vogs77

Ok, got the car out today, first time I drove it since my t-stat change a couple of weeks ago. Now the idle is around 400-500. The only thing that I moved was the distributor. I did not have a timing light to reset base timing, if I am a couple of degrees off would this change my idle?? I marked it with a marker, but I am sure that was no exact reset. The idle on my carhas always been a little erratic, but never this low or stalling before. I have only owned this stang for about a month and a half, lots of bugsin it still and a large learning curve for me with Fordfuel injection. Toyota master tech, but love the fox bodys, older the better.Used to have a 1982 GT. Just dont see as many 4 head light onesaround. Thanks for the help.

mjr46

you'll need a timing light and need to reset base timing..timing misadjusted can affect idle....after you set base idle by removing spout then perform a base idle relearn procedure..google it and you'll find a sticky on it

vogs77

I will try to look that up, sounds like my problem. One more thing that I did, replaced the battery tray, so the battery was disconnected. Will this also effect the idle setting and learning process. Is it easy to get the car to relearn its ilde??

Big Z 5.0

I had the same problem with my 92 mustand mine would bounce between 700 to 600 and would not steady idle. When the car was cold like in the morning it would stall out. I cleaned out the idle throttle body in which that helped out alot with the ease of the idling.

vogs77

Found this, does this sound right to everyone???


How to set the base idleAnswer these questions. Does your idle surge? Does your engine idle too high? Does your engine idle too low? Does your idle keep going up and down? Well if you answered yes to any of them then you might need to know something....How to set your base idle.Note: If you do experience any of the above you will want to try cleaning both your idle motor, and throttle body and you'll want to set your TPS voltageDisconnect the battery's negative terminal to reset/clear the computer's memory. Leave it disconnected for 30 minutes. Disconnect the plug going to your idle motor which is located on the front of your throttle body. Reconnect your battery's negative terminal. Start the engine, and set the idle to the rpm you want with the stop screw on the bottom of the throttle body. (arrow) Turn off the engine. Reconnect the plug on the idle motor. Make sure all accesories (radio, blower motor, a/c, lights, etc) are off and start the engine. Let engine run for two minutes. Turn engine off and wait two minutes then restart engine and let idle for two minutes with all accesories on. If everything was done properly the EEC-IV (read: computer) should have learned it's new idle.