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high idle

drsantos

Active member
Joined
Jun 9, 2002
Messages
39
Location
Rehoboth, MA
Corvette
1981 Charcoal met, 4-speed
The idle on my 81 is ok when cold, but once warm I can't seem to kick it down below 1500 rpm after driving for 40 minutes @ 60-80.
It sometimes will come down when hot if I hit the pedal qucikly, but as soon as I give it gas it goes back to 1500 rpm.
 
Sounds like your choke is either out of adjustment, or the mechanism that heats the choke spring (hot air or electric current) is not functioning.
 
drsantos,

Your 81 has an electric choke. First check to see that the wire is plugged onto the choke element(sometimes they just fall off), with the engine running ther should be 12 volts at that connection, if there is not, check the fuse. If that is ok then check the oil pressure sending unit, I believe that the 12 volt source on an 81 comes through the engine oil pressure sender. It can actually come from any 12 volt source that turns off with the key if you need to rewire it. If you have 12 volts, remove the air cleaner so that you can verify that the choke opens, if it does not then you need to replace the choke element as it has likely broken. If the choke does open, but the idle still won't kick down then you have a linkage problem that is causing a bind and not allowing the latch to drop out. Look close and you should be able to see the culprit. Hope this helps to solve your problem.
 

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