cold or hot. Any thoughts?
I also need to get the LPG tanks checked can anyone recommend a good lpg shop on Brisbane's southside?

cheers

Gareth

Hi Gareth,

Interesting Sig, My daughter just told me a Thylacoleo is a kind of prehistoric Thylacine!

Anyway,

The idle issue is most likely a combination of dirty throttle plate and idle circuit bypass passageways. These early flapper systems have no stepper motor and rely on a throttle plate airgap of .05mm and a throttle potentiometer setting of 290mV as base idle setting. You can then adjust the actual idle speed slightly with idle bypass screw on the side of the throttle body.

Oh, And welcome to AULRO!

JC

Hi thylacoleo and welcome!
Justin is probably right on the money with a dirty throttle plate, same thing happened to my '89 efi and the following fixed it very easliy.
Before you try adjusting the idle, get yourself a can of throttle body and carby cleaner ( I think Nulon make it, they have it at Supercheap), take off the big air hose to the plennum chamber and give it a good spray in there, let it soak for a few mins and then give it a good clean out with a clean lint free rag, paying attention to the butterfly valve, paying attention to the edges, move the throttle so you can get right in there.
Even tiny bits of gunk can affect idle, this should do the trick for you.
While you are there clean the plennum chamber ventilation passageway, it's in the manual, pretty easy to do.
You may also want to run some injector cleaner through as well, made a difference to my idle and smoother running, I used a full 250 ml bottle of Flash Lube injector cleaner into the tank and gave it a good highway run.
Another trick is to pull off the wiring connector plug to the air flow meter and give all the contacts a clean with a cotton tip and contact cleaner.
Hope this helps, let me know how you go.
Cheers, Pete.